How Microsoft's inclusion mission is helping the blind to 'see'

There about 253 million people who live with some degree of visual impairment. Microsoft wants to embrace them with its products and represent them in its workforce.

Sight is probably the most valued of our five senses. Age inevitably begins robbing most of us of its acuity forcing our dependence on corrective lenses. Those born blind or lose their sight are often resigned to the loss of the benefits it imparts.

Finding employment can often be a challenge for someone with a visual impairment. Less qualified sighted people may be hired for a position though a person with a visual impairment could also do the job and is better qualified. Access to commonly used technology may also be out of reach. Historically, technology has not been purposefully engineered to include all individuals of varying abilities.

Microsoft seeks to address both employment and product design issues with a deep and broad mission of inclusion:

The Design team gathered insights around the true meaning of universal design that is intentionally inclusive of people with disabilities from the beginning.

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