Google.org Gifts $20 Million To Empower Disabled People With Technology

Google is keen on making the lives of those living with disabilities less arduous, and it's willing to put its money where its mouth is. The company's philanthropic arm, Google.org, has just announced that it has provided over $20 million to 30 different nonprofits dedicated to improving the lives of those living with disabilities. Of those, 6 in particular received grants of over $1 million each.

All of the projects supported can be viewed here, and you'll probably find it hard to pick and choose the "best" ones, as all of them offer some real value. A couple of these organizations are dedicated to getting prosthetics to those who need them, and of course, that can take advantage of 3D printing in a big way.

Some of the projects tackle issues not many of us might have put much thought into previously. Wheelmap, for example, is dedicated to creating a global dataset of accessible locations for those with disabilities. Wayfindr is one solution that aids blind people by giving them audible directions through their smartphone as they go from point A to point B.

If any one of these projects strikes the right chord with you, you can read more at the URL below. You can even filter out the projects by region and disability, in case any one of these projects are close to you geographically.

If $20 million doesn't strike you as much money to split between 30 separate projects, bear in mind that Google is effectively taking a chance on every single one of these, and there's no guarantee that they're all going to change the world as we might hope. But, these projects would have even worse chances if not for Google's help, so it's very important that we invest in such projects. If we happen to see a side-effect of other companies chipping in as well, that gives us all the more reason to rejoice.