CES 2025 Retrospective

General Thoughts

Not to be corny but there was a request (ahem looking at you, Stephen Ewell ) to relate my CES 2025 experience to food. I thought about mapping this out linearly like a multi-course meal, but instead it’ll be more like a buffet line sprinkled with puns.?

This was my fourth time attending CES and as always, the scale of this event is almost too much to digest. Aside from wearing comfortable shoes, my biggest piece of advice for people new to CES is to understand that there’s simply just too much to see in the few days we have. It’s best to go in with an idea of what you really want to do or who you’d like to speak with and know that anything beyond that is just icing on the cake.

I am going to offer my highlight reflections around three general areas: expo floors, activities, and people. And speaking of people, I must thank Stephen Ewell , Rachel Nemeth , Rebecca Ajiboye , Aditi Mehndiratta , and Rachel S. Wolkowitz from the Consumer Technology Association Foundation . They put an incredible amount of effort into this show and work tirelessly as advocates to ensure accessibility and disability are woven throughout the week in a way that attendees who aren’t embedded in this work will learn something. They all deserve a cookie (or two)!

Expo Floor Highlights

My general approach to walking the expo floors is to pick a location for the day and stay there, that way I can maximize my time and cover as much ground as possible. I went into the week with that intention, however I ended up making some adjustments based on a last-minute invite to speak on a panel (more on that later). In the end I spent a lot more time at LVCC than any other location, however I was still able to grab a few bites of Eureka Park.

As part of the invited CES Accessibility Leaders group, we have the privilege of getting a few VIP tours of some booths. A company sets us up with someone who is able to speak about the accessibility features of their products and with this group we toured 三星电子 , 雅培 , Honda , and Waymo . I was really excited to see how Samsung allows a user to sync their accessibility settings across their entire SmartThings ecosystem of products, including refrigerators, washing machines, TVs, etc.

I definitely need to give a shout (or whisper) to the Whispp folks. Last year they had a booth in the start up area and this year they were a part of the Netherlands section. It was great to see how much they’ve grown since I met them last year. Their product converts whispered speech into a clear and natural voice. It was initially created for people with voice disabilities, stutters, etc. but in talking to Joris Castermans he said he’s seen people using it in places they might not want to be overhead (for example a crowded train). This is yet another example of how when we design with and for disability there are other extended uses for non-disabled folks. How do you like them apples?

There are many other products and booths I interacted with but I think my favorite part was asking each of them, “and how have you made this accessible?”. There were definitely a few people who hadn’t given it a single thought (and then started making frantic notes), but I’m really pleased to say that the majority had given it some thought and had even taken steps to make it accessible. This to me is a noticeable improvement from when I first attended CES in 2020!

Activity Highlights

We’re really cooking now! Let’s get into activity highlights. First up for me was attending the inaugural CTA Foundation Innovation Challenge which asked consumer technology companies to leverage their products to solve challenges faced by those with intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD) in accessing digital health care. We got to see four companies present their products and then a panel of judges selected a first runner up and grand prize winner.?

After that it was a short break before the annual Accessibility Roundtable. Again thinking back to 2020 when I first attended CES, this event actually was a roundtable with about 30ish people. This year there were more than 100+ people in the room and there was a waitlist. Talk about drinking the Kool-Aid! I saw a lot of brand new faces in the room which is always a good sign and saw many of my buddies. I find it’s a great way to kick off the week because it’s a reminder that there are a good number of us walking the show holding companies accountable to making accessible products.?

Other random highlights for me was the Ensuring Accessibility in Self-Service Technology panel. It was a really great bunch of presenters including Matt Ater , Fred Moltz , Lauren C. Lobrano , Melissa Renae , and Parrish Chapman and they put on a lively conversation. I was also pretty excited to catch the Delta Air Lines keynote. Not only was it my first time inside the Sphere (wow!), I also got to hear what’s happening with my favorite airline. I learned they are the longest running airline in business and to celebrate their 100th year they gave us all swag. I was absolutely that person wearing it on my flight home to the delight of the Delta employees I saw.

But perhaps the wildest activity was a last minute invite to participate on the Fostering the Future: Strengthening the STEM Pipeline for Success panel. Due to some travel delays for a couple of the original panelists, they were looking for someone at CES who could fill in and speak about STEM, students, and the future pipeline. I have spoken at CES in the past, but in those instances the topic was squarely focused on accessibility. In this case, I was able to bring the topic to a conversation it likely would not have appeared.?

People Highlights

I fear this has already gone on too long and you might have had your fill! But if you’re still with?me, allow me to round out my highlights by saying CES is really feeling like a place to be for accessibility folks. It would be much too long to list every single person I met or (re)connected with over the whole week which I think speaks volumes about how accessibility is continuing to work its way across the show. We need to keep growing our presence there as disability and accessibility advocates/professionals because new technology is cool and all, but what if the real innovation is making all this technology work for everyone right out of the box, every time?

In Closing

Well, we’ve finally arrived at the end. I hope there’s at least one or two fully baked ideas above that resonated with you. We still have a lot of work to do but this week affirmed yet again the disability and accessibility communities are deeply dedicated and wonderful people. I’m grateful to be working alongside all of you.?

In conversation with Fred Moltz , Ben Ogilvie , and Joe Devon we all agreed that we need to keep creating good trouble and solving bad problems. Who’s with us?