GitHub, accessibility, and the disability divide

More than one billion people worldwide live with disabilities, and they face numerous barriers in various aspects of life, from transportation to employment. Technology has been identified by the World Bank as a crucial tool for bridging this "Disability Divide," a mission that Ed Summers has pursued for over a decade. With a new role as Head of Accessibility at GitHub, Summers aims to leverage the platform to enhance global accessibility and disability inclusion. GitHub's accessibility program focuses on empowering individuals with disabilities through several key pillars: fostering an inclusive workplace, lowering barriers for developers on GitHub, expanding disability inclusion in the open-source community, and making a transparent commitment to ongoing progress. Summers emphasizes the importance of involving people with disabilities in the development process, advocating for the principle of "nothing about us without us," to ensure technology benefits all of humanity.