Research and Development Projects Related to Accessibility

Microsoft Research is dedicated to conducting both basic and applied research in computer science and software engineering. Among its goals are enhancing the user experience on computing devices and inventing novel computing technologies. Many of its projects will make the computer easier to see, hear, and interact with.

Areas of focus include:

• Adaptive Systems and Interaction research pursues automated reasoning, adaptation, and human-computer interaction. One area of focus is pursuing the development of new input devices and sensors that promise to provide users with new abilities to directly manipulate objects and visualizations. Ongoing work in this area includes extending mouse and keyboard with touch sensors, enabling systems to sense contact from the user's hands.
• Speech Technology researchers are working to improve spoken language technologies. They are interested not only in creating state-of-the-art spoken language components, but also in how these disparate components can come together with other modes of human-computer interaction to form a unified, consistent computing environment.
• Natural Language Processing researchers are working to design and build software that will analyze, understand, and generate languages that humans use naturally, so that eventually you will be able to address your computer as though you were addressing another person.