Amazon官方新闻更新1015( 二 ) 推荐阅读英文原文

迈尔在家里的办公室里使用一个可刷新的盲文显示屏。
PwD ，或称残疾人，是一个内部亲和力团体，作为亚马逊残疾员工的代表性代言人，专注于残疾人包容。米尔积极参与湾区分会。
他说：“如果不是因为亚马逊内部有一个强大而发达的残疾人文化，我来这里是不会感到舒服的。 ” 。 “事实上，亚马逊有残疾人士，而且亚马逊有很多残疾意识，不仅仅是无障碍设施，还有残疾政治，这让我确信我在这里会很舒服。 ”
在亚马逊之外， Miele创办了一个名为Blind Arduino Project的草根组织，这是一系列在线资源和教学研讨会，指导盲人如何独立使用电子产品和制造硬件设备。 Miele说，他在这个项目上的工作旨在帮助其他盲人建立他们所需的工具，以便完成他们想做的事情。
关于推动他在亚马逊和其他地方工作的原因，米尔说：“我只想让人们能够在不遇到不必要的摩擦或障碍的情况下，顺利完成自己想做的事情。这就是我们要做的全部目的，让残障人士和非残障人士的体验达到合理的平行。使残疾人能够做、实现和享受非残疾人所做、所实现和享受的事情。 ”
How an Amazon researcher who is blind advocates for customers with disabilitiesFor millions of Amazon customers with disabilities ，even simple accessibility features make a big difference.
“Everything that makes somebody's life a little better is exciting to me ， ” said Josh Miele. “Anything that Amazon does impacts an enormous number of people.”
Miele at his home office in Berkeley ，California.
Miele ，a Principal Accessibility Researcher ，is part of the Amazon team that brings these features to life—innovating on behalf of customers to make products more accessible.
【Amazon官方新闻更新1015】Miele is an accessibility consultant whose primary job is to help Amazon develop things like tablets ，TVs ，and Alexa-enabled devices that are accessible for people with disabilities.
“Because I'm blind ，and because I've spent most of my career designing and developing accessibility tools for Blind people ，that is one of the main areas that I focus on ， ” he said. “But I also make sure that we are doing what we need to do to design our tools for everybody—whether or not they have a disability ，and whether or not it's a visual disability.”
From academia to AmazonMiele came to Amazon after spending more than 20 years in academia. In his previous role ，he prototyped ，researched ，and developed advanced information technology for people with visual disabilities.
“I was at a nonprofit ，an accessibility think tank ， ” he said. “I loved my job. I loved what I was doing ，but I wanted to have more impact and I wanted to try something new ，challenging ，and exciting. Amazon was definitely all of those.”
While the move to Amazon eventually felt like a natural step ，Miele was initially cautious as he considered the transition from the academic world to the technology space.
“I was very selective about making a move into tech. Some opportunities had come up ，but they certainly wouldn't have been an improvement for me.” The opportunity to grow as a leader was important ，and he noted that “there are very few people with disabilities in accessibility leadership roles at other companies.”
Innovating at AmazonSince his start at Amazon nearly two years ago ，Miele has worked on many projects that have undoubtedly impacted the lives of millions of customers. While some of these include technological marvels like “Show and Tell” for Alexa and Braille Screen Input on Fire tablets ，one of the solutions he’s most proud of doesn’t involve complex technology.
Miele uses the smart display he helped create for the Amazon Echo Show.
“I helped design the tactile overlay on Amazon’s Smart Oven and microwave ，and I'm super pleased about that because it's just such a great ，low-cost ，practical solution to a problem that is faced by Blind people every day. Blind people have forever been sticking their own little labels on their microwaves ，but this is the first time a smart oven and microwave designed for mainstream use also come with the option of braille labels—they’re not products that talk or ‘blindness’ products. They’re just off-the-shelf products ，but we offer braille labels with them.”
“Not all solutions need to be super clever and high tech. They just need to work and they need to be practical.”
Building a more accessible worldThe work of Miele and his accessibility colleagues is an important step in the process of building a more inclusive world ，but he believes accessible technology is just one part of a much larger picture.
“The technology is a sideshow. What we really want is for disability to be accepted and normalized and planned for. So it's not just ，‘Is my tablet going to be accessible when I buy it?’ It's: ‘Is my university going to have systems in place for me when I go to college? Is the accreditation course I'm taking going to have materials in a form that I can use? Is the dating app that I want to use going to be meaningful for me without pictures?’”