Over 2.2% of India’s population has some form of disability. With technology permeating every aspect of our lives, it’s crucial that companies prioritize accessibility and make their products and services more inclusive for everyone. Accessibility in technology is crucial for ensuring that everyone, regardless of their physical or cognitive abilities, can fully participate in the digital world.
Azure AI, a suite of artificial intelligence tools and services, is helping to enable greater accessibility by providing solutions that can assist users with disabilities. Here are six ways Microsoft is improving accessibility with Azure AI:
Dictate conversation, meetings, and live broadcasting
Azure Cognitive Services powers Microsoft Teams to supports speech-to-text transcription and captioning for meetings and calls, making it easier for people with hearing disabilities to participate in online communication. These features also benefit people with ADHD, people who are multi-tasking, or those in noisy or low-bandwidth environments. Twitter Spaces uses Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services powered speech-to-text technology for real-time transcription of spoken audio into text to overcome the accessibility barriers of an audio-only platform.
Content reading with text-to-speech technology
Azure Cognitive Services also powers the text-to-speech function in Microsoft products, including Outlook, Edge, and Office – to help- read emails, documents, and web pages aloud. This facilitates access to and consumption of digital content for those who are blind or have impaired vision, as well as those who have dyslexia, ADHD, or autism.
Communicate in multiple languages
Microsoft Translator is a powerful translation service that supports speech-to-speech, text-to-speech, and optical character recognition (OCR) to enable communication across different languages and formats across Microsoft applications. For example, Gameloft, a French video game publisher, uses Translator, part of Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services, to translate more than 100 languages in real time – allowing players to chat, strategize and banter with other players without any language barriers
Hands-free and Secure Device access
Users – can log in to their devices with their faces using Windows Hello’s facial recognition technology, which is powered by Azure Face API. – This innovative feature not only simplifies the login process for users with mobility limitations, but it also provides a secure, hands- free login experience for all users.
Device control enhanced via voice commands
Microsoft products such as Windows and Xbox include voice assistants powered by speech-to-text technology, – which allow people of all abilities to control their devices and access information and services through voice commands. This feature enhances accessibility by enabling users to interact with their devices without the need for physical input, making it particularly useful for people with mobility impairments or disabilities.
Descriptive Images and surroundings
Microsoft Edge, PowerPoint, and Seeing AI are products that include Azure Computer Vision capabilities such as image captioning, which can provide descriptive text for images to make them more accessible to people who are blind or who have low vision. Additionally, image descriptions enhance search engine optimisation (SEO) and offer alternatives for viewers who are reading content aloud or in environments with limited bandwidth.
