According to the World Health Organization, some 1.3 billion people—one in six of us—currently experience a significant disability. And that fact is at the center of everything JoAnna Hansen does at Amazon.
“Accessibility is integrated into the core of everything we do,” said Hansen, who leads accessibility for Amazon's Worldwide Stores.
Hansen works alongside Devices Accessibility Director Peter Korn, one of Amazon’s original accessibility architects. Starting a decade ago, Korn and his colleagues helped found an affinity group for employees with disabilities, built an advisory team of world experts on disability and accessibility, and advocated for accessible design throughout the company.
“Today, accessibility is at the forefront of people’s minds,” Korn said. “The code we write can go out and make a huge difference in people's lives. I’m excited for the impact we can continue to make in the next 10 years.”
Customers, advocates, and others are paying attention. In 2019, Amazon won the prestigious Helen Keller Achievement Award from the American Foundation for the Blind for its work to improve access to its products and services for people with disabilities. More recently, Amazon was awarded the Disability Smart Technology Award at the Business Disability Forum’s Disability Smart Awards. It was welcome validation, but the greatest endorsement comes from customers whose lives are impacted by Amazon’s accessible products.
To understand more about how Amazon approaches accessibility, here are 11 accessibility innovations from the last decade:
