3 Everyday Things You Can Thank Disabled Designers For

3 Innovations Rooted in Disability Design

Whether we're talking about how a blind engineer rethought how cars maintain speed or disabled advocates transforming the design of public spaces, these stories show how disability perspectives have helped shape the world we share. Their legacy is a reminder that accessibility and innovation are not separate goals. Often, they move forward together.

Cruise control

You're cruising down the highway with cruise control on, enjoying a smooth ride with little effort.

But cruise control wasn’t the creation of a car manufacturer. It came from blind inventor Ralph Teetor, who grew tired of riding with a driver who unconsciously sped up and slowed down whenever he talked. Ralph was granted more than 40 patents.

His father noticed his passion for tinkering and made him a workshop when Ralph was 10. After much experimentation, Raph enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, becoming the university’s first blind graduate; he is on record as the first blind engineer in America.

After working on steam turbines for U.S. Navy vessels, Ralph started working for his family’s vehicle manufacturing and supply businesses, continuing to work on his own inventions. Cruise control took off when he became frustrated with the frequent speeding and slowing by his patent attorney, who was often his driver. He started work on a device to regulate speed, earning a patent in 1945.

That year, Teetor told a group of blind World War II veterans, “Remember, you are not handicapped so long as you can think logically. Many times, during the past forty-nine years, people have told me how sorry they were that I am handicapped. My answer to them has always been that I am not handicapped, because I have never considered myself so.”

Ralph worked on several iterations, eventually finishing the technology when he developed a “speed lock” feature to maintain speed until the brake is tapped. Auto manufacturers began implementing the technology, with General Motors coining the name “cruise control” in 1960. Ralph died in 1988; six years later, he was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame.

Text messaging

Long before texting became a daily habit for billions of people, a deaf innovator was exploring new ways to make communication possible for those who couldn't rely on a traditional phone call.

The beginnings of texting technology, or short messaging service (SMS), came from James Marsters. He was a deaf orthodontist who communicated in person through sign language, speech training, and reading lips. Because voice calls were not an accessible option for many deaf people, Dr. Marsters worked with two deaf colleagues in 1964 to modify a Teletype machine so typed messages could be sent through a phone line. Their work helped advance the development of the teletypewriter, or TTY, which expanded communication access for deaf people and others who could not rely on voice conversations.

Over the following decades, engineers continued building on these ideas. In the early 1980s, Finnish engineer Matti Makkonen envisioned a messaging system that would allow short text-based communication through mobile devices. Around the same time, engineers Friedhelm Hillebrand and Bernard Ghillebaert developed the technical framework for SMS, including the now-famous 160-character message limit.

That work culminated in 1992 when British engineer Neil Papworth sent the world's first SMS message, ushering in a new era of communication. Today, texting is woven into everyday life, but its history reflects decades of innovation started by a disabled innovator driven by a desire to expand how people connect with one another.

Curb cuts/sidewalk ramps

Some of the most impactful innovations aren't products at all. They're changes to the environment reshaping how people move through the world. Curb cuts are one such example.

Whether you're pushing a stroller, rolling a suitcase through an airport, riding a bike, delivering packages, or navigating a city in a wheelchair, curb cuts make it easier to move through the world. What began as a push for greater accessibility by disabled activists ultimately transformed public spaces for hundreds of millions of people everyday.

These cuts to the curb are commonplace now, but they didn’t exist in mid-20th century America, and the disability community is to thank for their introduction. 

In the early 1970s, disabled students at the University of California, Berkeley, began protesting for improved access to public areas, using sledgehammers to create their own curb cuts. The Independent Living Movement in Berkeley, Calif., cofounded by Hale Zukas, made a wheelchair route through the UC Berkeley campus.

More curb cuts followed in Berkeley and throughout the U.S., and disabled advocates continued to push for sidewalk ramps and other accessibility features. Finally, in 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act, prohibiting discrimination against disabled people and providing equal opportunities including accessibility standards such as curb cuts.

“Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down,” Bush said.

Lasting impact

These innovations offer just a glimpse into the ways disabled people have shaped the world around us. Whether through invention, advocacy, or reimagining how people connect and move through the world, these stories remind us that accessibility and innovation often move forward together. One thing is clear: When we design for disabled people, everyone benefits.