Guest blog: Google's Accessibility Team looks forward to TechShare Pro

Google is a headline sponsor of TechShare Pro and the accessibility team is running several sessions during the day.

Google

Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. More than 15% of the world’s population (that's 1 billion people!) have some form of disability (WHO).

Don’t consider yourself part of that 15%? Accessibility still affects you as this number does not include the aging population, temporary disabilities (such as a broken arm) or situational disabilities (such as driving). Accessibility affects everyone -- and this is why it’s important to build with accessibility in mind from design to implementation and beyond.

The Google Accessibility team works with partners and users to build a strong community. Through this community, our user research team is able to conduct in-depth product research and gather valuable user feedback to ultimately help shape the future of Google’s products. 

Because of this, we’re able to design products such as the Google Home and Assistant, a hands-free smart device ready to help with playing music, cooking, adjusting your thermostat, turning on your favorite shows and much more. Learn about all of our products at google.com/accessibility and follow us on Twitter for the latest announcements (@googleaccess).

We’re excited to be participating in the TechShare Pro 2018 conference as our hope is to raise awareness of Google’s values and processes with regards to accessibility and to continue to foster new partnerships which can ultimately help to build better products, built for everyone no matter their disability. 

The Google Accessibility Team

Chris Patnoe, Google

Christopher Patnoe

Sr. Programs Manager, Accessibility 

Kyndra LoCoco, Google

Kyndra LoCoco

Partner & Community Programs Manager

Andrea Wong, Google

Andrea Wong

User Researcher, Accessibility

Melissa Barnhart, Google

Melissa Barnhart

User Researcher, Accessibility

Kiran Kaja, Google

Kiran Kaja

Search, Assistant & News Accessibility Lead