Over 100 years ago, a man named Herman Hollerith, who had a learning disability, was determined to organize information in a way he could understand. So, he devised the Hollerith Tabulating Machine. We've seen a similar result made recently with closed captioning. At first designers saw it only as a tool for people with hearing disabilities. Now, it's an educational tool used to improve reading comprehension.
Immigrants use it to learn English.
We see captioning in the gym, in airports, and even on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Speech recognition devices were originally designed for fighter pilots. And the software is an important access tool for persons with spinal cord injuries and repetitive stress injuries. Industry must be a partner in providing access. It will do that best when it has the flexibility to be innovative.