There is still a lot of room for improving the tools that are available for those with disabilities. As designers and entrepreneurs, ee should be focusing a lot more attention on these users. The challenges are exciting, and the benefits are enormous, and not just for those living with the disability.

Here are just a couple examples of how designing for people with disabilities helped drive innovation for everyone:

• Edison built the phonograph and to give the blind access to printed material
• Vinton Cerf, co-creator of the internet, was motivated by a desire to more easily communicate with his wife, Sigrid, who was deaf.

Designing for the disabled can lead to much bigger outcomes when those solutions are brought back to the mass-consumer market. While the problems of these underserved communities might not be  cool or authentic to the 20-something entrepreneur looking to make it big, building another task tracker or email client isn’t really going to make anyone Fuck you money either.

Why not build something valuable for a smaller community in hopes that, maybe, it can reach a larger audience down the road? Given what we’ve seen in history, this doesn’t seem that improbable. And, even if you don’t succeed in mainstreaming the technology, you can at least feel good about yourself for providing a real impact to a high need community.

Thanks to Gabe for forwarding me the articles mentioned above.