Microsoft at its Build conference today announced one of the better use cases for AI yet: to empower those with disabilities. Dubbed the AI for Accessibility Initiative, this Microsoft program will see $25 million dollars being deployed across five years to further research and development to specifically target challenges faced by people with disabilities in three key areas: human connection, employment and modern life. The $25 million budget will be used by Microsoft as seed grants for developers, universities, institutions and other Microsoft partners, with the Redmond-based Microsoft pledging to also further invest - and scale up - development for key promising ideas that are birthed from this project. The AI bit comes from its implementation in inclusive design scenarios, scaling it up through platforms, services, and different solutions.

Further, Microsoft will help partners include accessibility solutions on their products, which could allow for a base model for accessibility technologies on families of products. Microsoft President Brad Smith said there are about a billion people around the world with some kind of disability, either temporary or permanent, and it's for these people, and those that will come after, that Microsoft is committing to this investment.While the project is being headed - as well it should - by Microsoft's Chief Accessibility Officer Jenny Lay-Flurrie, roots of the program can likely be found on current Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. It's sometimes difficult to entertain the idea of people that have their own stories and motivations beyond what is more easily seen, but in this case, it may pay to look a little further. You see, Satya Nadella's son, Zain, suffers from cerebral palsy - brought on by in-utero asphyxiation, which caused severe brain damage.Nadella, at the Build Conference, said that "One day I was sitting waiting for him to come out of his surgery and all of the equipment around me and all of it was Windows. And I was saying, 'Hey, it all better work.' It just gave me an understanding of the responsibility of a platform company, a technology company." It may very well be the case that the idea for the program didn't come from the Microsoft CEO, but it's hard not to imagine him engaging on this program at a very fundamental level - as close as it is to his original vision for the company as he took the spot of CEO. It's great to think that people in places of power can try and bring about positive change to peoples' lives.