Online meetings are a fixture for much of the workforce today, and they’re a communication technology that is easily taken for granted. But for many in the speech diverse and the stuttering community, spaces that prioritize verbal communication (such as video calls) present unique challenges around entering conversations, being interrupted, and being understood.

Seeking to make videoconferencing platforms more accessible for those with speech diversity, Shaomei Wu, founder of Aimpower.org, partnered with Cornell University’s own Gilly Leshed, Ph.D. (senior lecturer in the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science). The AImpower.org project to re-envision videoconferencing for people with speech diversities relied heavily on the ideas, guidance, and coding from people who stutter. Using the community’s suggestions, the nonprofit will release a beta version of their videoconferencing companion app soon.

You can read the complete story and learn more on the Cornell Chronicle.