Santiago Velasquez Hurtado – 2025 Ambassador – Auslan

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 Halo and I started it

because I was frustrated by buses

leaving me behind. 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.

For me personally, I think Siri Alexa is

fantastic for light switches and things.

I can turn lights on with it.

Technology is good because it helps us

to travel, to use transport.

The creative solutions that tech or tech

companies are coming up with, I think a

lot of them are coming from people with

disabilities. when the people who need

it the most are either developing it or

right there from the from the beginning.

Technology is brilliant. But it's when

people that are designing it have no

lived experience. Get into 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 or getting rid of this idea that we

are a burden. I'm not a secondass

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.