Michael is a deaf and native American Sign Language speaker and works as a creative designer for Amazon. Throughout his career, Michael's visual/conceptual thinking and problem solving have served him as both an asset and a challenge. He finds solutions around his disability through Universal Design.

A native of Chicago, Michael Allen Nesmith was born into a Deaf culture family in which ASL was the primary language. He attended Gallaudet University (an all-deaf college) in Washington DC and then moved back to Chicago for his MFA in Visual Communication Design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He moved to Portland, Oregon to begin his advertising career in WK12; an experimental advertising school housed in WiedenKennedy's Portland office. He is now a visual designer at Amazon in Seattle, WA. Throughout his career, Michael's visual/conceptual thinking and problem solving have served him as both an asset and a challenge.

This talk was delivered at a TEDx event in the TED conference format, but independently organized by a local community. For more information, visit http://ted.com/tedx

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