1
00:00:00,054 --> 00:00:06,213
[applause]

2
00:00:07,681 --> 00:00:09,521
Hello!

3
00:00:10,642 --> 00:00:13,402
It's great to be here.

4
00:00:13,870 --> 00:00:16,594
You might be noticing that I have a female

5
00:00:16,594 --> 00:00:19,784
voice that's speaking for me right now.

6
00:00:21,174 --> 00:00:24,084
That's because my interpreter is a woman.

7
00:00:24,233 --> 00:00:26,079
If I could have chosen, if I could have

8
00:00:26,079 --> 00:00:28,639
picked anyone for tonight, I think it

9
00:00:28,639 --> 00:00:31,059
probably would have been a British man.

10
00:00:31,068 --> 00:00:34,108
[laughter]

11
00:00:36,359 --> 00:00:39,369
Have you ever been in that situation—

12
00:00:39,369 --> 00:00:41,229
maybe you're in a supermarket

13
00:00:41,229 --> 00:00:44,049
or you're walking down a hallway—

14
00:00:44,049 --> 00:00:45,939
and you're walking towards a stranger

15
00:00:45,939 --> 00:00:47,409
coming the opposite direction,

16
00:00:47,409 --> 00:00:49,109
and you start that awkward dance where

17
00:00:49,109 --> 00:00:50,429
you're trying to pass them

18
00:00:50,429 --> 00:00:51,389
and you go to the right,

19
00:00:51,389 --> 00:00:52,009
and they go to the right,

20
00:00:52,009 --> 00:00:52,809
and you go to the left.

21
00:00:52,809 --> 00:00:54,719
You know how awkward that is?

22
00:00:54,719 --> 00:00:56,139
Have you ever been there?

23
00:00:56,139 --> 00:00:59,679
[laughter]

24
00:00:59,709 --> 00:01:03,229
So suppose you were deaf like I am

25
00:01:03,229 --> 00:01:05,889
and you're going down the hallway

26
00:01:05,894 --> 00:01:07,514
and the person coming towards you

27
00:01:07,524 --> 00:01:08,544
is completely blind

28
00:01:08,544 --> 00:01:10,134
and you start the awkward dance.

29
00:01:10,134 --> 00:01:11,574
What would you do?

30
00:01:12,611 --> 00:01:14,281
Have you ever thought about that?

31
00:01:14,281 --> 00:01:16,121
How would you communicate?

32
00:01:18,481 --> 00:01:20,501
This happened to my friend.

33
00:01:22,128 --> 00:01:23,338
He's completely deaf,

34
00:01:23,338 --> 00:01:25,008
and he was coming down the hallway

35
00:01:25,008 --> 00:01:26,008
and there was a blind person

36
00:01:26,008 --> 00:01:27,018
coming towards him.

37
00:01:27,018 --> 00:01:28,898
And they started the awkward dance

38
00:01:28,919 --> 00:01:30,889
and the blind man began to talk.

39
00:01:31,729 --> 00:01:33,979
And my deaf friend--

40
00:01:34,703 --> 00:01:36,003
what was he going to do?

41
00:01:36,003 --> 00:01:36,923
He couldn't hear.

42
00:01:36,923 --> 00:01:38,963
So his first intuition is to gesture,

43
00:01:38,963 --> 00:01:41,473
point to his ears, and say, you know,

44
00:01:41,473 --> 00:01:43,533
“I'm deaf,” but obviously

45
00:01:43,533 --> 00:01:45,333
the blind man's not going to see that.

46
00:01:45,333 --> 00:01:47,443
So his second intuition was to take out

47
00:01:47,443 --> 00:01:50,233
his phone and type in his notes.

48
00:01:50,233 --> 00:01:51,673
The blind man's not going to

49
00:01:51,673 --> 00:01:53,343
see that, either.

50
00:01:53,855 --> 00:01:55,415
So the third thing he did

51
00:01:55,415 --> 00:01:56,945
was a little unusual.

52
00:01:56,963 --> 00:02:00,613
He grabbed the blind man's hand,
and he held it up to his ear

53
00:02:00,613 --> 00:02:02,713
and he shook his head no.

54
00:02:02,726 --> 00:02:07,046
And the blind man felt this
and immediately understood,

55
00:02:07,046 --> 00:02:09,566
“oh, this guy's deaf.”

56
00:02:09,566 --> 00:02:11,306
That awkward dance was over.

57
00:02:11,306 --> 00:02:15,636
They were able to just kind of 
share a laugh and pass each other.

58
00:02:15,636 --> 00:02:19,206
So let's change the story a little bit.

59
00:02:19,206 --> 00:02:23,206
What if my friend was himself-- he was 
deaf-- but this person wasn't

60
00:02:23,244 --> 00:02:24,264
blind at all.

61
00:02:24,264 --> 00:02:25,424
He could still see.

62
00:02:25,424 --> 00:02:27,634
Maybe he spoke a different language.

63
00:02:27,634 --> 00:02:31,114
If my friend decided to do the 
same thing, anyway--

64
00:02:31,114 --> 00:02:34,704
grab his hand, put it up to his 
ear, and shake his head no—

65
00:02:34,704 --> 00:02:36,764
would that person still understand him?

66
00:02:36,768 --> 00:02:39,608
Probably.

67
00:02:39,608 --> 00:02:44,368
Might be a little awkward, but 
it'd be universally understood.

68
00:02:44,888 --> 00:02:51,448
This is what I do every day as a 
creative for Amazon and a designer.

69
00:02:52,744 --> 00:02:59,104
I make visuals on the front page
of the world's largest online storefront.

70
00:03:00,584 --> 00:03:06,184
I solve these problems that have to be 
accessible to millions and millions

71
00:03:06,184 --> 00:03:09,904
of different kinds of people 
with different backgrounds.

72
00:03:09,904 --> 00:03:13,384
As a deaf person, I have to 
innovate solutions all the time.

73
00:03:13,384 --> 00:03:16,904
I do this in my everyday life.

74
00:03:17,032 --> 00:03:21,662
My communication medium changes 
with every interaction I have.

75
00:03:24,670 --> 00:03:32,510
Everything from a pitch-- 
pitching an idea to a client--

76
00:03:33,623 --> 00:03:37,623
to going into a bar 
and simply ordering a beer.

77
00:03:37,623 --> 00:03:41,313
My communication style has to change.

78
00:03:43,343 --> 00:03:45,933
I'm constantly thinking about

79
00:03:45,933 --> 00:03:50,193
how to make a better solution 
and sometimes my solutions are awkward.

80
00:03:50,193 --> 00:03:53,533
Like, for example, you see me 
signing with two hands right now,

81
00:03:53,533 --> 00:03:55,223
but then I have to stop to click.

82
00:03:55,223 --> 00:03:58,273
That's one example.

83
00:03:58,273 --> 00:04:01,953
But I would like to argue 
that everyone in this room

84
00:04:01,953 --> 00:04:05,953
has a disability, regardless of 
if it's permanent or temporary.

85
00:04:05,953 --> 00:04:08,373
It could be something as 
simple as being pregnant,

86
00:04:08,373 --> 00:04:12,373
having a broken arm, 
being older, or being a child.

87
00:04:16,061 --> 00:04:20,061
Everyone has to figure out a way to cope 
and navigate around their disability,

88
00:04:20,183 --> 00:04:23,053
and these solutions are worth sharing.

89
00:04:24,944 --> 00:04:28,104
One example would be my wife.

90
00:04:28,146 --> 00:04:31,916
She's hearing, and we visited 
Iceland a few years ago.

91
00:04:33,816 --> 00:04:39,036
She's an educator, and she wanted to take
a tour of a school for the deaf.

92
00:04:39,251 --> 00:04:41,831
Now, neither of us can
read or write Icelandic,

93
00:04:42,220 --> 00:04:44,590
and I can't speak Icelandic Sign Language.

94
00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:49,190
But being a native signer, I could 
understand much better than she could,

95
00:04:49,942 --> 00:04:52,802
and so I ended up interpreting for her

96
00:04:52,835 --> 00:04:55,105
for the first time 
in our entire relationship.

97
00:04:58,204 --> 00:05:00,484
Often, I'm considered the disabled one,

98
00:05:00,484 --> 00:05:04,264
but in this situation 
she was the one with a disability.

99
00:05:06,064 --> 00:05:08,274
So what is Universal Design, anyway?

100
00:05:10,576 --> 00:05:15,576
There was a professor named Ron Mace
who passed away a few years ago.

101
00:05:16,028 --> 00:05:20,028
He taught at the Center for 
Universal Design in North Carolina,

102
00:05:21,569 --> 00:05:24,179
and he said that Universal Design

103
00:05:25,732 --> 00:05:28,222
is the design of products and environments

104
00:05:28,222 --> 00:05:33,832
to be usable by all people to 
the greatest extent possible

105
00:05:35,779 --> 00:05:41,529
without the need for any adaptation
or specialized design.

106
00:05:47,873 --> 00:05:51,353
So humans interact 
with objects every day,

107
00:05:51,393 --> 00:05:55,153
and all these objects fall somewhere 
on the spectrum of Universal Design,

108
00:05:55,153 --> 00:05:57,243
from very universal to not at all.

109
00:05:59,105 --> 00:06:02,205
So let's use a doorknob
as a common example.

110
00:06:03,714 --> 00:06:06,414
Doorknobs are not really 
usable by children.

111
00:06:06,430 --> 00:06:13,330
They struggle. People with arthritis
struggle to use doorknobs, and this guy.

112
00:06:14,132 --> 00:06:16,752
[laughter]

113
00:06:18,817 --> 00:06:21,927
So how could we improve on this design?

114
00:06:21,953 --> 00:06:25,243
Well, the door lever. It's a lot better.

115
00:06:25,435 --> 00:06:27,245
This guy can use it now.

116
00:06:27,245 --> 00:06:31,925
But think about people with wheelchairs.

117
00:06:31,925 --> 00:06:37,615
Have you ever seen them try to 
go through a door? It' horrible.

118
00:06:38,551 --> 00:06:40,101
It's really tough for them.

119
00:06:40,149 --> 00:06:43,149
Or parents with baby strollers.

120
00:06:44,865 --> 00:06:48,025
It's really difficult,
not fully accessible.

121
00:06:49,725 --> 00:06:52,955
So to even improve upon 
the door design further,

122
00:06:54,637 --> 00:06:57,777
the automatic sliding door was invented.

123
00:06:57,777 --> 00:06:59,607
This is such a Universal Design.

124
00:06:59,607 --> 00:07:02,787
It doesn't leave anyone out; 
even animals can use it.

125
00:07:11,761 --> 00:07:16,161
One of my projects recently 
was to work on something

126
00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:18,860
to make it more universally accessible.

127
00:07:18,860 --> 00:07:21,060
Remember when Google glass came out--

128
00:07:21,060 --> 00:07:22,960
It was so exciting a few years ago?

129
00:07:23,469 --> 00:07:25,719
Now, may it rest in peace. [laughter]

130
00:07:30,757 --> 00:07:33,857
But I started thinking about 
how could I use that--

131
00:07:33,857 --> 00:07:37,857
how could I make that really 
awesome new technology beneficial--

132
00:07:37,863 --> 00:07:39,163
for people like me?

133
00:07:39,676 --> 00:07:41,946
So I thought of my mother immediately.

134
00:07:41,946 --> 00:07:45,946
My mother is deaf, 
and she loves going to movies.

135
00:07:47,542 --> 00:07:52,892
Often, movie theaters would 
release a movie with subtitles

136
00:07:53,750 --> 00:07:57,120
that were imposed on the screen, 
and that was a really exciting event.

137
00:07:57,562 --> 00:08:01,562
I don't know if you know this but
deaf options in a movie theater

138
00:08:01,562 --> 00:08:05,562
are really bleak, and you usually
have to wear something like this.

139
00:08:06,121 --> 00:08:10,121
Can you imagine going on 
your first date looking like this?

140
00:08:10,774 --> 00:08:14,774
[laughter] Yeah.

141
00:08:15,912 --> 00:08:18,342
So I thought, how can I make this better?

142
00:08:21,992 --> 00:08:25,992
I decided to get a file for a movie script
and put it in an app

143
00:08:26,148 --> 00:08:30,108
so that you could have a timed app 
where you could press play

144
00:08:30,124 --> 00:08:34,454
and go into any movie theatre 
and see the script on your Google Glass.

145
00:08:35,377 --> 00:08:39,437
No one had done that before 
and I had to move pretty fast on that.

146
00:08:42,046 --> 00:08:46,046
And the biggest reward was seeing --

147
00:08:51,002 --> 00:08:55,002
was not only realizing that it helps 
people like my mom or people like me,

148
00:08:57,027 --> 00:08:59,777
but also anyone can use it.

149
00:08:59,875 --> 00:09:03,875
Imagine if you go to a different country 
and you go into a movie theatre--

150
00:09:03,886 --> 00:09:07,506
you want to watch a movie-- you can watch
it in your own language.

151
00:09:07,532 --> 00:09:10,532
Or you could even have an app

152
00:09:10,550 --> 00:09:14,460
become your own personal karaoke
machine and have it play lyrics.

153
00:09:16,620 --> 00:09:19,450
That is the genius of Universal Design.

154
00:09:19,929 --> 00:09:23,929
When you achieve Universal Design,

155
00:09:24,228 --> 00:09:28,528
it snowballs to the point where people--

156
00:09:28,528 --> 00:09:30,948
even if you don't share
the same disability--

157
00:09:30,960 --> 00:09:34,960
everyone benefits from it.

158
00:09:36,199 --> 00:09:39,029
Disability drives innovation.

159
00:09:39,741 --> 00:09:44,721
The existence of disability forces you
to come up with new solutions.

160
00:09:44,789 --> 00:09:47,419
It does not impair you.

161
00:09:47,461 --> 00:09:49,361
All of us have a disability,

162
00:09:49,377 --> 00:09:55,267
regardless of if it's physical or 
cognitive, emotional or even temporary.

163
00:09:56,032 --> 00:09:57,452
What is your solution?

164
00:09:57,473 --> 00:10:01,253
Share it with us. 
It's what unifies us as humans.

165
00:10:02,163 --> 00:10:07,993
Let's stop making that awkward dance
so awkward. Thank you.

166
00:10:08,091 --> 00:10:25,321
[applause]