The second annual Sight Tech International convention, a digital, free occasion on December 1-2, will convene the world’s prime consultants on superior applied sciences, notably AI, addressing accessibility and assistive tech for people who find themselves blind or visually impaired.
At present we’re excited to roll out the primary stage agenda. These 10 expertly moderated fireplace and panel classes seize a outstanding cross part of the work occurring in the present day at Apple, Microsoft, Google and Amazon, to call simply 4 of the giants within the discipline. We are going to announce one other half dozen breakout classes within the coming days.
Please register in the present day. It’s free, digital and really screen-reader pleasant.
Sight Tech International December 1
Designing for Everybody: Accessibility and Machine Studying at Apple
Apple’s iPhone and VoiceOver are among the many best breakthroughs ever for accessibility, however Apple by no means rests on its laurels. The subsequent wave of innovation will contain what’s often called “machine studying” (a subset of synthetic intelligence), which makes use of knowledge from sensors on the telephone and elsewhere to assist make sense of the world round us. The implications for accessibility are simply beginning to emerge.
Jeff Bigham, Analysis lead for AI/ML accessibility at Apple
Sarah Herrlinger, Senior Director of International Accessibility Coverage & Initiatives, Apple
Moderator: Matthew Panzarino, Editor-in-Chief, TechCrunch
Seeing AI: What Occurs When You Mix Pc Imaginative and prescient, Lidar and Audio AR?
The most recent options in Microsoft’s Seeing AI app allow the app to acknowledge issues on this planet and place them in 3D area. Gadgets are actually introduced from their place within the room; in different phrases, the phrase “chair” appears to emanate from the chair itself. Customers can place digital audio beacons on objects to trace the situation of the door, for instance, and use the haptic proximity sensor to really feel the define of the room.
All of that is made doable by combining the most recent advances in AR, pc imaginative and prescient and the iPhone 12 Professional’s lidar sensor. And that’s solely the beginning.
Saqib Shaikh, Co-founder, Seeing AI
Moderator: Devin Coldewey, Editor, TechCrunch
W3C ARIA-AT: Display readers, Interoperability and a New Period of Net Accessibility
Who knew that display screen readers, not like Net browsers, usually are not interoperable. Website builders don’t fear about whether or not their code will work on Safari, Chrome or some other browser, but when they take accessibility severely they’ve to check for JAWS, VoiceOver, NVDA and the remaining. That’s about to alter, because of the W3C ARIA-AT venture.
(This session might be adopted December 2 by a dwell breakout session with King and Fairchild, in addition to a number of different members of the W3C ARIA-AT staff.)
Matt King, Accessibility Technical Program Supervisor, Fb
Mike Shebanek, Head of Accessibility, Fb
Michael Fairchild, Senior Accessibility Marketing consultant, Deque
Moderator: Caroline Desrosiers, Founder and CEO, Scribely
The “Holy Braille”: The Growth of a New Tactile Show Combining Braille and Graphics in One Expertise
At present, prompt entry to the written phrase in braille is way much less out there to somebody who’s blind than the printed phrase is for somebody who’s sighted. Instruments reminiscent of single line refreshable braille shows have been out there for years, however a single line at a time offers the person a really restricted studying expertise. This limitation is very felt when customers are studying prolonged paperwork or after they encounter content material reminiscent of charts and graphs in a textbook. The American Printing Home for the Blind (APH) and HumanWare have teamed to develop a tool able to rendering a number of traces of braille and tactile graphics on the identical tactile floor. Presently known as the Dynamic Tactile System (DTD), this device goals to offer blind customers with a multi-line e-book reader, tactile graphics viewer and a lot extra.
(This session might be adopted by a dwell breakout Q&A session with Greg Stilson, head of APH’s International Know-how Innovation staff, and HumanWare’s Andrew Flattres, Braille Product Supervisor.)
Greg Stilson, Head of International Innovation, APH
Moderator: Will Butler, VP, Be My Eyes
Indoor Navigation: Can Inertial Navigation, Pc Imaginative and prescient and Different New Applied sciences Work The place GPS Can’t?
Because of cell phones, GPS and navigation apps, people who find themselves blind or visually impaired can get round open air independently. Navigating indoors is one other matter.
For starters, GPS IS usually not out there indoors. Then there are the challenges of understanding the place the door is, discovering the steps or avoiding the sofa somebody moved. Combining on-phone and in-cloud applied sciences like inertial navigation, audio AR, lidar and pc imaginative and prescient could be the basis for an answer, if product builders can map indoor areas, present indoor positioning and ship an accessible person interface.
Mike Could, Chief Evangelist, GoodMaps
Paul Ruvolo, Affiliate Professor of Pc Science, Olin Faculty
Roberto Manduchi, Professor of Pc Science, UC Santa Cruz
Moderator: Nick Giudice, Professor of Spatial Informatics, College of Maine
Sight Tech International December 2
Why Amazon’s Imaginative and prescient Consists of Speaking Much less to Alexa
As houses grow to be more and more extra technology-driven, inputs from a number of sources — teachable AI, multimodal understanding, sensors, pc imaginative and prescient and extra — will create a really ambient, encompass expertise. Already, one in each 5 Alexa sensible residence interactions is initiated by Alexa with none spoken command. As Alexa develops an understanding of us and our residence nicely sufficient to foretell our wants and act on our behalf in significant methods, what are the implications for accessibility?
Beatrice Geoffrin, Director of Alexa Belief, Amazon
Dr. Prem Natarajan, Vice President of Alexa AI, Amazon
Inventors Invent: Three New Takes on Assistive Know-how
Inventors have lengthy been impressed to use their genius to serving to blind individuals. Consider innovators like Mike Shebanek (VoiceOver, Apple) or Jim Fruchterman (Bookshare, Benetech), to call simply two. At present, innovators have an almost miraculous array of reasonably priced applied sciences to work with, together with lidar, pc imaginative and prescient, high-speed knowledge networks and extra. In consequence, innovation is transferring forward at a dizzying tempo. On this session, we’ll discuss to 3 product innovators on the forefront of turning these core applied sciences into outstanding new instruments for people who find themselves blind or visually impaired.
Cagri Hakan Zaman, Co-founder of Mediate and SuperSense
Kürşat Ceylan, Co-founder, WeWalk Know-how
Louis-Philippe Massé, Director of Product Administration, HumanWare
Moderator: Ned Desmond, Govt producer and founder, Sight Tech International
Product Accessibility: How Do You Get it Proper? And How Do You Know When You Have?
Accessibility consciousness is on the rise, however even groups with one of the best of intentions can flounder in relation to discovering the appropriate approaches. One secret’s to work carefully with the suitable communities of customers to get suggestions and perceive wants. The outcome is just not trade-offs however a greater product for everybody. On this session, we’ll hear from consultants on the frontline of accessibility in product growth.
Christine Hemphill, Founder and Managing Director, Open Inclusion
Alwar Pillai, Co-founder and CEO, Fable
Sukriti Chadha, Product Supervisor, Spotify
OIiver Warfield, Senior Product Supervisor for Accessibility
Brian Fischler, Commissioner, All Blind Fantasy Soccer League; humorist
Moderator: Larry Goldberg, Head of Accessibility, Yahoo
For Most Cellular Telephone Customers, Accessibility Is Spelled Android
Practically three-quarters of cell phone customers on this planet use telephones constructed on Google’s Android working system, not Apple’s iOS on the iPhone. For people who find themselves blind or have low imaginative and prescient, the important thing app is Google’s Lookout, which pulls on the huge assets of Google’s AI infrastructure, together with its pc imaginative and prescient database and Google maps. How is Google approaching the massive accessibility alternative Lookout represents?
Eve Andersson, Director of Accessibility, Google
Andreina Reyna, Senior Software program Engineer, Google
Warren Carr, Blind Android Consumer Podcast
Getting round: Autonomous Automobiles, Ridesharing and These Final Few Toes
Summoning a journey from a sensible telephone is a dream come true for a lot of, however when you’ve issue discovering that journey, even when it’s a number of toes away, the expertise could be a nightmare, to not point out harmful. How are rideshare and autonomous taxi corporations working to make these previous couple of toes from rider to automobile safer and higher for blind and low-vision riders?
Kerry Brennan, UX Analysis Supervisor, Waymo
Marco Salsiccia, Accessibility Evangelist, Lyft
Eshed Ohn-Bar, Assistant Professor, Boston College
Moderator: Bryan Bashin, CEO, LightHouse, San Francisco
Don’t overlook to register for this free, digital occasion.
Sight Tech International is a manufacturing of the Vista Middle for the Blind and Visually Impaired. We’re grateful to present sponsors Ford, Google, Humanware, Microsoft, Mojo Imaginative and prescient, Fb, Fable, APH and Vispero. If you want to sponsor the occasion, please contact us. All sponsorship revenues go to the nonprofit Vista Middle, which has been serving the Silicon Valley space for 75 years.