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The next Forza will be the most accessible Forza ever

Forza Motorsport is arriving later this year with all the usual improvements in visual immersion and fidelity you’d expect from the latest Forza. But it’s also going to let players who are blind or have low vision race around tracks by listening for clever audio cues making Forza Motorsport the most accessible Forza title ever created.

Forza has a complex soundscape, including audio for tires, engines, and other objects, so Turn 10 had to find sounds that wouldn’t conflict. After experimenting with sounds like wind rushing past you to indicate where you are on a track, the team found this was confusing and opted for something far more simpler. read more

Microsoft coming out with a accessibility assistant for content creators

At this year’s Microsoft Ability Summit, the company has revealed its latest advancements for accessibility and disability inclusion. First, it’s bringing an accessibility assistant to Microsoft 365 (formerly Microsoft Office). The aim is to help people produce content that’s more accessible.

What will the accessibility assistant offer?

The assistant will offer suggestions on how to prevent and correct accessibility issues, along with what Microsoft calls “better defaults” and “real-time remediation.” The assistant follows an accessibility checker in Visual Studio. On a similar note, Microsoft has released a guidebook (PDF) to help people design products with cognitive diversity in mind. read more

Microsoft Teams launches new accessibility feature

In a Microsoft blog post , Accessibility Architect Chris Sano announced the creation of a “best-in-class experience for the deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) community” on Teams.

Sano, who is deaf himself, had been tasked with making the platform more accessible, and the first release – Sign Language View – is now ready, and hopes to transform how D/HH users to take part in Microsoft Teams calls for the better.

When needed, up to two sign language interpreters’ video feeds are kept in a consistent location so that D/HH meeting participants can dive straight into the call. The video tiles are also designed to be an optimal shape and size, and will automatically stream at the highest possible quality. read more

Penn State researchers develop new tool for blind or partially sighted computer programmers

The tool, called Grid Editor, serves as a modification to traditional code editors that programmers use to add lines of code when updating features and functions in software. Prior work has focused on making different parts of the coding process more accessible for blind and partially sighted users, such as reading or navigating code. Grid Editor is the first to place emphasis on code editing — an important step in making continuous updates to software, in which programmers edit and update existing code that was previously written by other programmers. read more

Google Meet launches new accessibility features

Google Meet users will soon find that their space button will now double as a mute toggle in Google Meet’s latest update. Google announced through their own blog that Google Meet would receive a new suite of updates now that the popular video conferencing service has now hit web devices.

How useful will this feature be for users?

This will be useful for users who join video calls with the mute on by default and those who regularly forget to mute their microphones after they’re done speaking.

Are the new features on by default?

You will need to be sure that you turn these on in their settings to enable the toggles. read more

Google Workspace is getting new accessibility upgrades

A new accessibility-focused update should help visually impaired users navigate Google Workspace much more easily, the company has revealed.

What is the new feature?

Rather than having the same accessibility settings universally across office software products such as Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings, you’ll now be able to set preferences for each product individually.

Google Workspace says it expects the change to help users of screen readers, braille devices, and screen magnifiers ensure their accessibility settings are personalized to best meet each user’s needs. read more

Slack releases new Accessibility updates

Earlier this month, Slack, published a blog post in which the Salesforce-owned company talked about a new software update promising to make the app more accessible.

“Every day, thousands of people with disabilities use their keyboards, screen readers and other assistive technologies to move work forward in their digital [headquarters]. That’s why we’re continuously working to improve accessibility in Slack, empowering our users to do the best work of their lives regardless of their abilities or circumstances,” the company wrote in the post. read more

Microsoft Edge adds new accessibility features with Narrator

Edge Dev Insiders have a new build that improves the browser’s accessibility. Microsoft Edge Dev recently received an update to version 105.0.1336.2.

What are the new features for Narrator?

Microsoft Edge Dev has a new build available for Insiders. The browser’s most recent update includes a couple of new features. Edge’s Narrator feature will now announce “banner” on “Learn more” links, making the browser more accessible. The update also adds support for a Chromium management policy to control if Unthrottled Nested Timeout is Enabled, though that option will be deprecated at some point in the future. read more

Discord launches new accessibility features

Discord has released several accessibility features on desktop, iOS and web, with Android support coming in the future.

What is one of the features?

A new Role Col-ors feature allows servers to display a coloured dot next to a user’s name if they have been assigned a role in the server. This option may be preferable in servers that assign bright colours to their roles or use colours that may be hard to see while using Discord’s Dark or Light visual themes.

What is the Windows High Contrast Mode?

The Windows High Contrast Mode feature allows users to “apply custom, high-contrast themes natively across windows.” read more

Microsoft unveils new accessibility Accessories for PC

Microsoft revealed a brand new line of adaptive accessories at its annual Ability Summit, along with its announcement of the new Inclusive Tech Lab.

Microsoft has unveiled a range of all-new accessibility peripherals for PC, each of which is designed for users with disabilities. The company has been at the forefront of studying, creating, and promoting accessibility in the past few years. In 2018, Microsoft made a commitment to players with disabilities with the launch of the Xbox Adaptive Controller, which was designed especially for players with limited mobility. Since then, the company has been expanding its accessibility research and development with other initiatives, hardware updates, and even an accessibility evaluation system for its game developers. read more

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