Category: Microsoft news

By Wendy Chisholm, Principal Accessibility Architect

In May, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced AI for Accessibility to put AI tools in the hands of developers, universities, NGOs and inventors to accelerate the development of accessible and intelligent AI solutions to benefit people with disabilities around the world.

Today, we are announcing the first AI for Accessibility grantee, Zyrobotics. They are developing unique solutions for accessible science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, like ReadAble Storiez, that are adaptive to the diverse needs of students. We are thrilled to have them as part of our program and we can’t wait to see the impact they will have!

ReadAble Storiez is a reading fluency program for students with diverse learning needs, which also helps fill in the gaps for students from low-income homes who may not have access to speech-language or occupational therapists. By creating custom speech models with Microsoft Cognitive Services and Azure Machine Learning, they aim to identify when a student needs feedback, much like an occupational therapist would recognize and provide.

Zyrobotics is a team of educators and developers who have a passion for creating technology that will enhance the quality of life for children. Last week, Satya had the opportunity to meet with Zyrobotics CEO Dr. Johnetta MacCalla and CTO Dr. Ayanna Howard in Atlanta, Georgia, and learn more about their work and passion for helping all students become better readers.

As Dr. Howard shared with us, “In our experience, because every child is different, you have to let them look at technology in different ways, more than just visual and auditory. Our focus is to incorporate interaction and personalization. The usage of AI/machine learning algorithms ensures that our apps are accessible and can be adapted to the personal needs of each child. We are excited about how this grant and partnership with Microsoft will help us address significant gaps for engaging each child based on their unique strengths and abilities.”

Look out for more grant-winning projects to be announced on the Accessibility Blog, the AI for Accessibility website and our social channels in the coming months. For those getting started, here are three of the top questions we have received from applicants:

When can I apply?
Now! We are accepting submissions on a rolling basis over the next five years. Grant proposals can be submitted via the online application form. Applicants will receive a follow up email within 30-60 days.

What is Microsoft looking for in applications?
We are looking for revolutionary ideas that use AI and align with any of our three areas of focus:

• Employment. How can we positively impact the employment rate for people with disabilities through more intelligent technology?
• Daily Life. How can we increase access to technology for people with disabilities while also decreasing the cost of such technology?
• Communication & Connection. How can AI help improve the speed, accuracy, and convenience of communication for people with disabilities?

We are looking for individuals or teams who are not only passionate about making the world more inclusive, but also firmly rooted in the communities they intend to benefit. We want to see ideas that are developed by or with people with disabilities, not just for us.

What can I receive through the program?
First, check that your idea meets the following criteria:

• Relevance: AI and/or machine learning are core to the project success;
• Impact: Clearly elevates either employment, daily life, or communication & connection for someone with a disability;
• Feasible: Is deliverable in a one-year timeframe—this could be phase 1 of the project but there should be tangible deliverables completed each quarter that are wrapped up in one year;
• Capable: Your team should have the knowledge and skill to deliver the idea OR you partner with someone who can fill in the gaps;
• Sustainable: The project has room to grow beyond the first year of funding;
• Showcase-able: We want to talk about whatever you deliver!

The AI for Accessibility program provides monetary grants as well as technology and expertise depending on the potential impact and needs of each project. This can include:

• Access to Microsoft Azure AI resources and Developer Support. To estimate the Azure computing resources you need, use the Azure calculator;
• The costs of crowd-sourcing and cleaning data needed to get your project up and running;
• Guidance from a Microsoft team of AI, project management, and accessibility experts who can help guide you to scale to a wide audience and deliver the impact you envision.

If you have additional questions about the awards program or the application process, please visit the AI for Accessibility FAQ.

Remember: anyone can apply! From a tinkerer in a basement to an established corporation, from students to professionals. If you are worried you don’t have what it takes, find someone who does and partner with them on an application. So, no excuses. 😊

Over the past eighteen months, Microsoft has fostered a growing $115 million AI for Good initiative that puts AI in the hands of inspired individuals developing real-world outcomes that tackle some of society’s most critical challenges. Comprised of AI for Accessibility, AI for Earth and AI for Humanitarian Action, we are hopeful the world will see what a compelling force for good AI can be.

We cannot wait to see what you create by or with people with disabilities to empower everyone to achieve more. 

By: Amos Miller, Microsoft AI & Research

Imagine you’re paddling on the lake, you feel the warm sun on your face, listen quietly to the calm ripples of the water. You can hear a sound beacon, in 3D, on the water, just in front of you and over to the right; you know exactly where it is, you steer the kayak towards it, paddle like crazy and catch it, collecting 25 points.

When your ability to perceive the space around you is enhanced in a natural, intuitive way, the urge to get out and enjoy that heightened sense of independence is irresistible. We experienced that feeling a few weeks ago on a beautiful sunny day on Lake Sammamish at the Microsoft Soundscape kayaking PaddlePalooza. What was that all about? Let me share the story.

In my June post, I noted the continued excitement about the Soundscape beacon from people who are blind or have low vision. Many of you have asked to be able to place the Soundscape audio beacon anywhere. In response, we recently introduced Soundscape markers. With Soundscape you can now quickly and easily mark-up anything in your surroundings that you care about. That could be, for example, your front door or the post box at the top of your street, or you can mark-up key landmarks in your area to help with learning a route. You might even mark the entrance to the park or the picnic spot on the lawn.

With your markers in place you can hear them through Soundscape or set a beacon to them, so you can always know where they are. This is a wonderful way for you to personalize the areas you walk in and build up confidence to go beyond what you are familiar with, always knowing that you have your markers for orientation. Do give it a try and tell us what you think. It’s a lot of fun.

We then thought, well, if you can place a marker anywhere what if we marked up a lake and used the markers for orientation on the water while kayaking? Hmmm. Ok, so this sounds new, and we figured it would be something that takes empowerment to a completely new level!

As part of the Microsoft One Week hackathon, we marked up seven virtual beacons on the lake. In partnership with Outdoors For All, we invited a group of people with blindness or low vision to join us for a kayaking scavenger hunt.

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Click here for the audio description of the Soundscape Kayaking Scavenger Hunt video.

Wow! What an extraordinary day. When you wake up in the morning and by the end of the day realize you have done something you never imagined would be possible.

Now for the cool statistics! Of the 13 competing teams, 3 had only sighted paddlers, and 10 had blind or low vision paddlers. 11 of the 13 teams successfully found all seven beacons (covering an area roughly within a circle of 1000 meters in diameter) and scored the maximum points. The winning team completed the course in just 16 minutes!! The best sighted team came in sixth place at 25 minutes!

“We were having a blast, the sun was shining, the water was calm and warm, I had an attentive partner, and I was independently captaining a kayak and successfully found all seven beacons, earning the maximum 140 points in 25 minutes…the exhilaration of being able to compete, to experience the freedom of paddling on the water, and truly being the navigator of our team is something I’ll remember always,” noted Cindy Van Winkle, a participant from the Seattle Lighthouse. You can read more about her experience on her blog.

The kayaking experience motivated us to reflect, once again, on what we mean by the sense of independence and about presence and empowerment. Have people who are blind kayaked before? Sure, they do all the time. However, are they really the driver? On this occasion they indeed were the driver in every sense of the term.

Firstly, in the teams with a paddler who is blind, only the blind participant knew where the beacons were located; the sighted companions had no indication where they were, and therefore they were not able to help. That meant that the paddler who is blind didn’t even need to ask for that independence, it was built into the game. Secondly, the participants didn’t have an agent whispering in their ear, go left a bit, straight, right, nor did they receive any form of instructions they had to listen to and process. Instead, Soundscape, using 3D audio, enabled the participant to effortlessly hear exactly where the beacons were, leaving it for them to decide where to steer. This transfer of control not only creates a true sense of independence, but the participants in fact performed much better. I talk about this phenomenon in my TedX talk where I describe the feeling I had flying a glider.

A few months ago, at an event in Montana I had the pleasure of meeting Sharon. As we made our way out to learn how to use the Soundscape beacon, I noticed that Sharon stayed back. When I checked with her I understood she chose not to join because she is hard of hearing. After we established that she was still able to hear the high pitch of the Soundscape beacon, she gave it a try, and, with her husband walking along with her, off they went and within a few minutes made it to her destination. When I caught up with them I noticed she was overcome with emotion, this had been the first time in many years she truly felt that sense of independence and that she was in the driver’s seat. For her, this is what mattered at that moment, that sense of joy and empowerment; and, knowing that her life would now be different.

There is no greater gift that technology can provide than a true sense of independence.

I must say that the impact the kayak hack has really surprised and motivated us to think about how we can bring Soundscape to more people and more organizations to really benefit from the value it provides and the empowering changes it has started to enable for people. This is something that we are looking into, and if you, or an organization you know, run programs or activities in which you believe Soundscape can help then do get in touch with us at soundscapefeed@microsoft.com.

Before wrapping up let me highlight some of the other recent updates we made to Soundscape:

• We’ve been working to light up the experience while you’re travelling, whether in a bus, a car, or a train. To minimize interruptions and avoid getting in the way of whatever else you may be doing, Soundscape now identifies when you are in a moving vehicle and adjusts callouts to include only major landmarks, and update you only when you change roads.
• Battery savings! You no longer need to close Soundscape to save battery; you can now just select the “Sleep” button on the home screen to stop Soundscape from using GPS and your data plan.
• For our low vision users, you no longer need to hold the phone flat when pressing buttons; instead, you can now bring the phone right up close and press buttons, and everything will continue working correctly.

We can’t wait to hear what you make of them, please do continue to write to us on soundscapefeed@microsoft.com and of course, check our FAQ’s on our website for more detailed information and guidance.

In closing we welcome our friends from down under to the Soundscape community! Soundscape was launched in Australia on September 12, 2018, with a great partnership with Vision Australia and the extended community of people who are blind. Based on our learnings from the launch in Australia we continue to look at how we can bring Soundscape to other countries and aim to support the local language where possible. We will be sure to provide further updates as soon as we can.

We continue to be humbled by the response to Soundscape, we recognize that this is just the start and there is more work to be done; but please keep the feedback coming, on anything from the app, to the content we produce, to the way we can engage with you. Let’s continue to empower everyone, everywhere with the benefits of technology.

Amos and the Soundscape team.

Microsoft Soundscape is available for free on iOS and iPhone in the US, UK and Australia.

At Microsoft, we believe our technology should reflect the diversity of the people that use our products.

We are excited to share how the Windows 10 October 2018 update delivers on that mission by giving you more accessibility features than ever before to enhance your personal computing experience. These features include Ease of Access updates to make Windows 10 easier to see, Narrator improvements to make Windows 10 easier to use without a screen, and Learning Tools and text suggestions updates to make it easier to read and write.

Ease of Access Updates

You now have more ways to see Windows 10 your way, with the addition of text size customization across the platform. From the “Display” page in Ease of Access settings or by typing “larger text” in the search bar, you can adjust a single global text size slider to make text bigger across Windows, efficiently making just the words bigger without affecting the entire visual layout. You can customize text size in conjunction with DPI scaling, otherwise known as the “Make Everything Bigger” setting. As the name implies, this feature makes everything on the screen larger, which can sometimes reduce productivity for users with low vision by requiring more panning or scrolling. By complementing DPI customization with text size customization, users now have more options to tailor their Windows 10 display.

We realize many users with low vision not only prefer more levers to customize their experience, but they also prefer using multiple tools together. The custom text size works great with Magnifier, which provides new ways for you to optimize your experience. You can choose to keep your mouse centered on the screen, which can be particularly helpful at higher magnification levels, so you do not lose your mouse or focus when trying to navigate. We have also added smaller increments of 5 percent and 10 percent for adjusting zoom level, so you can have even more control of your magnifier experience.

Narrator Improvements

We have continued to make Narrator, our built-in screen reader, easier to learn and use.

We have made narrator easier to learn with two key updates.

• Narrator QuickStart: When Narrator launches, a new QuickStart tutorial experience will be available to teach you Narrator basics such as keyboarding, navigation and editing. At the end of the QuickStart there is a link to the User Guide where you can continue learning about Narrator.



• Improved and more familiar keyboard: Narrator now ships with a new keyboard layout designed to be more familiar to screen reader users. Differences in the keyboard layout are designed to improve keyboard ergonomics and usability, e.g. with improved mnemonics. Check out the Narrator user guide for more details on these changes.

We have also made narrator easier to use with improved navigation and efficiency.

• Easier navigation: With Narrator Find, you now can search for specific text, which Narrator will then move to if found. Narrator can also now present a list of objects, such as links, headings, or landmarks that you can quickly filter to find what you want. Refer to the Narrator user guide for command mapping.
• Increased efficiency: Narrator will now automatically read dialog boxes, such as the Word dialog box that appears when you try to close a document with unsaved changes. We have also made two key improvements to Scan Mode, a narrator feature that simplifies navigation by primarily using just the up and down arrow keys, to enable a more seamless experience:

o   Narrator stops on interactive elements like links so you can more easily interact with them, or you can continue reading with just a press of the down arrow.

o You have more options for selecting text while in Scan Mode including commands to copy an entire block of text without holding down the Shift key. Narrator’s selection commands will copy the format of the text being copied such as headings, lists and more. You can also now speak the selected text using a Narrator command. Refer to the Narrator user guide for additional information on Narrator selection commands or use the Show Commands List Narrator command by pressing Caps + F1.

Reading and Writing Improvements

In addition to Ease of Access and Narrator updates, the October 2018 Update also brings more ways to improve reading fluency and comprehension and author text.

Within Microsoft Edge, you now have more flexibility with web browsing and reading with new ways to customize your learning experience with Learning Tools. First rolled out in the Fall Creator’s Update a year ago, we added Learning Tools like read aloud to the web browsing experience. The April 2018 update then came with the addition of grammar tools, enabling you to break words into syllables and highlight parts of speech.

We are making Learning Tools even more powerful with the October 2018 update. With any ePub or webpage in reading view, you can customize the page theme color with Irlen colors that make it easier to decode text. You can also turn on line focus for a webpage in Reading view to help you concentrate. Additionally, you now have more ways to personalize grammar tools: you can customize the highlight color for parts of speech or turn on labels within the text if you find it difficult to disambiguate between colors. Should you run into words you are unfamiliar with, you can quickly look them up in the built-in dictionary that also works offline*.

Writing experiences are also improving. Text suggestions, which suggests the top three word candidates as you type, is now expanding to 50+ languages** since its debut in the April 2018 update.

Thanks and keep the feedback coming

Thank you to the many people who help shape the accessibility of Windows 10 experiences. Through channels like the feedback hub and the Windows Insider Program, we get your feedback that directly informs product development. That includes not only the features in this latest release but also throughout our work this past year in the Fall Creator’s Update and April 2018 Update.

Additionally, if you are a customer with a disability of any kind and need technical assistance, the Disability Answer Desk is there to assist via phone and chat. In the United States, we also have an ASL option for our customers with hearing loss: +1 503-427-1234.

Thanks again and please keep your thoughts coming! Whether you join the Windows Insider Program or activate the feedback hub by just pressing the Windows + F keys, we want to know what is top of mind so that we can continue to evolve the accessibility of Windows 10.

*Offline dictionary supported in English, Spanish, German, Italian, French

**Text suggestions languages include: Afrikaans​, Albanian​, Armenian​, Azerbaijani – Latin​, Basque​, Bulgarian​, Catalan​, Croatian, Czech​, Danish​, Dutch​, English (US, UK, AU, CA, IE, IN)​, Estonian​, Finnish​, French (CA, FR, BE, CH), Galician​, Georgian, German​, German (Switzerland)​, Greek​, Hausa (Latin), Hungarian​, Indonesian​, Italian​, Kazakh​, Latvian​, Lithuanian​, Macedonian​, Norwegian​, Polish​, Portuguese (Brazil)​, Portuguese (Portugal)​, Romanian​, Russian​, Serbian​, Serbian – Cyrillic​, Slovak​, Slovenian​, Spanish (Spain)​, Spanish (Mexico)​, Swedish​, Turkish​, Ukrainian​, Uzbek – Latin​, Filipino/Tagalog, Welsh, Icelandic, Maltese, Hawaiian, Greenlandic, Kinyarwanda, Xhosa, Zulu, Yoruba, Setswana, Maori, Turkmen (Latin), Bosnian (Latin), Mongolian (Cyrillic), Belarusian, Kyrgyz, Tajik (Cyrillic), Tatar (Cyrillic), Bashkir, Sakha

Microsoft believes accessibility and inclusion are essential to delivering on our mission to empower everyone, everywhere. Technology can play a powerful role to empower people with disabilities. Across Microsoft, we are working to make technology more accessible – whether that is built-in accessibility features in Windows and Office 365, new tools and resources like Soundscape, Seeing AI and Learning Tools, or collaborating with organizations on initiatives to help make the world more inclusive.

In Chicago, we have an opportunity to further the Smart Cities for All global initiative, a partnership between G3ict and World Enabled to help cities empower people with disabilities. The City of Chicago will become the first city in the world to pilot the Smart City Digital Inclusion Maturity Model, an assessment tool created by G3ict and World Enabled with support from Microsoft.

Designed to help city leaders and urban planners better understand the needs of and empower people with disabilities, the new Maturity Model helps cities measure digital inclusion and track progress. Focused on a broad range of functions important to all cities, such as communications, procurement, training, and technology standards, it defines key performance indicators and metrics to support advancing accessibility. Five levels of digital inclusion maturity guide cities in assessing and tracking progress across multiple Smart Cities dimensions, e.g. technology, data, culture, and strategy.

We are honored to collaborate with the City of Chicago and two nonprofits with a history of leadership in inclusive and accessible design that are actively working to help cities advance how they utilize technology to build more inclusive communities. The leadership of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities Karen Tamley, and CIO and Commissioner of the Department of Innovation and Technology Danielle DuMerer, will create an important legacy of inclusion in Chicago. The new pilot demonstrates their continued focus of building inclusive practices into their planning and development process, a model that cities around the world will benefit from as we look at ways we can empower the more than 1 billion people with disabilities in the world.

Throughout October, we are celebrating National Disability Employment Awareness Month.

Initiatives like Smart Cities for All and the pilot project in the City of Chicago are great examples of how we can work together to help change the unemployment rate for people with disabilities, which is nearly double that of those without disabilities. Check out the blog, Empowering all people in the workplace, to learn more about our work to make technology more accessible.

We all have the responsibility to come together – across industries, sectors and geographies – to create a more inclusive world. Together we can support cities in using innovative technology to advance opportunities for everyone.