Inclusive Focus

Logo
Sketch 1
Sketch 2
Prototype 1
Prototype 2

Inspiration

While perusing the web for behavioral health resources, I discovered a video about the leading causes of suicide among children. Many of these causes underscored issues related to social communication as children who struggle with it are at a high risk of suicidal behavior. This startling fact applies to the 1 in 54 children, here in the US, who are diagnosed with Autism as they may perceive the meanings of metaphors, jokes, and euphemisms more literally.

Thus, when people choose to describe themselves as “OCD” instead of “picky” it confuses many and delegitimizes those who do struggle with “OCD”. This is an example of ableism in language. Ableism is the “discrimination or social prejudice against people with disabilities based on the belief that typical abilities are superior” (Harvard Business Review). Ableism can manifest itself in language as the following: “My boyfriend is so bad at math, he’s literally brain damaged.”

Thus, anyone with a disability who may be hurt by the casual substitution of their condition for a derogatory/hurtful word/phrase would likely appreciate the tool we developed as it serves to diminish such language in favor of inclusivity.

What it does

Inclusive Focus is a Chrome Extension tool that provides a list of "non-ableist" terms to users who have used ableist language in their writing. We have identified ableist language by compiling a dataset of ableist terms after thoroughly researching many websites. Although our product is currently a prototype, it will function similar to Grammarly or other "grammar/correction" services embedded in Word/Google Docs by highlighting the ableist term and providing a drop-down menu of non-ableist terms.

How we built it

We developed the demo of Inclusive Focus in JavaScript as an extension for Google Chrome. The extension inserts a script into web pages that the user visits. This script scans any text that the user is inputting, notifying the user and offering alternatives when they input potentially ableist language.

Challenges we ran into

We ended up choosing this project quite late into the hackathon as we struggled to rally the team together around one idea. Furthermore, we struggled with getting started with the Chrome extension development, as it was a bit overwhelming to get started with at first. The project was mostly upfront research, and once we got the hang of the tools we were able to quickly develop a solution to analyze the text.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We were quite happy with the user interaction in our application, since it offers users alternatives to nudge them away from using potentially unintentionally hurtful language without punishing the users.

What we learned

On the technical side, we learned more about the steps involved with Chrome extension development. We also learned a lot about the power of language and how its misuse translates into harmful effects.

What's next for Inclusive Focus

We hope to finish our Chrome extension prototype by fully integrating the capability to offer the user a dropdown menu of non-ableist terms to choose from. From there, we will test the tool and modify it as necessary before marketing it. If the tool proves to be helpful, we'll implement multi-platform functionality.