Fwd: [sudo-info] reaching out from google.org regarding an assistive technology hackathon
24 Jun
2015
24 Jun
'15
1:24 p.m.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Arie Meir" <ariemeir(a)google.com>
Date: Jun 24, 2015 12:13 PM
Subject: [sudo-info] reaching out from google.org regarding an assistive
technology hackathon
To: <info(a)sudoroom.org>
Cc:
Dear Sudoroom community,
I'm reaching out from the philanthropic arm of Google, Google.org which
supports non-profits aimed at technical innovation.
In our attempt to expand opportunity and independence for people with
disabilities we have recently launched a campaign
<https://get.google.com/disabilitiesimpactchallenge/open-call.html> aiming
to identify
and support non-profits doing innovative work in the assistive technology
space.
The reason for this email is that in addition to the campaign,we are
thinking of organizing
a hackathon around mid-late august focused on assistive technology using this
event <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_BQzJD9gpo>
as a source of inspiration.
The basic idea is to bring the need-knowers (people with disabilities and
their
families/caregivers) together in the same room with tech folks
(hackers/makers/designers) and develop prototypes for affordable products
that
could serve the needs of the community of people with disabilities.
We thought that the hacker community of Sudoroom might find it
interesting/relevant
and some folks perhaps wish to participate.
We are trying to gauge the level of interest in something like this from
the hacker/maker/developer community.
Thoughts ? Ideas ? What should we think of to make this event more
relevant/interesting to the folks involved ?
With kindest regards,
On behalf of Google.org,
Arie Meir
--
*____________*
*Arie Meir *| Technology Portfolio Lead, Google.org | +1.209.565.3886
<1.209.565.3886> | ariemeir(a)google.com
--
*____________*
*Arie Meir *| Technology Portfolio Lead, Google.org | +1.209.565.3886
<1.209.565.3886> | ariemeir(a)google.com
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3:31 p.m.
Does the source of money preclude it from doing good? (note very
carefully: I'm not saying money absolves you of sins)
I'd encourage you to reach out to Arie; I trust he'll give you a great
answer to any questions you might have.
Of course you don't need Google to do this, but should it come with
financial help and resources that (sudo|noisebridge) *does* need without
strings attached, then why reject such an offer in good faith?
On 6/24/15 2:36 PM, Julio Rios wrote:
3:48 p.m.
Things that scare me about stuff like this is that it inevitably becomes
not about the needs of the disabled community and instead becomes more
about what people think the disabled community wants.
I know they want to get the "need-knowers" in the same room (and I'm really
not sure why the family of disabled folks are "need-knowers" as they are
often just as bad about this), but there tends to be an overwhelming number
of people who just want to help out of a misguided sense of pity. So it
becomes a gross ego-stroking mess less about actually helping out disabled
folks, and more about able-bodied, neurotypical folks wanting to do their
"good deed" for the day.
Even the language on their page really skeeves me out. They're focusing on
the 10 year scale, when they have the power to affect the here and now. Why
doesn't Google Maps track where there are curb cuts? WIth street view, they
could pretty easily go through and identify intersections where there
aren't curb cuts. Then, they could parse that into Maps and identify
walking directions that work for people in wheelchairs.
But that's not as sexy as 3D-printed prostheses or exoskeletons.
In fact, they specifically say they want solutions that use "cutting-edge"
technology. But why use cutting-edge technology, when we aren't even using
what we have at hand? Sure, if you come up with an "innovative" idea it's
fine, but they don't want to make existing approaches better for folks with
disabilities. In fact, they specifically say that they want "entirely new
solutions and approaches." Which just feeds into the social model of
disability. Why do we need an entirely new solution for me, when we could
make the current solution feasible? It breaks all the principles of
Universal Design, which goes far beyond architecture.
On Wed, Jun 24, 2015 at 2:36 PM, Julio Rios <julio.rios(a)gmail.com> wrote:
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6 participants
participants (6)
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Julio Rios -
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