"The project manager came to me and said, 'Chris, we have several blind students coming to work with us this summer. If you can think of anything we can do for them, let me know,'" Leung told the Times. Leung, then a computer-science graduate student at the University of Southern California, developed software that allowed blind people to discover the solar system by offering them a tactile way to explore the terrain of planets. Inspired by his experience, he created a non-profit organization called Project: Possibility which now sponsors competitions to create software to assist people with disabilities.

In an intense two-day software-writing competition this fall, 8 groups of volunteer students worked to create software programs that could help people with disabilities perform tasks that might otherwise prove challenging. Volunteer mentors from a variety of corporations, including Google and Amgen, worked with the students. The winning program, called Bar Code Reader, would allow visually-impaired people to hear descriptions and prices of grocery-store items by pointing their cell phone at a store shelf. Mind Control, designed to allow people with physical disabilities to guide their computer mouse with brain waves and eye movements, won second place.

Another competition is planned in February with teams of computer-science students at the University of California, according to the Times.

Click here to read the full story in The New York Times.

Click here to read "The 2008 DiversityInc Top 10 Companies for People With Disabilities" on DiversityInc.com.