In honour of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Google unveils exciting new features and upgrades across its software to enhance accessibility. A major highlight is a significant upgrade to Android’s Lookout tool, designed to assist individuals who are blind or have low vision. With advanced AI, Lookout now allows users to search for specific objects such as seating and bathrooms, covering seven categories in total. These enhancements make navigating surroundings easier and more intuitive than ever before.
After selecting a category, users can move their camera about a room and the app will identify objects that are related to that category. Users will subsequently be able to engage with their environment more easily as it will indicate the direction or distance to the object. Additionally, Google has included an in-app capture button that allows users to snap pictures and instantly receive descriptions created by AI.
The Look to Speak app has also been upgraded by the company. Using eye motions, users can choose from a list of phrases that they wish the Look to Speak app to speak aloud while they converse with others. Google now allows users to trigger their speech by selecting from a photo book filled with different emojis, symbols, and photos in a text-free mode. Users are also free to add personal meaning to each symbol or image.
Additionally, Google has enhanced Len’s screen reader feature in Maps features to enable the user to be informed about the names and types of locations it detects, including restaurants and ATMs. Additionally, Google has enhanced Len’s screen reader feature in Maps features to enable the user to be informed about the names and types of locations it detects, including restaurants and ATMs. Additionally, it can inform them of a location’s distance. It is also making enhancements to its detailed voice guidance feature, which tells the user where to go using audio prompts.
Four years after wheelchair information accessibility has been debuted on Android and iOS, Google has finally made wheelchair information accessible on the desktop. Using the Accessible Places feature, users can check whether a location they’re going to can meet their needs. For instance, businesses and public spaces that have an accessible entry will display a wheelchair icon. They can also use the tool to check if parking, restrooms, and other amenities are accessible at a place. The company claims that Maps currently contains accessibility data for more than 50 million locations. Users who like to search for wheelchair information on iOS and Android devices can now effortlessly filter reviews that specifically address wheelchair accessibility.
Through GitHub, developers can access Project Gameface, which lets users manipulate a computer’s cursor with their heads and facial gestures, as it expands from PC to Android. Based on customer feedback, the company modified its sound notifications, which can warn of loud noises such as fire alarms. Furthermore, it’s always great to see tech companies like Google striving for growth when it comes to the aspect of accessibility.
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