#vuidesign

A note on AI vs ML before we get into this newsletter: I prefer to use the term ML (Machine Learning) over AI because I want us, as humans who make things, to understand that we are responsible for these outcomes. We’re the ones who teach these machines or provide data sets (or we’re the ones that make the machines that teach themselves) and we need to be considerate about what we’re doing. It's semantics, but meaning matters.

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Microsoft kicks off AI for Accessibility

Today Microsoft announced a $25 million, 5-year program to “put AI tools in the hands of developers to accelerate the development of accessible and intelligent AI solutions to benefit the 1 billion-plus people with disabilities around the world.”

Yes, that press release really does say “intelligent [artificial intelligence]”

Worldwide, only 10% of people with disabilities have access to assistive technology, so it’ll be interesting to see if it’s better to make more tech available or …. Maybe just give more money to people with disabilities? (see this article on cash transfers)

AI for Accessibility has three components:

Providing seed grants of technology to developers, NGOs, universities, and inventors, so that they can do AI-first work

Identifying project with potential and providing more investment so they can scale

Embedding inclusive design and AI across all Microsoft products and helping partners improve the accessibility of their offerings

Read more about Microsoft’s AI for Accessibility program on their blog (there doesn’t seem to be a website yet - but there is a website for the AI for Earth program they launched last year: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/aiforearth)

Thinking about implementing ML for your product?

Review Martin Zinkevich’s Rules of Machine Learning: Best Practices for ML Engineering (PDF)

Brraaaaaains

Last weekend I got to hang out with a friend who is a neuroimaging specialist. We had a fun conversation about education theory (we’re both former teachers) and we discussed the history of humanity’s understanding of the brain. Have you ever thought about how in the past, we only knew what different parts of the brain did because:

Someone got stabbed in the head or injured and something about their memory, ability, or personality changed

Something about a person’s memory, ability, or personality changed and after they died we cut open their head and looked for damage.

Thanks, brain injuries!

Learn about the brain: What brain regions control our language?

Read the rest of the Brain Control series on The Conversation

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Research highlight: Voicesetting: Voice Authoring UIs for Improved Expressivity in Augmentative Communication

Microsoft Research is working on adding emotion to TTS via emoji, tested with participants with ALS, a neurological disease that causes muscle weakness.

Summary YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4FcvvbCM9Y

The paper: https://cs.stanford.edu/~merrie/papers/voicesetting.pdf

The real-life project it’s related to: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/hands-free-keyboard/

Why people need it: The ALS Association on Augmentative Communication

Accessibility roundup!

Making something for humans? Here’s a set of tips for designing accessibility into VUIs / UX Collective

5 things Pinterest changed to make its app better for people who are blind / Mashable

Voice should be user-friendly to all users Focus on cognitive impairment, but this advice applies to most VUI use / Speech Tech Magazine

Designing interfaces for the visually impaired Includes references to VUI’s, but the non-VUI parts are most interesting/helpful. The VUI parts are a recitation of a Nielsen report. / Stina Olofsson

VUI development for Korean people with dysarthria Researchers prototype and test a customizable VUI that works for people with slow or slurred speech (could be from trauma, a stroke, neurological disorders) / JOURNAL OF ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGIES

Accessibility features on Alexa + How to turn on the VoiceView screen reader Yep, the Amazon feature list. I turned on captioning on my Echo Show - have I mentioned lately how much I love captioning? I have it permanently on on my Netflix account.

How deep learning is helping the blind ‘see’ “Stevie Wonder uses it every day, which is pretty cool,” said Anirudh Koul, a senior data scientist with Microsoft, during a presentation at the GPU Technology Conference. / nvidia blog

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VUI news & links I want to get out of my queue before Google I/O starts

How Indian startups gear up to take on the voice assistants of Apple, Amazon and Google What sets these start-ups apart? They’re multi-lingual from the get-go.  / The Economic Times

Why Google Assistant will beat Siri, Alexa and Cortana Mike Elgan argues that success in the assistant space requires total ubiquity / Computer World

How Voice-First Technology Helps Older Adults This article offers a good overview of some VUI research with older adults the the current state of the “VUI for seniors” market / Forbes

Sensory Brings Low-Power Wake Words to Mobile Apps Now apps could have wake words, too. / Sensory blog

Amazon finally opens up Alexa to developers to make money off third-party skills Developers get 70 percent of revenue from the in-skill purchase / The Verge

Sonos announces June 6th event for new home theater speaker with Alexa It has an HDMI port (so it *could* control your TV) and it has a VUI / The Verge

The Elements of Multi-Modal Design with Karen Kaushansky – Voicebot Podcast Ep. 40 / Voicebot.ai

Read this thread from Liz Jackson on how disabled creators were erased from the Cooper Hewitt Access + Ability exhibit / Liz Jackson on Twitter

Alexa, can you hear me? Bravo to Vocalize.ai for highlighting algorithmic bias in their report on performing black-box evaluations of ASR systems / Vocalize.ai via PR Web (I know, 🤷)

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Reading status

I’m still reading the three books I mentioned last week (Fascism, Robots, and. . . Robots), but I couldn’t resist picking up Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I have a son, but I’m still raising a feminist.

Until next week!

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Abi Jones Editor, Locutius

Is there something I missed? Reply to this post with a link! Want to chat? I’m on Twitter at @jonesabi

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