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I'll never forget the sound

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of laughing with my friends.

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I'll never forget the sound

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of my mother's voice
right before I fell asleep.

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And I'll never forget
the comforting sound of water

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trickling down a stream.

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Imagine my fear, pure fear,

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when, at the age of 10,

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I was told I was going to lose my hearing.

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And over the next five years,

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it progressed until I was classified
as profoundly deaf.

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But I believe that losing my hearing

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was one of the greatest gifts
I've ever received.

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You see, I get to experience
the world in a unique way.

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And I believe that
these unique experiences

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that people with disabilities have

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is what's going to help us
make and design a better world

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for everyone -- both for people
with and without disabilities.

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I used to be a disability rights lawyer,

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and I spent a lot of my time
focused on enforcing the law,

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ensuring that accommodations were made.

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And then I had to quickly
learn international policy,

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because I was asked to work
on the UN Convention

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that protects people with disabilities.

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As the leader of the NGO there,

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I spent most of my energy
trying to convince people

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about the capabilities
of people with disabilities.

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But somewhere along the way,

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and after many career transitions

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that my parents weren't so happy about --

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(Laughter)

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I stumbled upon a solution

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that I believe may be
an even more powerful tool

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to solve some of the world's
greatest problems,

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disability or not.

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And that tool is called design thinking.

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Design thinking is a process
for innovation and problem solving.

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There are five steps.

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The first is defining the problem

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and understanding its constraints.

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The second is observing people
in real-life situations

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and empathizing with them.

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Third, throwing out hundreds of ideas --
the more the better,

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the wilder the better.

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Fourth, prototyping:
gathering whatever you can,

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whatever you can find,

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to mimic your solution, to test it

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and to refine it.

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And finally, implementation:

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ensuring that the solution
you came up with is sustainable.

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Warren Berger says that design thinking
teaches us to look sideways,

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to reframe, to refine, to experiment

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and, probably most importantly,

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ask those stupid questions.

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Design thinkers believe
that everyone is creative.

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They believe in bringing people
from multiple disciplines together,

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because they want to share
multiple perspectives

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and bring them together
and ultimately merge them

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to form something new.

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Design thinking is such a successful
and versatile tool

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that it has been applied
in almost every industry.

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I saw the potential that it had
for the issues I faced,

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so I decided to go back to school

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and get my master's in social design.

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This looks at how to use design
to create positive change in the world.

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While I was there,

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I fell in love with woodworking.

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But what I quickly realized

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was that I was missing out on something.

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As you're working with a tool,

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right before it's about
to kick back at you --

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which means the piece or the tool
jumps back at you --

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it makes a sound.

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And I couldn't hear this sound.

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So I decided,

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why not try and solve it?

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My solution was a pair of safety glasses

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that were engineered
to visually alert the user

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to pitch changes in the tool,

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before the human ear could pick it up.

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Why hadn't tool designers
thought of this before?

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(Laughter)

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Two reasons: one, I was a beginner.

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I wasn't weighed down by expertise
or conventional wisdom.

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The second is: I was Deaf.

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My unique experience of the world
helped inform my solution.

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And as I went on, I kept running into
more and more solutions

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that were originally made
for people with disabilities,

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and that ended up being picked up,

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embraced and loved by the mainstream,

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disability or not.

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This is an OXO potato peeler.

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It was originally designed
for people with arthritis,

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but it was so comfortable,
everybody loved it.

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Text messaging: that was originally
designed for people who are Deaf.

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And as you know,
everybody loves that, too.

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(Laughter)

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I started thinking:

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What if we changed our mindset?

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What if we started designing
for disability first --

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not the norm?

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As you see, when we design
for disability first,

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we often stumble upon
solutions that are not only inclusive,

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but also are often better
than when we design for the norm.

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And this excites me,

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because this means that the energy
it takes to accommodate someone

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with a disability

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can be leveraged, molded and played with

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as a force for creativity and innovation.

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This moves us from the mindset
of trying to change the hearts

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and the deficiency mindset of tolerance,

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to becoming an alchemist,

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the type of magician that this world
so desperately needs

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to solve some of its greatest problems.

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Now, I also believe

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that people with disabilities
have great potential to be designers

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within this design-thinking process.

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Without knowing it, from a very early age,

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I've been a design thinker,
fine-tuning my skills.

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Design thinkers are, by nature,
problem solvers.

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So imagine listening to a conversation

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and only understanding
50 percent of what is said.

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You can't ask them to repeat
every single word.

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They would just get frustrated with you.

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So without even realizing it,

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my solution was to take
the muffled sound I heard,

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that was the beat,

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and turn it into a rhythm
and place it with the lips I read.

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Years later, someone commented
that my writing had a rhythm to it.

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Well, this is because I experience
conversations as rhythms.

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I also became really,
really good at failing.

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(Laughter)

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Quite literally.

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My first semester in Spanish, I got a D.

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But what I learned
was that when I picked myself up

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and changed a few things around,

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eventually, I succeeded.

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Similarly, design thinking
encourages people to fail

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and fail often,

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because eventually, you will succeed.

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Very few great innovations in this world

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have come from someone succeeding
on the first try.

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I also experienced this lesson in sports.

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I'll never forget my coach
saying to my mom,

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"If she just didn't have her hearing loss,

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she would be on the national team."

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But what my coach, and what I
didn't even know at the time,

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was that my hearing loss
actually helped me excel at sports.

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You see, when you lose your hearing,
not only do you adapt your behavior,

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but you also adapt your physical senses.

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One example of this

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is that my visual
attention span increased.

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Imagine a soccer player,
coming down the left flank.

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Imagine being goalkeeper, like I was,

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and the ball is coming
down the left flank.

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A person with normal hearing
would have the visual perspective of this.

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I had the benefit of a spectrum this wide.

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So I picked up the players over here,

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that were moving about
and coming down the field.

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And I picked them up quicker,
so that if the ball was passed,

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I could reposition myself
and be ready for that shot.

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So as you can see,

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I've been a design thinker
for nearly all my life.

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My observation skills have been honed
so that I pick up on things

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that others would never pick up on.

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My constant need to adapt
has made me a great ideator

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and problem solver.

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And I've often had to do this
within limitations and constraints.

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This is something that designers
also have to deal with frequently.

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My work most recently took me to Haiti.

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Design thinkers often seek out
extreme situations,

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because that often informs
some of their best designs.

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And Haiti -- it was like a perfect storm.

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I lived and worked
with 300 Deaf individuals

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that were relocated
after the 2010 earthquake.

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But five and a half years later,

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there still was no electricity;

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there still was no safe drinking water;

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there were still no job opportunities;

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there was still rampant crime,
and it went unpunished.

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International aid organizations
came one by one.

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But they came

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with pre-determined solutions.

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They didn't come ready
to observe and to adapt

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based on the community's needs.

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One organization gave them
goats and chickens.

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But they didn't realize

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that there was so much hunger
in that community,

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that when the Deaf went to sleep
at night and couldn't hear,

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people broke into their yards
and their homes

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and stole these chickens and goats,

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and eventually they were all gone.

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Now, if that organization
had taken the time

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to observe Deaf people,
to observe the community,

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they would have realized their problem

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and perhaps they would have
come up with a solution,

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something like a solar light,

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lighting up a secure pen
to put them in at night

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to ensure their safety.

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You don't have to be a design thinker

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to insert the ideas
I've shared with you today.

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You are creative.

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You are a designer --

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everyone is.

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Let people like me help you.

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Let people with disabilities
help you look sideways,

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and in the process,

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solve some of the greatest problems.

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That's it. Thank you.

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(Applause)