Joseph Tartakoff wrote an interesting piece in today’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer describing Microsoft’s new Accessibility Technology showroom, see An innovative approach to outside accessibility. Microsoft set up the showroom to provide employees with a chance to try out products from Microsoft and other companies which enable people with special needs to access technology. Its great to see Microsoft putting in this effort. Unless you know someone who uses these products, you’re unlikely to see them. Getting a chance to try out such products helps people understand how empowering these products are. A great feature of Microsoft’s lab is that the products are explained through the use of ‘personas’ which are a way to put a face to the user of the product. As an example one persona is ‘Vanessa’, a third-grader with dyslexia, who uses a special keyboard to access the computer.

As one of the leaders in productivity and entertainment technology its important that Microsoft engineers and marketers think about accessibility issues - small things they do in their products can make a big difference to how easily they can be accessed by people with access challenges. Good effort Microsoft for making this investment and inviting third parties to display products in the lab.