By Teresa Bouza

San Francisco, Jun 9 (EFE).- Google engineer Eve Andersson does not hesitate to discuss her dream, telling Efe that she wants people with disabilities to “be able to work at whatever they want, study what they like, travel wherever they wish, feel free and empowered.”

Andersson, who holds a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, is leading the Google team tasked with developing new products for the disabled.

“Google’s mission is universal access to useful information,” Andersson told Efe during an interview at the tech giant’s headquarters in Mountain View, California.

“My job gives me the opportunity to do that for people who need it and deserve it,” the engineer said.

More than 1 billion people around the world, or about 15 percent of the population, suffer from some kind of disability, making them the largest minority on the planet, World Health Organization figures show.

About 80 percent of people with disabilities, according to U.N. data, live in developing countries.

Google has already adapted services such as YouTube for the disabled with the addition of subtitles.

The Android operating system offers a feature called Talk Back on mobile phones and tablets, allowing visually impaired people to know which icon they are pressing on the screen to access the function they want, and also to receive alerts and notifications.

Android features the Access function that lets people with impaired physical mobility operate devices with one or two buttons.

The Android operating system also allows users to magnify text or invert colors to make reading easier for visually impaired people with options similar to those included in Google’s Chrome browser.

Andersson notes that technology has enabled, for example, such “an extraordinary person” as British scientist Stephen Hawking to express his ideas despite severe physical limitations.

“Imagine if he, with his extraordinary mind, would have been unable to communicate his ideas,” she said. “We are talking about someone who has helped to explain the origin of the universe.”

On a more personal level, Andersson said her knowledge of technology had enabled her to help her parents, who are losing their vision, and she was enthusiastic about driverless cars, which will be a big step forward in helping people with physical disabilities. EFE