The Power Of Purpose: How Saqib Shaikh And Microsoft Are Turning Disability Into An Engine For Innovation (Part 2)

In developing the ground-breaking Seeing AI app, Saqib Shaikh and the team at Microsoft were driven by this simple but powerful re-framing he articulated, "What if we could look at disability as an engine of innovation?" "There's so many examples where the technologies we rely on today where inspired or influenced by disability, from speech recognition and text to speech to the touch screen itself. There's this terminology of inclusive design where if you focus in on one person's needs, then actually doing that can help you create solutions which benefit a broader population. With seeing AI, we focus in on the needs of people who are blind or low vision, but in doing that I believe it also helps us make better products for all customers," said Shaikh. We spoke about the evolution of platform and how the team approached adding new features. "We're always listening to our customers (the low or no vision community) and understanding what are the challenges that they face. And then we're talking to the scientists and engineers at Microsoft to see what are the emerging technologies we can leverage. And with each of these, we consider the type of task you can complete," said Shaikh.