In this inspiring talk, Chieko Asakawa shared her personal determination for innovation. Something that stood out to me was when she said 'accessibility ignites innovation'.
Sketch note of TED talk by Chieko Asakawa
My key learning from this talk is that individuals have an innate need to feel included, but not at the cost of feeling dependent. Humans are active, social beings that have many desires. Our purpose in life is to explore and acquire as much information of the world's information as possible, be that through sight, sound, touch, smell or taste. With vision-centric technology such as augmented and virtual reality, it is pertinent that we design for accessibility. Technology can be the driving force to help augment our abilities, such as sight. Designing for accessibility does not exclude individuals without impairments. In fact, designing for accessibility will ignite innovative technological advancements for all. Chieko talks about cognitive assistance as well, which is not restricted to the visually impaired either. Cognitive assistant technology would be applicable in multiple contexts, making life easier and more efficient, one sense at a time.
