accessibility

These startups are making smarter canes for people with visual impairments

Biotech & Health /

The white cane for the 21st century. While many tech companies have increasingly worked to make technology more accessible for the blind and visually impaired, canes haven’t benefitted much from these advances. London-born WeWalk takes a more traditional approach to the white cane. Beyond the bulkier handle, not much sets the company’s product apart visually […]

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Soliddd is building smart glasses for people with macular degeneration

Biotech & Health /

For the past several years, the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center have been lousy with AR/VR/XR smart glasses. While the some of the biggest names in tech, like Apple and Google, have struggled to gain traction in the category, accessible tech remains relatively unexplored. There’s a lot of work to be done in

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FTC orders AI accessibility startup accessiBe to pay $1M for misleading advertising

Apps /

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has fined accessiBe, a startup that claims to make websites more compatible with the screen readers blind people rely on to access the internet, for false advertising and compensating reviewers without disclosing that it sponsored the reviews. In a proposed order, the FTC would require accessiBe to pay $1 million

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Amazon Fire TV introduces ‘Dual Audio’ feature for simultaneous listening via hearing aids and TV speakers

Media & Entertainment /

Amazon announced on Wednesday new accessibility features for Fire TV, including a notable “Dual Audio” capability for the newly launched Fire TV Omni Mini-LED Series, which was unveiled in November. The new feature allows one user to listen through a hearing aid while others in the same room can enjoy audio through the TV’s built-in

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Evinced’s $55M C round will help bring its accessibility dev tools (and AI) to Europe

Startups /

Making sure your software is accessible is fast becoming a must rather than a nice-to-have, and Evinced is one of a wave of startups helping make that happen. The company is about to expand to Europe, where new accessibility regulations are about to take effect, and has raised $55 million to fuel the expansion. Evinced

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Haptic’s touch-based navigation helps blind and sighted alike get around without looking

Apps /

Smartphones and navigation apps have become second nature these days. But for those with blindness and low vision, it’s not quite so convenient. Haptic Works has been building a non-visual, non-verbal way of telling people where to go, and they’ve decided it’s time to scale up and take it global. Haptic presented onstage today as

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Fable adds cognitive and hearing impairments to its accessibility tools with $25M round

AI /

Fable has gained a reputation as the go-to startup for helping companies build digital products that are more accessible to people with disabilities. After raising $25 million in new funding, the Toronto-based startup is now expanding the communities it supports and working to make AI training data more inclusive. Fable started in 2020 as a

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Yelp updates app with AI-powered alt-text for images and new accessibility identifiers for businesses

Apps /

Yelp is rolling out an app update to include more accessibility identifiers for businesses, improved screen-reader experiences, and AI-powered alt-text for images. The company said that from 2020 to 2023, there has been an average rise of 40% in searches for “wheelchair accessible” places. With the new update, the company is adding eight more attributes

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Google expands hands-free and eyes-free interfaces on Android

Biotech & Health /

As part of 2024’s Accessibility Awareness Day, Google is showing off some updates to Android that should be useful to folks with mobility or vision impairments. Project Gameface allows gamers to use their faces to move the cursor and perform common click-like actions on desktop, and now it’s coming to Android. The project lets people

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Apple announces new accessibility features for iPhone and iPad users

Hardware /

Apple is bringing new accessibility features to iPads and iPhones, designed to cater to a diverse range of user needs. These include the ability to control your device with eye-tracking technology, create custom shortcuts using your voice, experience music with a haptic engine and more. The company unveiled the announcements ahead of Global Accessibility Awareness

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