Accessibility

Microsoft recruits accessibility app to make its AI more useful to blind and low-vision users
21 Oct

Microsoft recruits accessibility app to make its AI more useful to blind and low-vision users

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Be My Eyes, the accessibility app for mobile devices that puts blind and low-vision people on a live video call with a sighted guide, will help Microsoft train its AI. Be My Eyes will provide anonymized video data to improve scene understanding in Microsoft’s accessibility-focused AI models.The data sets Be My Eyes gives Microsoft will include “unique objects, lighting and framing that realistically represents the lived experience of the blind and low vision community.” The goal is to make Microsoft’s AI more inclusive for people with vision disabilities.The companies say all personal info has been scrubbed from the metadata. The…
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Protesters Say Uber and Lyft Are Still Failing Their Blind Passengers
20 Oct

Protesters Say Uber and Lyft Are Still Failing Their Blind Passengers

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Michelle Barlak, public relations manager for The Seeing Eye, which provides guide dogs for people with visual impairments, tells WIRED that the organization has received “frequent and increasing reports of rideshare access denials from Seeing Eye dog handlers.” A survey by the nonprofit Guide Dogs for the Blind found 83 percent of members said they had been denied rides.Both Uber and Lyft offer in-app options for people to specify that they’re traveling with a pet, which usually involves paying slightly more. But since guide dogs aren’t pets, people with visual impairments cannot be required to use this option.A Lyft spokesperson…
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Why the AirPods Pro’s new hearing aid features are a bigger deal than you think
15 Sep

Why the AirPods Pro’s new hearing aid features are a bigger deal than you think

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Apple's high-end earbuds will be able to be used a full-on hearing aids. (Apple)Could Apple really be teeing up a change that could save my elderly mother more than $1,500? That’s the promise of the company’s newly announced initiative to add true hearing aid functionality to the AirPods Pro — and why, with all due respect to the iPhone 16 and its fancy Camera Control button, it was the most promising section of Monday’s keynote, to my eyes.The news couldn’t have come at a better time for me. My 80-year-old mother has finally admitted that her hearing is, shall we…
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Microsoft’s latest accessible controllers include the Xbox Adaptive Joystick
21 Aug

Microsoft’s latest accessible controllers include the Xbox Adaptive Joystick

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Xbox continues to impress with its accessibility accommodations for gamers with disabilities. Alongside some updates to the Xbox console lineup, Microsoft unveiled several new controllers on Wednesday to help more people experience the joy of frictionless gaming.The Xbox Adaptive Joystick fills what Microsoft called a widely expressed “need for an affordable, singular joystick” to use with other Xbox controllers. Designed for people with limited mobility, it has four customizable button inputs on the front, a standard thumbstick and two more mappable bumper and trigger-style buttons.You can plug the wired stick into the Xbox Adaptive Controller or the console. Alternatively, you…
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