Day 4: Visit from Brian Charlson and Design Sprint
- Improve at being able to quickly map out an opportunity space for machine learning technology and select appropriate design process and key questions.
- Learn more about people who are blind and the employment challenges they face.
Brian Charlson will be here to present some remarks regarding the themes of accessibility, blindness, employment, and emerging technologies (like machine learning and wearables). Brian will be speaking for the first 30-40 minutes of class, and then we’ll have a chance to work with Brian further to explore some of these themes.
Design Sprint
Form a group of four. Introduce yourselves. You can work in the classroom or out in the hall (or in a different classroom). Please make sure that we know where you are.
You will be exploring the potential of machine learning (and optionally wearables) to positively impact some aspect of employment for people who are blind. For example, you might create a piece of technology to help with applying to jobs, job training, job retention, or job upskilling.
We want to start by recognizing that you all are far from experts on issues facing people who are blind. That said, we want you to be comfortable being creative, asking questions, and dreaming about what could be. Brian will be here to give feedback and help guide you. Brian can speak from his own experience, but he has interacted with thousands of blind people over the years in his personal and professional capacity. As such, he is a great person to get general direction and feedback from.
Here are some activities:
- Make a map of the employment process. This could include education, training, finding jobs, interviewing, performing jobs, getting promoted, etc. This need not be specific to people who are blind.
- Based on what you heard from Brian (or your own research), what are some parts of this process that might be pain points for people who are blind.
- Choose a part of the process to focus on as an opportunity space. How would you learn more about this opportunity space? Make a list of potential activities to do or resources to consult. Consider running it by Brian.
- For your opportunity space, come up with some ways that machine learning could potentially benefit people who are blind.
- You may repeat this exercise to explore other opportunity spaces. Also, consider asking Brian for feedback.
Shareout
We’ll conclude by sharing our key takeaways with the larger group.
Switching Gears to Homework Assignment
With the remainder of class, I’ll orient you to the next assignment and give you a chance to ask questions / get started.