Accessibility has been a massive focus within Microsoft for a long time. The technology that Microsoft has been creating has always got some sort of accessibility focus in one way or another. The fact of the matter is that we should be solving problems with technology with accessibility in mind.

A disability is defined as the following: “a physical or mental condition that limits a person’s movements, senses, or activities”. Ultimately, this can be summed up as the following:

A Mismatched interaction with Society!

During this HYBRID (In Person and Online) Hackathon, we will be focusing on creating more inclusive experiences for people who may have had mismatched interactions with Society.

Not only will we be building solutions that will be completely accessible, but we will be asking participants to put themselves in the shoes of the user. Try to understand the real life experiences people go through and think out of the box. Sometimes, people can’t use “An App” sometimes, the best user interface is no user interface.

The Plan for the Day:

We will start the day at 08:30 and end at 17:30.

08:30 – 09:00: arrive, mingle, find your team table.

09:00 – 10:00: Opening Presentations, Use cases & Rules

10:00 – 16:00: Hackathon: Bbuild an aewesome solution.

16:00 – 17:30: Presentations & Judging & Wrap-up

17:30 – Late: Networking & Drinks at some random location.

Registrations:

You may register as a whole team or as an individual.

You may register a whole team of between 5 – 8 People. No more than 8 people per team. This can be done using the form; just select the option to register a team. Each participant must be registered, and you must nominate a team lead.

If you register as an individual, you will be added to a team of people. This is a great way to network and make some friends.

don’t worry if you are not technical; skills of ALL types are required to win a hackathon, so if you are good at making slides, Awesome! We need you!

Logistics:

This event will be both in person and virtual so teams will consist of a mixture of folks.

You will be sent “Hack packs” before the event with all of the information you will need to participate. Your team leads will also be in touch before the event to make sure you know what is happening.

A big thanks to our friend from Tisski for sponsoring this event. We really appreciate it and its not possible to have these events without kind people like yourselves.

Visit the Tisski team here: https://tisski.com/

We are looking forward to seeing you there 🙂

This is INCREDIBLY exciting!