Google Does More Good, Funds $20 Million ‘Impact Challenge’ Helping People With Disabilities

Google catches a lot of heat over privacy concerns and its business practices, but give the company credit, it spends a lot of money on philanthropic efforts. That includes $20 million that the company is putting up in the form of grant funding for the Google Impact Challenge, an initiative that's intended to help people with a variety of disabilities, the company announced this week.

"We’re challenging the thinkers, the doers, the builders to create technologies that can make a difference to the one billion people around the world living with a disability. Together, let's ask the right questions, find new answers, and build a better world, faster," Google stated in a Google+ post.

The Impact Challenge is an open invitation to nonprofit technologists, innovators, and teams of problem solvers who have ideas that could potentially solve problems that people with disabilities face. To give an example, Google previously gave a grant to a Japanese organization to scale the use of prosthetic limbs in partnership with prosthetic limb manufacturer Exiii. Using 3D printing, the two were able to make prosthetic limbs both more affordable and more accessible to those who need them.

Google isn't just looking for problem solvers, but inspiring questions that could motivate others. These are the "What ifs" Google references, such as "What if there was a mobile app that could show the nearest accessible bathroom," a question posed by a woman named Margaret.

You can visit Google's Impact Challenge website for more information or to submit your own What if.