Ⓒ WeThe15, A purple graphic with white border and WeThe15 logo. It shows pictures of a man and a women inside circles. It reads '#WeThe15 Access All Areas, Products & Design; Christina Mallon, Microsoft & Dr Josh Loebner, Wunderman Thompson.'
- The sixth episode of the WeThe15: Access All Areas podcast features two world leading experts in inclusive products and design the way for greater accessibility.
In the sixth episode of the WeThe15: Access All Areas podcast, Head of Inclusive Design Accessibility and Inclusion at Microsoft, Christina Mallon, and Global Head of Inclusive Design at Wunderman Thompson, Dr Josh Loebner, discuss products and design for persons with disabilities with broadcaster and host Andy Stevenson.
During the episode Mallon, a neurodivergent inclusive designer who does not have use of her arms, highlights the products she uses in daily life such as voice control, Copilot and Teams to be more productive in her professional life. She has also worked with global brands Tommy Hilfiger and Unilever to provide insights into inclusive design strategies.
Commenting on her experience, Mallon said: “We can get to the brand leaders and say, no, no, no, that decision to either keep that product, create that product or discontinue that product can have a huge effect on our lives, and I think we saw this at Microsoft with gaming.
“People were like, okay, that's great but why are you putting time in accessible gaming? Why aren't you giving huge donations to organisations to fund cure for diseases? And Microsoft does that, and we help with our AI, being able to game with your friends is such a huge part of your life as someone who's interested in gaming, that it can be the difference between someone being included in their friend group or excluded.”
Dr Loebner, who also works with some of the biggest brands to innovate accessibility, shared his enthusiasm about the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve products for PWD.
“AI is really opening new ways to be able to iterate and reinterpret potentially inaccessible products towards being more accessible and to be able to scale them in ways that hadn't been achievable before.
“That scalability isn’t something that is just being seen, for example, in first world parts of the global geography, but as well the scalability through AI for more adaptive and accessible products could in the future be something that be more attainable for those developing countries and individuals who are not only marginalized from a disability perspective, but also from financial or socioeconomic constraints.”
Mallon added: “We're starting to see the ability to create a whole library of your voice with just a few seconds of audio. And that is something … close to my heart because I have ALS and many of my friends have ALS and are not able to speak. I think care will get better; AI is just going to really accelerate everything. As long as we do it in a safe way and … we really follow the responsible AI principles and we're co-creating with the community; I think AI is going to do a ton of good for the disability community.”
Loebner and Mallon also discussed the mindset of brands in offering accessible products, creating products that have universal appeal and use, and inclusive design principles that people take into their daily lives.
For more details and the full episode, subscribe and listen to the series here.