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AI for Accessibility projects
Learn how our grantees are using AI powered technology to make the world more inclusive.
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AI for Accessibility vlogs
Tune in for conversations with current and past grantees exploring how their projects are driving accessibility innovation.
Enhancing low-cost refreshable braille display for education
Students with visual disabilities in India can have inadequate access to books, leading to low literacy. Hexis-Antara aims to remove the access barrier to books by converting textbook and non-academic content into braille on demand through Vembi, a device specially designed for children.
Converting DAISY books for diverse and affordable reading devices
DAISY Consortium is developing an easy-to-use conversion solution for developing countries, dramatically expanding the availability of accessible books for people with disabilities using low-configuration devices such as solar powered audio players, affordable braille displays and basic phones.
Educational platform for co-designing assistive technologies
MustardTek is creating an experiential learning platform where students co-design customized assistive technology devices. Inclusive design teams of students without disabilities and people with disabilities start from a place of empathy to design and build meaningful human-centered solutions.
Accessible mathematics online for students with vision disabilities
Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) is making math assessment more accessible for students with vision disabilities, addressing unmet accommodation needs that can exclude students from higher-level math and STEM careers.
PAINT the town with World Access for the Blind
PAINT uses a playfully instructive tech curriculum for youth who are vision-impaired, with audio, augmented reality, and blind tech coaches to build skills for navigation of physical and social environments.
Improving braille literacy skills via gamification
Using speech recognition with a braille display, Braille AI Tutor empowers students in braille literacy via gamification so they can practice independently or during distance learning.
I-Stem document accessibility portal
I-Stem is working to enhance accessibility of documents, including content with complex layouts, and math or science terminology, by combining AI with human corrections through their remediation portal.
Captioning with AI technology
Rochester Institute for Technology (RIT) is exploring various ways to improve captioning options for students who are Deaf or hard-of-hearing, including automatically removing disfluencies and adding punctuation.
Creating the first hiring platform for neurodiversity
Mentra’s goal is to revolutionize the recruiting industry by giving companies access to diverse thinkers from the neurodiverse community.
Optimizing diversity with disability
The Inclusive Design Research Centre (IDRC) at OCAD University is investigating disability understanding in hiring algorithms and builds on Future of Work and Disability.
Employment accessibility
Zammo leverages natural language processing, conversational AI, and voice tools to create an interface that will give users with disabilities the ability to browse and access job opportunities.
Expanding inclusive hiring
Our Ability is advancing inclusive hiring by offering employment seekers with disabilities an accessible and intuitive AI-powered chatbot to help them identify skills and create a profile to match existing jobs posted in the portal.
AI to support manufacturing and distribution jobs
In partnership with Gigi’s Playhouse and TRI Industries, Clover Technologies designed an open-source conversational AI app to help people with Down Syndrome and/or autism perform jobs in manufacturing.
The Visibility Project uses VR to develop empathy in doctor-patient relationships
The Visibility Project from the Affective Biometric Lab (ABL) at Howard University creates an immersive VR experience for fostering empathy in mental health providers. Psychiatrists experience a day-in-the-life of people misdiagnosed to reduce occurrences of biases and uncover microaggressions.
Bringing mental health research and AI together
Mental Health America, Northwestern University, and University of Toronto are developing an AI-powered text-messaging platform for mental health interventions, providing support for young people who may not seek formal treatment.
AI tools for mental helplines
Befrienders India and the Social Dynamics and Well-Being (SocWeB) Lab at Georgia Tech are using AI to match crisis line callers with volunteers based on the needs of the callers and the experiences of the volunteers.
Understanding empathy in text-based peer support
Researchers at the University of Washington (UW) are working with TalkLife and Supportiv to train natural language models to recognize empathy in text-based messages, then offer suggestions to make responses more empathetic.
Sign language translation with Project ASSIST
AI4Bharat aims to improve accessibility for the Deaf population in India by creating datasets to advance Indian Sign Language understanding, with a focus on workplace communication.
Ability Initiative at University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin works with Microsoft Research and AI for Accessibility to collect an expansive labelled dataset to improve the accuracy of automatic descriptions of photos captured by people with impaired vision.
Safety and independence for people who are blind or low vision
WeWALK’s ergonomic attachment to the white cane uses built-in motion sensors, voice control, and machine learning models to improve wayfinding and mobility experience for people who are blind or have low vision.
Personalizing and improving object recognition with AI
Through Project ORBIT (Object Recognition for Blind Image Training), City University of London collects data and develops algorithms for improving personalized AI object recognition.
Harnessing the power of data and AI
The Taskar Center and Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTs, along with local partners, use the OpenSidewalks framework to collect urban mobility data and develop tools that empower cities and peoples to create more inclusive futures.
