The 13th annual Microsoft Ability Summit was dedicated to conversations to advance the future of accessibility and disability inclusion, including people living with cogitive disabilties. This year, Microsoft senior leaders, including CEO Satya Nadella, and policy leaders such as Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, joined 20,000 attendees from 100 countries and over 70 presenters to imagine and begin the next steps towards the future of accessible inclusion.

Dr. Bodine participated in an Imagine Session titled “Building for the Brain: designing for cognitive inclusion.” As Dr. Bodine discussed during the session, the year 2020 was the first time in history that the number people over the age of 65 exceeded children under five. As we age, our brain changes and how we perceive changes. For these reasons, designers and developers must focus on user-centered and end-user design. Additionally, students in engineering and design courses will need to be taught how to think and design with this focus in mind.

Led by Christina Mallon and her team at Microsoft, and with collaborators like Dr. Bodine, Microsoft released their new Inclusive Design for Cognition Guidebook. This resource was made to help engineers design and build products for people with various cognitive disabilities. The Inclusive Design for Cognition Guidebook can be found here.