Inclusion is far from a buzzword. Increasingly, tech companies and executives are acknowledging that diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion are core to their company’s activities.
Our region continues to gain international notoriety as a leading destination for technology and innovation. South Florida Tech Hub recognizes the important role that inclusion needs to play in developing a thriving ecosystem for all.
Last week, Tech Hub hosted its Hack for Inclusion event, presented by Office Depot, Florida Power & Light (FPL) and Varis. The hackathon took place virtually and enabled developers, designers, project managers, and entrepreneurs to come together and develop tech for good.
The event also included a virtual tech job fair featuring in-person and remote opportunities from Miami to Martin County using the platform Premier Virtual.
First place for the hackathon went to a team that focused on helping the visually impaired navigate the web and winning them a $3,500 cash prize.
“Missing alt tags from images offer a poor user experience, as they do not provide the necessary information for the screen reader,” explained Diana Tineo, who was on the winning team.
“Visuability is a Google Chrome extension that uses Artificial Intelligence to auto generate descriptions of those images in real-time,” she continued. “The dream is to turn this into a family of applications that addresses accessibility issues at the source, so a natural next step for us would be to make this into a VScode extension that will help developers build more accessible websites. To build this product we used Microsoft’s Azure Computer vision API and Javascript.”
Diana Tino, Software Engineer student @ Boca Code
This was Tineo’s first hackathon, and she found it to be “one of the most fun experiences of [her] life.”
“Being surrounded by a smart, motivated and inclusive team reaffirmed that transitioning from real estate management into the tech industry was the right choice for me,” Tineo said of the experience. “Winning was the cherry on top, but building a product that can improve accessibility in the real world takes the cake!”
Claudio Luís Vera, an accessibility and inclusion expert who currently works as Head of Strategy at Stark, was one of the event’s judges. He called the event’s focus on accessibility “a true milestone for the South Florida tech community.”
“Overall, I was truly impressed with the enthusiasm that everyone brought to their projects and degree of care for folks with disabilities,” Vera told South Florida Tech Hub.
“I think there’s real hope that tomorrow’s talent will build really humane technologies that will impact and improve people’s lives.”
Another notable team of hackathon participants was a group of students from the Regenerate Tech organization which was founded by Randall Deich, a STEM Coordinator and educator at Lauderhill 612, a Title 1 high school within the Broward County School District. The team was led by Chamara Spence, a former Lauderhill 612 student, now freshman at Broward College.
“Each year, this group of students amazes me. They are not only the youngest group of contestants competing among much more experience teams, but they often face systemic issues with access to resources such as proper hardware and broadband access,” says Tech Hub’s Interim CEO, Nikki Cabus. “These are the exact types of issues that we hope to put a spotlight on, hack for solutions of equity, and support organizations such as Regenerate Tech making a difference in these students lives each day.”
Grace Kurian, a local tech executive who helped organize the event, thanked South Florida Tech Hub and “the leadership of Nikki Cabus for making this a rousing success.”
She continued: “Over the last year and a half, race equity has been top of mind throughout our country. After a lot of planning, it was so wonderful to see so many talented tech enthusiasts come together to build solutions to cultivate a more inclusive community to address challenges for the blind, disabled, immigrants, and racially diverse sectors of our community. I am proud to be a part of a community that is tackling these tough topics. I was amazed to see how rapidly our hackers developed meaningful solutions.”
1ST PLACE, $3,500 PRIZE: VISUALBILITY
- Solution: Aan extension for visually impaired people that detects missing alt tags from images, identifies the image using artificial intelligence, and then inserts the description into the alt tag for the screen reader to pick up and read allow to the user.
- Team Members: Darie Dorlus, Diana Tineo, Dariel Mera, Vitoria Roas, Yong Ding
- See Presentation | See Github
2ND PLACE, $1,500 PRIZE: FELLOWSHIP OF THE FURNITURE
- Solution: Gives the ability to leave accessibility rating at a venue/businesses from business and customers.
- Team Members: Impu Chunchegowda, Jordan Aman, Camilo Ospina, Mauro Majul, Jonathan Guerrero, Pablo Martin
- See Presentation | See Github
3RD PLACE, $1,000 PRIZE: FDA APPROVED
- Solution: Allows people to find onboarding buddies in a company that can ease their transition into teams and the company culture.
- Team Members: Dawn Riziti, Earl Cameron, Juan Palacio, Ashley Clayden Moss, Tanvi Bhatnagar, James Zacka
- See Presentation | See Github