How Microsoft is using AI to improve accessibility | VentureBeat

GamesBeat Summit 2022 returns with its largest event for leaders in gaming on April 26-28th. Reserve your spot here!

The unemployment rate for people with disabilities is more than double that of those without, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics. Just as sobering, it’s estimated that only one in 10 members of the disability community have access to devices adapted to their needs.

There’s no silver bullet. But if you ask Microsoft, the seeds of a solution lie in AI and machine learning.

“We’ve come to know that AI-powered experiences can get a lot of information to a person with a disability, which ultimately empowers their independence,” Mary Bellard, senior accessibility architect at Microsoft, told VentureBeat in an interview ahead of the company’s annual Build developer conference in Seattle. “[We’re working] to make sure we’re not just developing tech for tech’s sake, [but] working on technology that a particular disability community wants and is interested in driving with us.”

Bellard, who has worked in accessibility for 11 years, joined Microsoft in 2014 and played a pivotal role in launching the Disability Answer Desk, a support line that customers can call to resolve accessibility issues, get answers to usability questions, and learn about [...]

Read article at venturebeat.com

Article Taxonomies

Categories: ,
Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Object of class WP_Error could not be converted to string in /home/webable/www/www/wp-content/themes/webable/content-mcm.php:65 Stack trace: #0 /home/webable/www/www/wp-includes/template.php(792): require() #1 /home/webable/www/www/wp-includes/template.php(725): load_template('/home/webable/w...', false, Array) #2 /home/webable/www/www/wp-includes/general-template.php(206): locate_template(Array, true, false, Array) #3 /home/webable/www/www/wp-content/themes/webable/single-mcm_article.php(15): get_template_part('content-mcm') #4 /home/webable/www/www/wp-includes/template-loader.php(106): include('/home/webable/w...') #5 /home/webable/www/www/wp-blog-header.php(19): require_once('/home/webable/w...') #6 /home/webable/www/www/index.php(17): require('/home/webable/w...') #7 {main} thrown in /home/webable/www/www/wp-content/themes/webable/content-mcm.php on line 65