Microsoft’s Programs accessibilty expansion
Microsoft announced a new five-year commitment in April 2021 to help bridge the “Disability Divide” – the gap in societal inclusion for people with disabilities. More than 1 billion people around the world live with a disability, and at some point, most of us will likely face some type of temporary, situational or permanent disability. Digital technology can play a critical role in bridging barriers to communication, interaction and information.
Microsoft is attempting to bridge the divide by using artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies, to make more content accessible and as simple and automatic as spell check is today. For example:
- A new background accessibility checker will provide a prompt to fix accessibility issues in content across the core Office apps and Outlook will nudge users to correct accessibility issues.
- AI in Microsoft Word will detect and convert to heading styles crucial for blind and low-vision readers.
- A new Excel navigation pane designed for screen readers will help people easily discover and navigate objects in a spreadsheet.
- Expanding Immersive Reader, used by 35 million people every month, to help with the comprehension of PowerPoint slides and notes.
- In Teams, high-contrast mode can be used to access shared content using PowerPoint Live which will reduce eye strain and accommodate light sensitivity with Dark Mode in Word.
- New LinkedIn features that include auto-captioning for LinkedIn Live broadcasts, captions for enterprise content and dark mode later this year.
These advances are part of a continued accessibility push by Microsoft and they have also stated that they are now empowering software developers by giving the tools needed to help create even more accessible apps and updates.
For the link to the full article, click here:
Website – Our accessibility commitment (microsoft.com)
Alternatively, if you need further information on how to make facilities or services more accessible and inclusive, please do not hesitate to contact one of our team on (01) 415 12 85 or e-mail [email protected].
