About Us

Raising the Floor is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping ensure that everyone has access to information and communication technologies, including those who face barriers due to disability, literacy, digital literacy or aging.

On Jan 16, 2022 we lost a lion in our field, Jim Tobias. He was a founding father of the GPII and Morphic, but this was just one of a long list of contributions and leadership in the field. We lost him way too early. He went peacefully without pain, his last days spent recalling happy memories. We will miss him and his wisdom.

Mission

Our mission with Morphic is to help make personal computers easier to use. We believe that everyone, including those with disabilities as well as those who simply find today’s technology too confusing or difficult, should be able to access the many benefits computers have to offer.

Our mission has taken on new meaning with the coronavirus pandemic. Computers have taken on a new role allowing people to stay connected to those around them during this difficult and unprecedented time. During the pandemic, computers provide many with a connection to friends and family, a way to work from home or attend classes, and can be a critical way to access basic necessities and healthcare benefits that are not available to those who cannot understand or use computers. Making computers easier so that all people are able to use them, at least for essential tasks, is at the heart of our mission.

About Raising the Floor

Morphic was created by an international consortium of people and organizations working together. Its final development was overseen by Raising the Floor, which is now hosting it and making it available.

Raising the Floor is an international non-profit organization committed to the advancement of social equity through digital inclusion. Its research, design and development work on digital inclusion consider the full range of human diversity with respect to ability, language, culture, gender, age, and other forms of human difference.

Raising the Floor has both an international division located in Geneva, Switzerland and a US division located in Washington, DC.

Funding

Morphic is the result of the following grants to the University of Maryland Trace Center:

Grant # H421A150006 from the Rehabilitation Services Administration of the U.S.Dept. of Education
Grant # 90RE5027 from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research, Administration on Community Living, U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services

But Morphic draws from many earlier research projects at the Inclusive Design Research Centre (IDRC) at Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) University in Toronto, at the Trace Center at University of Wisconsin-Madison, and multitude of European partners that were funded by:

The U.S. Dept of Education, National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, grants H133E080022 & H133E130028
The European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013), grant 289016 (Cloud4all) and grant 610510 (Prosperity4All).
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
The Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation
The Canadian Foundation for Innovation
The Adobe Foundation
The Consumer Electronics Association Foundation

Note: Funding agencies do not endorse any results or products of their funding and no endorsement of Morphic or the research leading up to it by the funding agencies should be assumed.