Microsoft Uses AI Tools To Assist One Billion People With Disabilities

Almost 15 percent of the population of the world, which is equivalent to over one billion people, struggle with disability. Microsoft’s India President Anant Maheshwari said that to enhance assistive technologies in various ways, Microsoft has been looking into the powerful potential of AI (Artificial Intelligence) to assist the disabled.

Maheshwari, who had undergone a life-changing experience in 2008 when he was diagnosed with a severe case of vertigo and labyrinthitis, mentioned that almost 200 million people across the globe go through difficulties in functioning.

On the occasion of UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities, in a blog post, Maheshwari wrote that Microsoft’s primary mission is to empower each, and every person on the planet to go beyond their capability. Leaving a billion people behind is going against the company’s mission.

One example of the company’s work is the Seeing AI app, which can help turn the visual world into an audible experience. Utilizing AI potentials in computer vision for the low-vision and the blind community, Optical character recognition (OCR) is used to read texts, recognizes faces, objects and emotions, and scans barcodes to portrait the world.

Another Microsoft app with which deaf or hard of hearing people can take advantage of is Microsoft Translator. People with these form of disabilities can benefit from the real-time captioning and transcriptions. Maheshwari continued that office’s accessibility checker feature ensures that all content is accessible to everyone.

Disabled people can choose to alternative images or videos with text. The Windows 10 cloud-based network can surely provide built-in assistive technology whether at home or at work.

Regarding people who have trouble hearing or focusing, Windows offers visual distractions silent mode. Also, content highlighting in edge and visual alerts customizing are also allowed.

People who are blind or have limited mobility can make use of Speech Recognition, Narrator and Skype Translator to surf the web, communicate and collaborate real time with ease.

For global developers, including Indian developer, Microsoft just introduces its ‘AI for Accessibility’ which is a $25 million, brand new, five-year program. With this program, developers can gain access to AI tools to speed up the development of intelligent and accessible AI solutions for disabled people.

Microsoft’s first ever Chief Accessibility Officer, Jenny Lay-Flurrie who lost her hearing ability when he was young, plans to achieve a massive goal in the future. His goal is to make use of AI tools for inclusion and accessibility.

At a press conference held at the company’s Redmond headquarters, Jenny said to a group of journalists that accessibility is about providing people with the access to everything and anything. There are some programs from Microsoft that are accessible to disabled people, such as auto alt-text features which can assist blind or low-vision people by narrating the world.