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[Voiceover] What's new in accessibility at Google
Hi everyone!
My name is Laura Allen, and my role as Head of Strategy and Programs
for Accessibility and Disability Inclusion here at Google.
I'm thrilled to be kicking off our Accessibility Highlight series
where every few months we'll be sharing
the latest news about our accessibility products, features and initiatives.
First up, in December 2022, we opened the doors at our dedicated
Accessibility Research and Development
Center in the UK called the London Accessibility Discovery Center.
Engineers, researchers and wider product teams are using the center to workshop
ideas and learn more about assistive technologies-
collaborating and co-designing with disability communities.
It's created opportunities for us to connect with individuals, governments
and other businesses to elevate conversations around accessibility.
This project was developed in consultation with local organizations,
including the Royal National Institute of Blind People,
the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, Everyone Can,
and Google's Internal Disability Alliance Employee Resource Group.
I'm excited to announce that the Accessibility Resource Hub
is now live on our site belonging.google.
The hub brings the best of Google's external accessibility
resources together in one place for developers, designers
and technologists of all types looking to build a more accessible world.
The Belonging site also makes it easier to explore
Google's accessibility features and products,
learn about Google's work on disability inclusion and find Google's Accessibility
Conformance Reports. We'll add direct links
for some of those pages and the description of this video.
We've also revamped Android.com/accessibility
with the latest products and new dedicated pages for vision, hearing and mobility,
which have now been localized in UK English, French, Japanese,
German and Brazilian Portuguese.
Speaking of Android, we recently launched a few new updates
for users with dyslexia and vision and hearing related disabilities.
Reading Mode is an accessible
and personalized reading experience on Android.
Users can customize the contrast, color and font size of text without changes
to the content. Or use the read aloud feature to hear text verbalized.
We've also made some updates to TalkBack,
our Android screen reader. TalkBack 13.0 now includes
“Icon Detection” which uses machine learning to annotate unlabeled icons,
for more effective navigation. We followed that up with TalkBack 13.1,
which increases Braille
support and improves editing experiences with features like copy paste,
spellcheck and new gestures for faster typing.
And Custom Sound Notifications have been added to Live Transcribe & Notifications.
This feature was designed with members of the deaf and hard of hearing community.
In addition to detecting and alerting users to standard
critical household sounds like fire alarms, running water, and door knocks,
users can now add their own personalized sounds for appliances in their kitchen,
so you can have a different alert for, say, a rice cooker versus a microwave.
In Pixel News, we announced Guided Frame, which is available on Pixel 6,
Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 7, and Pixel 7 Pro.
Guided Frame is a selfie feature aiming to help blind and low vision users like me
capture selfies with a combination of precise
audio guidance, high-contrast animation and haptic feedback.
We've also updated Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro
to now transcribe Audio Messages.
This feature is available in English, Japanese, German and French
and will roll out to other languages and other devices in the coming months.
In Workspace,
new Google Calendar Shortcuts were launched
to improve efficiency for screen reader users.
Announced Shortcuts for Calendar enables users to hear Calendar details
like the title, date and time and the guest list
on demand instead of after time consuming navigation.
And we've granted more control over accessibility preferences
in Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drawings.
Rather than having the same accessibility settings apply across these products.
Users are now able to set preferences for each product individually.
For example, screen reader support can now be enabled in one editor
and Braille support in another.
Finally, with Multi-pinning in Google Meet,
users can now pin multiple participant videos during a meeting.
This only impacts the user's local layout and can assist
individuals with accessibility needs in a number of different cases.
For example, you can paint a sign language interpreter and a presenter screen
at the same time.
Our accessibility teams across Google are working hard to continue
building accessible, helpful products with and for people with disabilities.
We look forward to sharing more updates like these with you in a few months.
To learn more, sign up for our accessibility newsletter at
g.co/a11y/news
or by clicking the link in the description of this video.
Until next time.
What's new in accessibility at Google