This year’s Ability Summit is underway and the company has revealed the latest developments in the field of accessibility and disability inclusion. First, the accessibility helper is brought to (). The goal is to help people produce accessible content.
The Assistant will offer suggestions on how to prevent and correct access issues, along with what Microsoft calls “better defaults” and “real-time fix.” The helper follows Visual Studio’s Accessibility Checker. On a similar note, Microsoft has released a how-to guide ( ) to help people design products with cognitive diversity in mind.
Later this year, there will be 3D-printed attachments for the Surface Pen—they’re for the Business Pen and Classroom Pen 2. According to Microsoft, the grips could make the pens easier to hold for those with limited mobility so they can use them as peripherals. on their Surface devices.
Elsewhere, Microsoft detailed more accessibility-related updates built on the Azure platform. Seeing AI recently helps blind and low-vision users navigate their way through a building with guidance from spatial audio cues.
Azure Cognitive Services for Vision will be used to automatically add alt text descriptions and captions. Microsoft reports that more than 40 percent of LinkedIn posts contain at least one image. While the automatically generated descriptions won’t be perfect, it’s better than no alt text at all.
On top of all that, Microsoft Translator today gained support for 13 additional African languages, including Yoruba, Hausa, and Igbo. Additionally, Microsoft says it will delve into some of the ways it can enhance accessibility during the summit.
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