International Day of Persons with Disabilities falls on 3 December each year. This annual event is promoted by the United Nations to foster the rights and well-being of people with disabilities.

A world wherein our minority groups are better supported is a world wherein we are all better supported. The technology sector provides a tangible example of this, with many technologies initially developed to help people with disabilities also ultimately helping those without disabilities.

This effect is referred to as the curb cut effect—a term coined by Angela Glover Blackwell, a civil rights advocate, used to describe how solutions created for a minority or marginalized group can ultimately end up benefitting the majority. In the design sector, it refers to the phenomenon wherein design features intended to help people with disabilities unintentionally end up benefitting people without disabilities too. The term originated when, in response to disability rights activism in the 1970s, ramps (referred to as “curb cuts” in the US) were introduced into pavements to make them accessible by wheelchair users, which incidentally made the pavements more accessible by, for example, people pushing prams or wheeling luggage.

The curb cut effect has given rise to many devices we all use today…

The keyboard (typewriter)

Today’s keyboard was born from the typewriter. The title of inventor of the very first typewriter is open to debate. Much like the automobile and telephone, several people independently developed various iterations which led to what we would recognise as a typewriter today. However, at least some of those iterations—namely, those created independently by Italian inventors Agostino Fantoni in 1802 and Pellegrino Turri between 1801 and 1808—were developed to enable visually impaired loved ones to write.

The first US patent for a commercially successful typewriter was later granted to Christopher Sholes, Carlos Glidden, and Samuel Soule in 1868, and this typewriter was marketed to the general population by E. Remington and Sons. Notably, this typewriter was the first to feature the QWERTY key layout that is prevalent today. This layout separates the letter pairings most frequently used to reduce the likelihood of key jams in typewriters. Although this benefit was made redundant by the development of the keyboard, the initial familiarity with QWERTY typewriters means it remains favoured today, despite it not being the most efficient layout.

The electric toothbrush

Swiss dentist and inventor, Dr Phillippe-Guy Woo, developed the world’s first electric toothbrush, Broxodent, in 1954, to help those with limited motor skills maintain their oral hygiene. He was granted a US patent covering this toothbrush in 1959. Its dependence on mains power and the associated safety risks of using it in a bathroom restricted its adoption by the wider public. However, in the 1960s, General Electric released the first cordless, rechargeable electric toothbrush, the GE Cordless Automatic Toothbrush, which paved the way for market leaders, Philips Sonicare and Oral-B, to develop the electric toothbrushes prevalent today.

The bendy straw

American inventor, Joseph Friedman, invented the bendy straw in the 1930s in San Francisco after noticing that his young daughter struggled to drink a milkshake with a straight straw. He took the straight paper straw, inserted a screw, and wrapped dental floss around the paper straw and each of the threads to corrugate the straw, thus enabling the tip to bend. Joseph Friedman was granted a US patent for this invention in 1937. In the 1940s, Friedman began mass-producing the straws, thereby bringing the straws to the wider public. These straws provide patients with easier access to drinks when lying down and, following Friedman’s first sale to a hospital in 1947, the straws have been widely adopted by hospitals. Although not strictly a tale of addressing a challenge faced by a disabled person, these straws have helped a wide range of people including children, hospital patients, people with limb differences and people with mobility or strength issues.

The audiobook

The first audiobooks were created for the visually impaired, including veterans injured during World War I, in the US by the American Foundation for the Blind in 1932 as part of the “Talking Books” program. The books were recorded on vinyl records and focussed on the classics, with the first recordings included a chapter from Helen Keller’s “Midstream” and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”. In the 1950s, Caedmon Records began marketing recordings of famous authors reading their own works, with the first being a recording of Dylan Thomas reading “A Child’s Christmas in Wales”. As audio technology developed from vinyl to cassette tape to CD to MP3 to the streaming services of today, audiobooks became increasingly popular, with platforms like Audible eventually dominating the market.

The automatic sliding door

The first patented sliding-door systems designed specifically for the disabled community emerged when engineers began rethinking accessibility in response to disability-rights activism. Early designs focused on eliminating the heavy lifting, awkward hinge clearance, and narrow entryways that made standard doors difficult for wheelchair users and people with limited mobility. Inventors introduced smooth-gliding tracks, wider openings, and low-resistance mechanisms meant to be opened with a gentle push or pull, often using adapted handles or automated assists. What began as an accessibility innovation quickly proved universally useful: hospitals and other public buildings adopted them for safer, unobstructed passage, and modern architects embraced their clean aesthetic and efficiency. Over time, these once-specialised accessibility features have become standard.

Tactile paving

In the mid-1960s, Japanese engineer Seiichi Miyake invented tactile paving in the form “tenji blocks” having been motivated to help a close friend who was beginning to lose his sight. The original invention used raised-dots to indicate “warning” and parallel bars to signal “safe path” with a bright yellow colour to help ensure they are easier for those with low vision to notice. The blocks were first installed in 1967 at a school for the blind in Okayama and variations have since been used on pavements, train platforms, bus stops, etc. Miyake did not file a patent for his blocks, but his design inspired many later inventions including this US patent that uses precast slabs with raised studs on one side and this PCT patent application that uses adhesive to apply studs to existing paving. What began as an empathetic gesture towards a friend has become a globally adopted accessibility standard, benefiting not only those with visual impairments but all pedestrians.

These examples illustrate that the impact of an invention is very often not fully appreciated or realised at the time of its devising. Instead, it often acts as a fertiliser from which other inventions can grow. It is this understanding that acts as one justification for the patent system: granting a monopoly for an invention incentivises the detailed public disclosure of the invention for others to build upon, thereby pushing the frontiers of technology.