Google donates $20 million to help disabled people

Google's philanthropic offshoot Google.org has donated $20 million across 30 non-profit organizations to further develop technology that will help the disabled. Its generosity follows the results of its Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities, which launched last year with the aim of seeking great technological ideas from different organizations, all seeking to improve the lives of the disabled.

The grant winners -- The Center for Discovery and Perkins School for the Blind among them -- will develop technology that can convert regular wheelchairs into power wheelchairs for increased independence and freedom, assist the blind in finding their way around better with an app, more readily treat children with clubfoot (rotated feet), and help those with difficulty communicating verbally or with text do so better with a specialized keyboard, among other things.

Google says nearly 1/7th of the planet suffers from a disability; one in three of those lives in poverty, and 90 percent living in developing countries don't have access to the devices they need.