Google has promised $20 million in grants to nonprofits using emerging technologies to help the disabled.
The Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities program launched Tuesday with an open call for organizations to identify new areas of opportunity.
“We’re challenging the thinkers, the doers, the builders to create technologies that can make a difference to the one billion people around the world living with a disability,” the tech giant said.
To kick things off, Google announced support for two organizations: Enable Community Foundation and World Wide Hearing.
Enable, which calls on volunteers to design, print, assemble, and fit 3D-printed prosthetics for free, received a $600,000 grant to advance the design, distribution, and delivery of open-source, 3D-printed upper-limb prosthetics.
A $500,000 grant, meanwhile, was awarded to World Wide Hearing to develop, prototype, and test low-cost tool kits for hearing loss. Using widely available and affordable smartphone technology, the organization works in low-income communities to diagnose auditory challenges.
“The Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities will seek out nonprofits and help them find new solutions to some serious ‘what ifs’ for the disabled community,” Google.org Director Jacquelline Fuller wrote in a blog post.
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SOURCE: PC Mag, Stephanie Mlot
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