Santiago Velasquez Hurtado

Santiago Velasquez Hurtado: Yes, I’m blind, so what? I love listening to music, cooking, trying new, unusual things.

I flew a plane last weekend, like an actual real plane. That’s not a joke.

Hi, my name is Santiago. Everything that I always wanted to do, I have always given it a go.

And now I’m a blind electrical engineer and I am an ambassador for International Day of People with Disability 2025.

My big question is ‘for somebody with your disability, how has the technology revolution been, good or bad?’

I run a company called Hailo, and I started it because I was frustrated by buses leaving me behind. And if I fix that or if I fix the problem of being dropped off at the incorrect stop, in a way that benefits me but benefits everybody else, we can improve public transport for everybody.

Maree Jenner: For me personally, I think Siri and Alexa is fantastic. For light switches and things, I can turn lights on with it.

Olivia Sidhu: Technology is good because it helps us to travel, to use transport.

Isabella Choate: The creative solutions that tech or tech companies are coming up with, I think a lot of them are coming from people with disability.

Santiago: When the people who need it the most are either developing it or right there from the beginning, technology is brilliant.  But it’s when people that are designing it have no lived experience, getting to this mindset of technology is going to fix my life, that we get into trouble.

The more we can break down the perception that people with disabilities need to be fixed, the more we can move forward as a society.

Everybody has to play an equal part for getting rid of this idea that we are a burden.

I’m not a second class citizen and I’ll be damned if somebody’s going to tell me otherwise.

Yes, I’m blind, but some people are tall, some people are short, some people are different ethnicities.

We’re just another mix in this massive pot we call the world.