Mission #4
Learn from Analogies
What are the most inspiring examples of how technology, innovation and design have improved the lives of those with disabilities?
Specifically think about services or products that have been made more accessible to meet the needs of everyone, including the elderly, disabled and those who speak a foreign language? How has technology helped connect people and give them access to various tools and services?
View all related inspirationsRelated inspirations
"70% of Lean transformations fail due behavioral effects", McKinsey. How to be part of the 30%!
While at McKinsey I applied Lean techniques (an improvement philosophy pionee...
emoticons - the universal vocabulary of expressions for chatting !
The yahoo chat emoticons were not only fun to use but had a huge mass appeal...
"Let's get out and about", a project to help elderly people with mobility problems.
The aim of the initiative 'Let's get out and about', which is originary from ...
"Out of the box" mobile phone packaging
Sometimes it is not the technology that is the barrier, it is learning how to...
A Box Marked Democracy
A box designed for an easy access democracy
A Primer on 3D Printing
I've always been curious about 3D printing - how it works, what it's used for...
Accessible Pedestrian Signals
Currently in the U.S., APS are typically installed upon request along a speci...
Accessible Public Transportation
Buses are now equipped with an motorized platform that allows disabled passen...
Accessibility Through Community Story-Sharing: Mobile Voices
"Community engagement can be a huge challenge for any project. But for four y...
Add exclusive clauses to be inclusive example-Early Voting, In Person
"Voters who want to vote early for any election may do so in person at their ...
Adding Biofeedback Monitors to Interpret Voting Data
Integrating methods of detecting natural human movement and biofeedback patte...
Airports "as stressful as moving houses", and voting?
As I was reading about long lines, difficulty of access, lack of understandin...
Apps Make Accessibility Cheaper and Easier
Apps like the LookTel money reader allow people who are blind or have vision ...
Arduino for Disabilities
This blog explores how micro-controllers might become empowerment tools for p...
Assistive Technology Homebrew - the Frankenkindle
Book reader + large buttons = a device that works for someone who doesn't hav...
ATMs are quite accessible
I immediately thought of ATMs: they're secure, they guide you through whateve...
Banking extends itself to the countryside
Win win. Both the bank and the customer benefit equally. And everyone's happi...
Bay Area Association of Disabled Sailors
An inspirational short film about how the differently-abled can pool their ef...
Brainwave controlled interface
Brain scanning controlled interface devices can adapt to the user by initial ...
Brazilian Voting Machines
Brazil was the first country in the world to have fully electronic democratic...
Breaking language barriers through Technology applications
There's nowhere remotely like India. It has more than a billion people, aroun...
Butterball Turkey Talk-Line: Experts Available When You Need Them Most
The Butterball turkey talk-line is open through the U.S. holiday's in Novembe...
Cameras for Blind Users
What can we learn from concept cameras developed for blind users?
Carpooling To Vote
For some, maybe just getting to the voting booth is difficult. But maybe we c...
Click and Vote
Use a disposable camera to record your voting experience. Step by step instru...
Copenhagen Bicycle Counter
One of the most crowed bridges of Copenhagen, Norrebro Bridge, hosts a bicycl...
Create an easily accessible open standard ballot format!
Creating an 'open standard' for ballots could make voting simpler (for people...
Credit Card Voting using Mobile Phones
Use Credit Cards to Vote Securely using any Mobile Phone.
Crowdsourced captions
Universal Subtitles is a project that crowdsources captions and subtitle/tran...
Currency Design for the Visually Impaired
Many countries design currency notes and coins in such a way that the visuall...
Delivering the Chance to Vote
Just as the postal service does it's rounds, a truck or van can go from house...
Democratic Education – Giving Children Access to Democracy
Making democracy accessible also means opening it to so far excluded groups, ...
Designing multisensorial experience
What if voting was an experience that involves all of our senses?
Digital Locker for Election Preferences
We all have preferences for how we participate. Do you want information maile...
Disability as advantage
Disability turned into maximum performance
Disney Parks - Experts in Crowd Management
Disney wants guests to be happy and happy people don't spend hours waiting in...
Doing something useful whilst waiting inline - Apple Stores
Apple Stores do a great job of enabling you to purchase something anywhere in...
Easy Online/E-Voting System for blind population
Blinds themselves can figure out the keys and can vote through Online/E-Votin...
Emerging Markets Banking
Vodafone has alleviated many accessibility difficulties by offering banking s...
Enhanced Urban Mobility: The People's Way
What can we learn from an award winning transport system in India regarding d...
Eyes-free dialing
T.V. Raman and Charles Chen, who are inspirations in themselves, demonstrate ...
Faithful companion
Dogs are our best companions, have you seen the movie "the artist"?
GET OUT THE VOTE
Get Out the Vote is an AIGA’s campaign, which invites designers to create non...
Go to Them...Just Like in Church
When someone disabled wants to take communion, the priest comes to them. In ...
GoodGrips: What's Good for Arthritics can be Good for All.
A classic case study in human centered design, the OXO GoodGrips potato peele...
Google Launches New Site With Resources for the 2012 Presidential Election
Information for voters: includes news articles sorted by candidate and issue,...
Harnessing the Mobility of Food Trucks
Food trucks that tweet their locations and routes have a unique mobility and ...
How do "things" communicate with us?
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) had a fascinating exhibit this summer "Talk t...
How to reach the unreachable
SMS for life campaign by Novartis is an interesting example to look at. They ...
If people cannot access technologies, technologies should adapt and reach them
Electronic voting machine in India provides secure and easier voting experien...
If we can order breakfast using TV, we might as well cast our votes using TV!
Hotels use a very simple technology which enables us to order breakfast, movi...
Imaginative Applications of Mobile Technology
At the end of 2011, there were more than 4.5 billion mobile phone subscriptio...
Improved voter perspective with track record
I remember I was advised by this track record guide from the Swedish Society ...
Improving mobility of voting
Inspiration from NIU's Mgmt 327 Creativity course members: These are just so...
iVoter platform - be an intelligent voter
This is an online platform built by a joint project among some universities i...
Just Like a Food Truck...Meeting Voters on Their Turf
What if we could create a voting system that functioned like the food trucks ...
Learning from Online Retail to lower barriers to success.
Online retailers excel at making transactions as quick and painless as possib...
Let's build a Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure
Anytime, Anywhere, Any Computer Access: The GPII is working to make it possib...
Let's have fun
Voting isn't fun!
Let the market build the solution: low-cost, high quality solar hearing aids built by deaf people
Solar Ear build & expands access to low-cost, high quality hearing aid techno...
Mail me things I need
Every month around 14th, I will receive an empty envelope from the super, it ...
Make voting switch accessible!
Switch accessible voting systems can facilitate an accessible election experi...
Masters of the Univers(al)
How many of the features on our devices are really good examples of universal...
Microsoft Accessibility Technology for everyone
Accessibility enables people of all abilities to realize their full potential...
Missed Call for voting !!
In India giving missed call is very common practice. Its often used as a cost...
Mobile ID Scanners - Bring Voting to the Citizen
Mobile ID scanners and mobile credit card payment solutions provide the techn...
Mobile Phone Voting
With the growth of low cost mobile phone devices and networks in underserved ...
Mobile Phones & Tablets – The Voting Machine for the 21st Century
Smartphones and tablets promises to revolutionize the election process in the...
Mobile voting
In the last decade there has a been a huge growth in mobile banking in rural ...
Mobile Payment Voting
Using the mobile payment method to bring democracy to everyone!
NASCAR Uniforms
The uniforms of NASCAR drivers clearly display their sponsors.
Natural User Interfaces
Enabling a digital system to recognize a range of different inputs enables th...
Neurotechnology to help people who have very little movement
It is something that could ultimately help people who have very little moveme...
Online CheckIn - Applied to Voting to Enable Rapid Voting
Just as Southwest Airlines began letting customers skip much of the ticket re...
Online voting
An innovation in voting is online voting: already adopted by some, this allow...
Online voting is good for everyone!
Increasing accessibility for all
Our Everyday Choices can count as votes
This simple idea gives the consumer the idea that the small choices that they...
Our Everyday Choices can count as votes Our Everyday Choices can count as votes Our Everyday Choi
This simple idea gives the consumer the idea that the small choices that they...
Parkingfee machines
I thought it could be interesting to watch different types of Parking-fee- an...
Home delivery meal services: voter information & ballots with meal boxes
Partner with home delivery meal services, such as Meals on Wheels, which prov...
Polling station on the mobile vans
n India 'India Voting' has started its awareness campaign to promote voting a...
Pop-up voting center
Pop-Up stores are appearing everywhere. From taking use of old empty lots to ...
Porta-Potty inspiration: How might we conveniently drop a vote anywhere?
If we can quickly deploy a toilet system to allow easy access wherever and wh...
Portable Accessible Ballot
A portable, durable device that interfaces with accessible ballots with sound...
Portland Used iPads for Accessible Voting Before It Was Cool
Oregon became the first state to test the use of iPads to aid disabled voters...
Product Evaluation: The Usability of Accessible Voting Machines
A 2004 evaluation highlights the features of various post Help America Vote A...
Proxy voting
Delegating somebody to vote on behalf of others can have two benefits: [1] Pe...
Remove the stigma associated with voting
Voters in newly democratic countries sometimes have their fingers stained in ...
Self service
When looking at technology used in high-volume grocery stores, you can see ho...
Skype to Vote
How easy would it be to log into a Skype like government database and vote?!
Small African Towns and the Power of Twitter
This is an article on a chief of a small village in Africa who has been using...
Smartphone Concept for Aiding the Visually Impaired
A concept video showing how smartphones could aid visually impaired people. I...
Speech Technology
The most common form of communication is speech. However, many have restricti...
Steve tells his own story of finding a good way of saying more things to more people more easily
Communication and Control System for people with complex physical disabilitie...
SUBTITLES and SIGN-LANGUAGE
make the election campaign and the political programmes accessible to the Dea...
super-ELECTION-sunday
Super bowl Sunday is a large event in America and even world wide. Use the co...
Susan was the inspiration for the Magic Wand Keyboard and its first user
A miniature computer keyboard, with a built-in mouse, that allows a disabled ...
Tactile Cookware
Cooking is an art, but inaccessible tools can make it more like guesswork. Se...
Tag Along with Corporate Partners
Corporate distributors, such as Coca-Cola have found ways to reach rural cons...
Telefile
A simple and convenient way of filing taxes....on the phone! If you have an E...
Tell a story with pop up books and musical cards .
In order to make it inclusive - making the process multisensory . Could we i...
Text-to-Braille Reader
Many states don't offer blind citizens access to braille ballots. This text-t...
The next universal election platform - Facebook????
Why not build an election platform on an already existing robust system which...
Train waiting times | Voting waiting times
Lots of transit systems have signs at the stations telling riders when the ne...
UK Website launches polling station Virtual Tour
This step by step walkthrough coaches anyone how easily explain to someone th...
Use colour and transparency
The UK supermarket chain, Waitrose allow customers to vote for which local ch...
Use for-profit best practices to develop a more usable / accessible electronic ballot
It's time to take the continually evolving best practices being implemented t...
Use of facial detection and finger print scanning to authenticate and connect the user.
Use of software like Veriface and automobile biometric scanner to give access...
Using apps to understand your environment
Smartphones with cheap processors, sensors and storage are quickly becoming s...
Visual language for travel guides and beyond
If an image is worth a thousand words, and this is the assumption of the foun...
Vote from anywhere
Engineering students from India has developed software called "Vote India"usi...
Voter Revolution Roadshow
Emily Pilloton brought impactful design to people via a "roadshow" experience...
Voting Hostess ? facilitate physical demonstration of the process just like air hostess !
Facilitating Physical/ Activity/live demonstration in sign language ( just li...
Voting in Public Transport
Use the public transport to reach more votes during the election day. Most of...
Voting should be like google translate
Google translate provides solutions to its users that would be useful in voting.
What I Learned Waiting for My Train
On my way to work today, I watched an interesting exchange on the train platf...
Wheelchair Tour of Voting Booths--put policy makers in wheelchairs to test accessibility
Tourists tour the old Jerusalem neighborhood of Nachlaot by wheelchair to tes...
When people with disabilities turn into public figures
To really consider accessibility as something essential, and not as an 'extra...
When the solutions for disabled becomes the new standard!
I would like us to dig up some great universal design, examples where designs...