UPDATES PART 1:
Ways that diversity issues should be addressed by developers of the technology Microsoft Hololens
Hiring more people of color and women to tech positions can help create a broader view and help bring more ideas to the table that are exclusive
Making sure that the technology itself is accessible to al types of people, not just able bodied persons
Thinking about people who are visually and physically impaired and how th technology can be changed to let them have the same experiences as able bodied people
Creating cheaper versions of the technology that can be used by people of all socioeconomic backgrounds
The people that would be the most affected front these solutions are people of color and people that are visually and physical impaired. I think that by asking many different types of people they would be able to relate accessible non-problematic technology to the world. Also, by creating cheaper solutions, more people would be able to access the technology. To be quite fair, a lot of great discoveries come from people who may not be able to o afford the technology in the first place. I think that the Menlo Report may help guide the conversation in the ethical principles that may come from these new technologies. Especially because there are not any accessibility laws that pertain to these technologies as they are so new.
UPDATES PART 2:
When I entered Augmented Reality and Accessibility a lot of articles popped up that discuss how AR developers need to start taking people with disabilities into account when designing games and experiences. I found a really interesting article that touched on Pokemon Go and if it is even accessible. Especially because in order to keep leveling up in Pokemon Go you have to hatch eggs which require you to travel certain distances or walk to different Pokestops. I think this is a great example as it was a game that blew up and left a lot of people with disabilities out. I also did a presentation about how Pokemon Go isn't inclusive to a lot of people which was super interesting. I didn’t really have to refine the search terms much just because this is such a growing technology and industry that it is starting to create more and more questions of accessibility.This article was also interesting because it talked about Google Daydream, a company working with AR technology to create spatial cues for the visually impaired. Google came out with Google Glass which was an AR technology that did not do so well in the consumer market. If they achieve this, I think that it will be groundbreaking in AR due to the fact that they will be one of the first companies to be successful.
Furthermore, Microsoft, the creators of the Hololens, are developing the Canetroller which helps people with visual impairment use VR technologies through this cane that gives haptic and auditory signals to the users. Hopefully, they extend this technology to the Hololens and create a more accessible way for people to use the technology. Since this is such a new developing technology I don’t think there are really any really successful solutions for accessibility but there are a lot of companies that are doing a lot of research to help solve this issue. I definitely think that some of the solutions that I have come up with are being addressed in this field. Especially, the one about thinking about people who are visually and physically impaired and how the technology can be changed to let them have the same experiences as able bodied people