I don’t think I’ll ever forget the feeling of walking through the newly opened 28th floor of Google Korea. The space has been reimagined with “universal design” — meaning it was designed to be accessible to people of all abilities.
It all started a few years ago. I was talking to some colleagues about their web accessibility project, when the conversation moved to office accessibility. Was our office truly as accessible as it could be? Did everyone feel that they could do their best work without any restrictions due to their abilities? We pinpointed some areas for improvement, and that sparked a desire in us to make a change.
As members of the Disability Alliance Employee Resource Group (ERG) in Korea, we partnered with Google's Real Estate & Workplace Services (REWS) team to get to work. Bit by bit, we made design updates to our office space, from adding braille to meeting room signs to adding drop-down thresholds for doors. Throughout the whole process, we got feedback from many people in our community— including Inho, a software engineer with a visual impairment. The team had all designs and plans in braille, so that anyone who was visually impaired could still review them.
Seeing our carefully thought out plans begin to take shape was incredible. Finally stepping into the finished space took my breath away, and I was so excited just thinking of how this could help so many of our colleagues thrive.
But don’t just take my word for it! Take a look at these five design details, and why they make such a difference.
We’re proud of how we've applied universal design principles in Google Korea, but we know this isn’t the end of the journey. In fact, I like to think that we’re just getting started. We’re constantly learning and seeking to understand the needs of all people — that’s how we can develop solutions that enable everyone to succeed.
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