Vint Cerf, 'Father of the internet,' talks about recovering from COVID-19 and accessibility
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0:05 - 0:11Symptoms arrived on March 17th and this
was after having spent 10 days in London -
0:11 - 0:13and we were fairly confident that
-
0:13 - 0:16we contracted this thing while
we were in London. -
0:16 - 0:20There were many events we attended that
had a couple hundred people. -
0:20 - 0:25They were in fairly close proximity
to each other -
0:25 - 0:27whether it was a cocktail party or
-
0:27 - 0:31an official dinner or something like that
or even just a lecture. -
0:31 - 0:39So I showed symptoms on the 17th,
my wife never actually showed symptoms, -
0:39 - 0:42but then about a week later
after a great deal of effort -
0:42 - 0:44we were able to get tested.
-
0:44 - 0:53That is a story all by itself. We both
tested positive and so for the weeks after -
0:53 - 0:58until now we stayed in isolation.
-
0:58 - 1:05By good fortune our younger son flew in
from Los Angeles for nearly 3 weeks -
1:05 - 1:09he's just flying back today to take care
of shopping and cooking. -
1:09 - 1:14So we had more than many other
people had in the way of help -
1:14 - 1:18and assistance to get through the recovery
process. -
1:18 - 1:23Wasn't he concerned about contracting it
as well? -
1:23 - 1:26Absolutely. And so he exercised
enormous care -
1:26 - 1:31He was up in the upstairs bedrooms and
we never went up there and -
1:31 - 1:36he disinfected himself, his hands, the
kitchen counter and all the other stuff -
1:36 - 1:41repeatedly. He would wash off anything
that came in from the store -
1:41 - 1:48we designated certain areas as germ free
areas and were careful not to put anything -
1:48 - 1:53on there that hadn't already been
essentially cleaned. -
1:53 - 2:04So he was very very conscientious about
exercising all the normal precautions -
2:04 - 2:09that it is recommended in order to
stay isolated. -
2:09 - 2:13And so far as we can tell, over that three
week period, he did not show any signs -
2:13 - 2:16any symptoms anyways of this disease.
-
2:16 - 2:21And when he gets back to Los Angelos,
today, he said he will self-isolate for -
2:21 - 2:23another 14 days.
-
2:23 - 2:26So was he able to get tested before
he left? -
2:26 - 2:29No, we were not able to get tests for him.
-
2:29 - 2:35But frankly, given the gestation period,
we are pretty confident that if he was -
2:35 - 2:40going to show any symptoms at all they would
have appeared during the period he was here -
2:40 - 2:48Many many people were kind enough to send
notes, I had not intended to say anything -
2:48 - 2:53and I was encouraged to be public about
this. -
2:53 - 3:02For a couple of reasons. One of them was
that maybe people would listen just given -
3:02 - 3:12my modest notoriety. So I tried to use
social media very sparingly to reinforce -
3:12 - 3:16good practices with regards to
social isolation. -
3:16 - 3:21Which by the way, I think is a peculiar term
Physical isolation is what we're after, -
3:21 - 3:22not social isolation.
-
3:22 - 3:29All of what is happening in the world is
becoming more and more interconnected -
3:29 - 3:33just as we're doing right now because of
the internet. -
3:33 - 3:36Well, it's very interesting questions
How would we communicate? -
3:36 - 3:41We have other mass media available.
We have television, we have cable TV -
3:41 - 3:47we have the telephone, we have radio.
So people probably would be, -
3:47 - 3:53by the way, there is a lot of telephone
usage right now, its gone up even faster -
3:53 - 4:00than some of the social media and things
like G-calls. So that's important to know. -
4:00 - 4:05Of course, having mobiles readily available has assisted in the use of the telephone system.
-
4:05 - 4:14So there would have been other
ways to keep people informed, what would -
4:14 - 4:20not have worked however is the ability to
work from home for at least a significant -
4:20 - 4:27fraction of the work force. Internet has
certainly enabled that. To say nothing of -
4:27 - 4:31schools going online, as imperfect as that
might be. -
4:31 - 4:37So I agree with you that some
of our response -
4:37 - 4:43to the COVID-19 virus, pandemic,
has been enabled by internet -
4:43 - 4:48and if had not had this capability
I think we would have been -
4:48 - 4:58less able to respond to the situation
admitting that many of the internet based -
4:58 - 5:04responses are still not adequate but they
are surely a step in the right direction. -
5:04 - 5:13Which leads many of us to speculate that
post Covid-19 that our normal lives would -
5:13 - 5:19have shifted in some ways. For example
companies may be more willing to work -
5:19 - 5:24from home when that's convenient.
And that might actually be a very beneficial -
5:24 - 5:29thing for at least some portion of the
workforce, giving them flexibility that -
5:29 - 5:38they might not otherwise have. It might
also induce ways of using online capability -
5:38 - 5:44for education that would, I would say,
enhance or expand the business models -
5:44 - 5:47of school and universities.
-
5:47 - 5:55So I think the post pandemic period will
be interesting and absolutely worthy -
5:55 - 5:58of our scrutiny. But that gets to one other
thing which is most relevant to why you -
5:58 - 6:09and I are talking, and that is to be more
conscious of the importance of accessibility -
6:09 - 6:17in all dimensions for these online systems.
We have still not done well in achieving -
6:17 - 6:24what I consider to be a very important
objective which is making online capacity -
6:24 - 6:29usable for everyone, including those who
have to overcome various kinds of disabilities. -
6:29 - 6:37And so that challenge lies before us, and
is just as much a challenge now as it has -
6:37 - 6:38been in the past.
-
6:38 - 6:41I know you're working with Google,
you're working at Google I guess I -
6:41 - 6:42should say.
-
6:42 - 6:50I had gone from the research department
for some 12 years or so, then to policy -
6:50 - 6:55and now most recently I'm part of the
cloud team. In all cases, however, I've -
6:55 - 7:01had a finger in the policy space,
specifically policy related to internet -
7:01 - 7:06and how its used, how it's abused
what to do about that. So that's one part. -
7:06 - 7:14I am a sponsor of our accessibility effort
at Google, and a sponsor of some of the -
7:14 - 7:18internal employee groups, interest groups,
-
7:18 - 7:23for example, the disabilities alliance group.
Which is a group of employees who either -
7:23 - 7:28are disabled or have children who are
disabled, or parents who are disabled -
7:28 - 7:34or who have disabling conditions. And part
of the purpose behind that activity is to -
7:34 - 7:40draw attention to the accommodations that
are needed, whether that has to do with -
7:40 - 7:46accessibility of online systems or making
sure that for the blind employees that -
7:46 - 7:50there are paths that are clear and that
we don't leave things around for people -
7:50 - 7:58to trip on. There is a wide range of
response that the company wants to -
7:58 - 8:05introduce, but it can only do that if it
is made more clear what issues arise and -
8:05 - 8:12how they can be dealt with. On the
accessibility front, with regards to online -
8:12 - 8:19things, I am a huge fan of improving the
way in which we and others deal with making -
8:19 - 8:24our online applications useable.
Particularly for people who have to -
8:24 - 8:31overcome various disability, whether they
be physical disability or cognitive disabilities -
8:31 - 8:37It turns out that's really hard. Figuring
out how to do a good design which is -
8:37 - 8:45intuitive and accounts for the needs
of people with disabilities is quite a -
8:45 - 8:51challenge. I think it is an art. I don't
think there are textbook solutions to -
8:51 - 8:58these things. Although there are a number
of textbooks that speak to design which is -
8:58 - 9:03usable and intuitive. So I'm a big
proponent there.
- Title:
- Vint Cerf, 'Father of the internet,' talks about recovering from COVID-19 and accessibility
- Description:
-
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
ABILITY Magazine
- Duration:
- 09:07
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