IBM’s Former Chief Accessibility Officer Frances West Joins Aira’s Advisory Board
by Frances West & Suman Kanuganti
I am thrilled to welcome Frances West to our Advisory Board. Her deep experience in accessibility, emerging market and industry solutions will be invaluable as we continue to rapidly scale our fast growing business. I asked Frances to share some thoughts on Why Aira, Why Now? — Suman Kanuganti
“Nothing about us without us.”
When Paul Schroeder, my fellow National Braille Press trustee, shared Aira’s technology and device with me at a NBP board dinner last winter, my immediate reaction was that this company is doing things right.
Here’s why:
They involved many people with blindness in test driving their solution in the early stage of development. The BVI community has a saying, “nothing about us without us”. But too often, especially in the technology area, the BVI community is not involved, so their intrinsic needs or requirements are not gathered.
The application or use cases of Aira can be far-reaching, beyond vision impairment. The first application that came to my mind was for non-English speaking elderly people, like my mom, who need help in unfamiliar public places, such as airports, to find their way to the right terminal or facility.
The technology is really “cool”. It uses the latest and most innovative technology such as cloud, AI, AR, etc. Also, the company has passionate advocates who outreach to end-users and have the accessibility “designed in”.
For someone who has spent years in the digital accessibility area and believes that accessibility should not be an afterthought or be viewed as a compliance or charity topic, Aira stands out as one of the new generation of companies that offer up very innovative solutions that start with disability needs, but have mainstream applications which can lead to invaluable market differentiation.
For all the reasons above, I am honored to be an advisor to Aira and excited to make an impact with this special team & company.
-Frances West
Frances West is currently the founder of FrancesWestCo, a company providing strategic digital inclusion and accessibility advice to help institutions achieve innovation and market expansion. Her in-depth knowledge comes from being IBM’s first Chief Accessibility Officer and holding a variety of global sales, marketing, alliance management and research executive positions. She is also the Chair of the Strategy & Development Committee of G3ict, a UN affiliated organization focused on IT inclusion. Frances was born in Taiwan and attended universities in Hong Kong and the US. She also holds an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
