It took me almost 50 years to understand accessibility.

© 2002-2013 Nuance Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 1
It took me almost 50
years to understand
accessibility.
Peter Mahoney
Chief Marketing Officer & GM, Dragon

My name is Peter. I have
many roles. I am a CMO. I
am the general manager of
Dragon. I am a parent of 3
kids — one of them with
severe disabilities. I am an
advocate for assistive
technology.
@DragonDictator

It took me almost 50 years, but I
realized that I did not understand
accessibility.
It shouldn’t take you that long to
figure it out. Maybe my story will
help you learn faster than me.

I was destined to be a
geek.
When I was born in
1965, my first home
was on MIT campus
where my dad was
getting his PhD in
physics.

In the 1970s, I learned to program FORTRAN on an
IBM 1130 on punch cards. I graduated to a TRS-80
and an Apple II. This stuff was hard, but I was proud to
be geek enough to make it work.
I thought of technology as EXCLUSIVE.

In the 1980s, I was studying Physics
and Computer Science at Boston
College. Dr. Jim Gips was my
advisor and he introduced me to
kids with special needs at the BC
Campus School. I wrote software to
help them communicate.
He showed me that technology
could be INCLUSIVE.

In the 1990s, I got
married and had two
kids. My second child
was born with spina
bifida, hydocephalus and
very low muscle tone.
She would need a power
wheelchair to move
around the world.

Back then, my experience taught me
accessibility = wheelchair

In the 2000s, I had my third
child and started working
with Nuance and the
Dragon products. I met
some amazing customers
who showed me a more
complete view of
accessibility.

I met a 12 year old girl who attended
a school in Sydney that deployed
Dragon in all their classrooms. She
told me that she didn’t write well and
the kids called her stupid. She
thought she was stupid too. Then
she started using Dragon and the
ideas came out of her head and onto
the page. She got good grades. She
knew she was smart.

I realized that I didn’t know what accessibility meant anymore.

In the 2010s, saw my
daughter flourish with
assistive technology, joined
the board of the Easter
Seals and met even more
assistive technology users
– and even saw technology
help my family use the TV
at home.

I realized that accessibility was not
just about wheelchairs – it was about
enabling all people to reach their
potential.

I now realize that
accessibility = democracy

This is why, at Nuance, we are focused
on reinventing the relationship between
people and technology.

20%
18%
16%
14%
12%
10%
2009 2010 2011 2012
18%
Average word
error rate
reduction per
year
Averageworderrorrate
We’ve
invested
billions of
dollars
making
voice
recognition
more
accurate

And we make tools that allow a 12 year old to
make a great app (OK, not just any 12 year
old…)

And not only is it the
right thing to do, but
we have laws that
say that we must
make our world
more accessible

What if everyone
had access to
technology that
allowed them to
reach their full
potential?

Look how far we have come

people are slaves
to technology
technology at
service to people
Then Now

accessible when
demanded
accessible by
design
Then Now

exclusive inclusive
Then Now

we did it because
we had to
we do it for the
massive
economic impact
Then Now

It took me almost 50 years to realize
that
accessibility = democracy

How long did it take you?
@DragonDictator

It took me almost 50 years to understand accessibility.

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