[sudo-discuss] Fwd: [sudo-info] reaching out from google.org regarding an assistive technology hackathon

Wed Jun 24 15:48:52 PDT 2015

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 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I don't disagree, but ... it's still Google.
> The "official rules" don't look too heinous, but they are vague.  It
> doesn't say who will own the finished products.
> Do we need google to do this?
>
>
> On Wed, Jun 24, 2015 at 1:57 PM, Lesley Bell <zvezdalune at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> +1
>>
>> Sounds like some really cool things could come out of this
>> On Jun 24, 2015 1:27 PM, "Patrick O'Doherty" <p at trickod.com> wrote:
>>
>>> FWIW Arie was at the NB meeting last night talking about this. It sounds
>>> like a really awesome event, where folks can hack on things to make a
>>> real difference in the lives of others.
>>>
>>> p
>>>
>>> On 6/24/15 1:24 PM, Jenny Ryan wrote:
>>> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>> > From: "Arie Meir" <ariemeir at google.com <mailto:ariemeir at google.com>>
>>> > Date: Jun 24, 2015 12:13 PM
>>> > Subject: [sudo-info] reaching out from google.org <http://google.org>
>>> > regarding an assistive technology hackathon
>>> > To: <info at sudoroom.org <mailto:info at 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
>>> > <tel:1.209.565.3886> | ariemeir at google.com <mailto:ariemeir at google.com
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > --
>>> > **____________***
>>> > *
>>> > *Arie Meir *|* *Technology Portfolio Lead, Google.org |
>>> +1.209.565.3886
>>> > <tel:1.209.565.3886> | ariemeir at google.com <mailto:ariemeir at google.com
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > _______________________________________________
>>> > Info mailing list
>>> > Info at lists.sudoroom.org <mailto:Info at lists.sudoroom.org>
>>> > https://sudoroom.org/lists/listinfo/info
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > _______________________________________________
>>> > sudo-discuss mailing list
>>> > sudo-discuss at lists.sudoroom.org
>>> > https://sudoroom.org/lists/listinfo/sudo-discuss
>>> >
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>>
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