Dear Smart People At Microsoft,

We've been reading about your work with Steve Gleason at your Hackathon this week.

You inspire us.

We know now that you've met Steve that he inspires you.

Let me introduce you to thousands of other people living with ALS today.  They will inspire you, too.  Some are even younger than Steve, and others are much older.  Some have great support systems and others have none.  Some have means, others nothing.  All are smart. Some have had the disease for a few weeks, others have been at it for months or years.  The turnover is brutal. All lose the ability to do something every day, and those abilities never come back.  All need the help of enabling technologies.

You'll follow Steve's difficult path now that you've met him.  As you think of him and read of his remarkable work, please think about some of those others, too.

ALS runs a difficult, out-of-control path that steals abilities.  Many of us who dealt with ALS in our families found that we were constantly throwing the ball five yards behind the receiver when it came to assistive devices.  The disease runs a fast downhill course.  There is no time to learn and adjust.  You just have to do it.

I remember the days (before you were born) when the first person in the office to get a PC had to go through weeks of training to learn MS-DOS and then the applications.  Thank heavens those days are over.  Those days need to be over for enabling technologies for people with ALS, too.

Thanks so much for what you are doing.  Steve is leading a cast of thousands of diverse people with this evil disease.  You can empower and enable them all to be productive contributors and lead their lives in dignity.  You get it now.