New York has just passed the digital fair repair act (Assembly Bill A7006B), making it one of just a few states in the US to do so. The bill, which was introduced in April 2021, passed the senate on June 1st and passed assembly today. It's now headed to the governor for signing (or veto), and will take effect a year after it becomes law.

The act, titled "Digital Fair Repair Act," will require OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) to "make diagnostic and repair information for digital electronic parts and equipment available to independent repair providers and consumers if such parts and repair information are also available to OEM authorized repair providers." That means companies can no longer dictate where you can bring your devices to get them repaired by limiting the access to components or diagnostic information.

If a part is no longer available to the OEM, it will not need to make the same part available to everyone. For things that require security-related locks or authorizations, the OEM has to, "on fair and reasonable terms," supply the tools or documentation needed to access or reset such devices "through appropriate secure release systems."

The amended version of the bill also states that the proposed requirements will apply to "products with a value over ten dollars" and that OEMs or authorized repair providers don't have to make available any parts, tools or documentation if the intended use is for modification of the products. It also excludes public safety communications equipment and "home appliances with digital electronics embedded within them" from the act. Given the way companies have been trending towards making smart fridges, washing machines and more, this could potentially be an enormous loophole or at the very least exclude a large number of products.

Massachusetts previously passed its own Digital Right to Repair Act, which covered parts or machines containing microprocessors. The state has recently expanded that to include connected automobiles. Meanwhile, the California state Senate introduced its own right to repair bill in February, which appears to have bipartisan support. 

While we wait to learn more about Android 13, Google continues to release new features to its platform in the same regular cadence it's adopted for the last few years. Today, the company has announced a set of updates around GBoard stickers, the Play Store and accessibility apps like Lookout and Sound Amplifier.

First, Google is bringing custom text stickers, which it previously launched on Pixel phones, to all Android devices. The feature allows you to convert English words into images, so if you type "Hi Ma" into GBoard and tap the custom stickers button in the suggested emojis row, you'll see some auto-generated graphics featuring that text in different designs. Your language will have to be set to US English for this to work, for now.

The company is also adding more than 1,600 new Emoji Kitchen combinations so you can make new hybrid emoticons by tapping two symbols in succession. It's also adding rainbow-themed stickers for users to share their Pride celebrations. 

Sound Amplifier is an Android app that makes sounds around you louder, which could be helpful for people with hearing loss. "Today's update brings improved background noise reduction," according to Google, along with "faster and more accurate sound and a revamped user interface that is easier to see."

Also relevant to accessibility is the Lookout app, which uses the device's camera to identify and describe objects around the user. It can read out words on signs or tell you if there's say, a table at the two o'clock position, for example, so you can avoid walking into it. Today, Google's adding a new Images mode that uses its "latest machine learning model for image understanding" and can describe an image even if you opened it from "just about any app." The company also updated the Text, Documents, Food Label and Explore modes to make the app more accurate. Plus, Lookout now works offline, so you can use it without an internet connection.

Finally, those who have been racking up Google Play Points can use them to get in-app items without leaving their games or apps. You can choose to pay for things with solely Play Points or a mix of money and points. This feature is rolling out over the coming weeks in the countries where Play Points are available. Meanwhile, you can update your other apps like Lookout and GBoard to see the new tools announced today.

Like many people, my food insecurity got pretty serious in April 2020. Cities and businesses all across America were shutting down, while grocery stores and delivery services started to run out of food. Everywhere I looked — whether it was Amazon, Instacart, Uber Eats or FreshDirect — it seemed impossible to find a reliable source of fruits and vegetables. I looked at my dwindling supply of canned soups and packets of ramen and almost wept.

Now, I know I’m immensely fortunate compared to a lot of people to be able to even consider my access to fresh food during the height of the pandemic. I know that there are people for whom a supply of canned food would have been a godsend, not to mention fruits and vegetables. That said, I think a lot of people can also identify, and felt the need to stock up.

Even as scarcity eased, I wanted to have a reliable source of fresh meals just in case we had to lock down again. I looked at delivery services like Blue Apron, Sunbasket and Purple Carrot. As a single person living on her own, I didn’t want to get too much food that would just spoil in my fridge. I also preferred meals that were ready made, rather than deal with raw meats.

My preference for convenient preparation limited the selections, and I narrowed down my options to Daily Harvest, Revive Superfoods and CookUnity. These companies all offered significant discounts on my first deliveries, and I rotated through them each week.

All three provided delicious, fresh food that was easy to prepare, and I appreciate that they all made an effort to use sustainable packaging. Daily Harvest’s packaging was almost 100 percent paper, with CookUnity a close second. The latter used plastic wrap on top of paper boxes for meals, with plastic containers for sauces, and meals were delivered in insulated bags that you could return with your next delivery. Daily Harvest, meanwhile, mostly used bowls made from molded pulp, as well as recyclable paper cups or pods where possible. Revive Superfoods also does a respectable job, with recyclable paper cups and plastic lids.

As my dietary needs shifted to focus on more protein instead of prioritizing fresh vegetables and fruit, it was critical that I could look up each meal’s nutritional info before my weekly orders. Again, all three websites offered at least basic data on macros and ingredients. The last time I ordered, only CookUnity allowed me to filter my searches by calorie count, which was one of my concerns at the time.

CookUnity also had an advantage in that it offered the greatest variety of meals, while Revive was the most limited in its options. I also loved that CookUnity’s food was chef-prepared and usually had more balanced macros. But they needed to be consumed within two to three days, while Daily Harvest’s and Revive’s could be stored in the freezer.

Ultimately, I quit Revive and CookUnity for the same reason. Both companies started to restrict how long you could skip upcoming deliveries, and trying to stay on top of my schedule got trickier and trickier. The tighter windows meant I had to check in to each service every two weeks to make sure I skipped an order, as opposed to a couple of months.

Daily Harvest

Daily Harvest, on the other hand, lets you skip up to nine weeks of upcoming deliveries, the company also sends you a reminder before it bills your account. It gives you ample time to consider if you need the food that week and cancel if you feel like it. Daily Harvest also provides helpful information about how its vegan meals taste, giving you a comparison to something more familiar.

That’s an important feature, by the way, since Daily Harvest’s meals are often vegetarian versions of other dishes. My favorites are the “Kimchi fried rice” made with riced cauliflower, the lentil-and-tomato bolognese and the spinach and shitake grits with nutritional yeast. Each of these consists of a handful of simple, mostly organic ingredients, and basically everything I’ve tried tastes fantastic. I loved the Broccoli and Cheeze bowl, the vegetable-crust flatbreads, the assortment of dessert bites, the vegan ice creams (especially the salted black sesame swirl) and the lattes, too. The only thing I didn’t really like was the chocolate and hazelnut smoothie, but only in comparison to something similar from Revive Superfoods.

I also generally picked bowls because they’re the easiest to prepare — just add a little water (you can skip this step) and throw it in the microwave. Many of the other options require either a blender or using your oven.

You can tell from everything I’ve mentioned, though, that Daily Harvest has a wide variety of food to offer. I haven’t even mentioned the breakfast-friendly forager bowls, the soups and the newly launched “Crumbles,” which are meant to provide a protein punch. Just looking at the menu again has me itching to send in an order for things I haven’t tried yet, like the Matcha and Murasaki bites.

In the end, though lots of meal delivery services can send you great-tasting food, few actually do so with the thoughtful approach of Daily Harvest. I don’t love that the prices of some of its dishes and lattes have increased in the last year, but at least it’s been very up front about these changes. I’ve received email notifications delineating exactly what was getting more expensive and when, as well as an explanation for the change.

I’ve since canceled my Revive and CookUnity accounts, not without hassle, by the way. After a few rounds of back-and-forth emails with customer service, Revive finally agreed to deactivate my account, rather than delete it and remove my payment and delivery details from their servers like I asked. CookUnity, meanwhile, simply had the typical process of offering you a discount and asking you to answer some questions after you manage to find the Cancel Subscription link. But at least I was able to actually cancel my subscription without having to talk to customer service.

Revive still emails me daily asking me to “Come back for more at 50% off” or “Reactivate with a 50% off offer” even after repeated emails in September and October saying “LAST CHANCE! Come back and save 40% x 2!” Typical marketing bluster, I know, but still annoying given I had asked in writing for them to lose my info. CookUnity’s last email to me was in January 19th, 2022, and when I signed back into my account, it showed me "Your subscription was canceled =("

I haven’t gotten a box from Daily Harvest in months, because these days I’ve been trying out a few more new services like Better Bagel, Farmer’s Fridge and Huel. So far I’ve loved the quality of food for the first two, and Huel is a little less appetizing. Regardless of the new options I add to my roster, I’m more than happy to keep ordering from Daily Harvest. Delicious, fresh food, a well-designed website and thoughtful customer service? Take my money.

Global Accessibility Awareness Day is this Thursday (May 19th) and Apple, like many other companies, is announcing assistive updates in honor of the occasion. The company is bringing new features across iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch, and the most intriguing of the lot is systemwide Live Captions.

Similar to Google's implementation on Android, Apple's Live Captions will transcribe audio playing on your iPhone, iPad or Mac in real time, displaying subtitles onscreen. It will also caption sound around you, so you can use it to follow along conversations in the real world. You'll be able to adjust the size and position of the caption box, and also choose different font sizes for the words. The transcription is generated on-device, too. But unlike on Android, Live Captions on FaceTime calls will also clearly distinguish between speakers, using icons and names for attribution of what's being said. Plus, those using Macs will be able to type a response and have it spoken aloud in real time for others in the conversation. Live Captions will be available as a beta in English for those in the US and Canada. 

Apple is also updating its existing sound recognition tool, which lets iPhones continuously listen out for noises like alarms, sirens, doorbells or crying babies. With a coming update, users will be able to train their iPhones or iPads to listen for custom sounds, like your washing machine's "I'm done" song or your pet duck quacking, perhaps. A new feature called Siri Pause Time will also let you extend the assistant's wait time when you're responding or asking for something, so you can take your time to finish saying what you need. 

Apple

The company is updating its Magnifier app that helps people who are visually impaired better interact with people and objects around them. Expanding on a previous People Detection tool that told users how far away others around them were, Apple is adding a new Door Detection feature. This will use the iPhone's LiDAR and camera to not only locate and identify doors, but will also read out text or symbols on display, like hours of operation and signs depicting restrooms or accessible entrances. In addition, it will describe the handles, whether it requires a push, pull or turn of a knob, as well as the door's color, shape, material and whether it's closed or open. Together, People and Door Detection will be part of the new Detection mode in Magnifier. 

Updates are also coming to Apple Watch. Last year, the company introduced Assistive Touch, which allowed people to interact with the wearable without touching the screen. The Watch would sense if the hand that it's on was making a fist or if the wearer was touching their index finger and thumb together for a "pinch" action. With an upcoming software update, it should be faster and easier to enable Quick Actions in assistive touch, which would then let you use gestures like double pinching to answer or end calls, take photos, start a workout or pause media playback.

But Assistive Touch isn't a method that everyone can use. For those with physical or motor disabilities that preclude them from using hand gestures altogether, the company is bringing a form of voice and switch control to its smartwatch. The feature is called Apple Watch Mirroring, and uses hardware and software including AirPlay to carry over a user's preset voice or switch control preferences from their iPhones, for example, to the wearable. This would allow them to use their head-tracking, sound actions and Made For iPhone switches to interact with their Apple Watch. 

Apple is adding more customization options to the Books app, letting users apply new themes and tweak line heights, word and character spacings and more. Its screen reader VoiceOver will also soon be available in more than 20 new languages and locales, including Bengali, Bulgarian, Catalan, Ukrainian and Vietnamese. Dozens of new voices will be added, too, as is a spelling mode for voice control that allows you to dictate custom spellings using letter-by-letter input

Finally, the company is launching a new feature called Buddy Controller that will let people use two controllers to drive a single player, which would be helpful for users with disabilities who want to partner up with their care providers. Buddy Controller will work with supported game controllers for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV. There are plenty more updates coming throughout the Apple ecosystem, including on-demand American Sign Language interpreters expanding to Apple Store and Support in Canada as well as a new guide in Maps, curated playlists in Apple TV and Music and the addition of the Accessibility Assistant to the Shortcuts app on Mac and Watch. The features previewed today will be available later this year.

Apple may be about to change the iPhone's charging port. According to a Bloomberg report, the company is testing new iPhones and adapters with USB-C, which is what MacBooks and iPads already use, not to mention a plethora of devices outside the Apple ecosystem. We've reached out to Apple for confirmation and have yet to receive a response.

Bloomberg's sources said that the adapter being tested may "let future iPhones work with accessories designed for the current Lightning connector." That could mean a Lightning-to-USB-C adapter for things like credit card scanners or flash drives that plug into existing iPhones. Bloomberg's report noted that if Apple "proceeds with the change, it wouldn't occur until 2023 at the earliest." 

While Apple's decisions to change ports have been the subject of many jokes in popular culture, a move to USB-C may actually be welcome. The more widely available standard is only slightly bigger than Lightning, but can deliver power and data more quickly. The change could also make life much easier for those who already use USB-C to charge most of their devices and still have to carry a Lightning cable with them just for their iPhones. 

Apple's motivations for the potential change may not be completely altruistic. The EU has been pushing for a universal phone charging standard for years, and recently proposed legislation that would make USB-C the mandated port for all handsets. Testing USB-C on iPhones would just be Apple recognizing the writing on the wall. If this does come to pass, though, it would not only be convenient for most people who are already largely using USB-C, but could also mean less e-waste in the future.

The worstkeptsecret in tech is a secret no more. At its I/O developer conference today, Google just confirmed the existence of the much-leaked Pixel Watch. Not only that, the company showed pictures of the device, and it looks a lot like a bezelless Samsung Galaxy Watch. 

The Pixel Watch has a domed, round face and, like most Google hardware, appears to have a pastel-based color scheme. There is a "tactile crown" and customizable bands will be available, too. The device will run Wear OS 3, which the company launched last year in collaboration with Samsung, but with updates we heard about earlier during today's keynote. Some features we already knew about, like offline Maps directions on your wrist, are finally arriving for real. Emergency SOS and a new Google Wallet are also coming to Wear OS on the Pixel Watch.

Google is also promising deep integration with Fitbit, which it recently acquired, for health and fitness-tracking features. Wear OS has long lacked comprehensive activity and biometric-tracking tools, and now, the OS will better. Google had already said it was working with Fitbit and learning from Samsung on how to efficiently implement constant heart rate monitoring and sleep tracking. It appears the Pixel Watch, with the latest Wear OS, will offer that.

It will also have a Fitbit app that lets users collect "Active Zone minutes" that fans of the activity band maker will find familiar. You'll also be able to log your progress against preset goals. It's not yet clear how the Fitbit app will work with Google's own Fit, or if there will be any overlap.

In fact, not much else is known about the Pixel Watch itself, except that more details will be released in the coming months and that it will launch in the fall with the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro. We don't know what chipset Google is using, or what battery life to expect. One thing worth noting is that the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, which was the first smartwatch to run the new Wear OS, does not work with iOS. The Pixel Watch will not, either. But most iPhone users will likely opt for the Apple Watch, which to this day is the best smartwatch available.

The Pixel Watch is an intriguing offering from Google, but until we have more information, it's hard to know if the company will be able to steal Apple's crown. For now, after having had to wait so long, I guess we have to wait just a little more to get the full details.

Follow all of the news from Google I/O 2022 right here!

After launching a new version of Wear OS in collaboration with Samsung last I/O, Google is back with more updates. At this year's developer conference, the company unveiled features coming to Android 13 and a new Google Wallet, as well as emergency SOS coming to Wear OS. Google also shared that there are now three times more Wear OS devices this year as there were last year and that new devices from Samsung, Montblanc and Fossil are coming. 

No word yet on the highly leaked Pixel Watch, though given Google is in the middle of its keynote right now, this might not be the case for much longer. 

This story is developing, please refresh for updates.

Follow all of the news from Google I/O 2022 right here!

Google is announcing news at breakneck pace at its I/O developer conference today, and as usual it's flexing its machine-learning smarts. In addition to unveiling its new LaMDA 2 conversational AI model, the company also showed off a new app called AI Test Kitchen. 

The app offers three demos that showcase what LaMDA 2 can do. The first is a simple brainstorm tool that asks the app to help you imagine if you were in various scenarios. During the keynote demo, Google entered "I'm at the deepest part of the ocean" as a response to the app's prompt of "Imagine if." The app then spit out a short paragraph describing the user in a submarine the Marianas Trench, with descriptive language.

Secondly, as a demonstration of the model being able to stay on topic, the app can have a conversation with you about something and understand context. During the demo, the app started by asking "Have you ever wondered why dogs like to play fetch so much?" In its responses to simple follow-ups like "Why is that," the system replied with more information about dogs and their senses of smell. 

Finally, AI Test Kitchen shows how LaMDA 2 can "break down a complex goal or topic." This section is called List It, and users can ask things like "I want to learn ukulele" or "I want to grow a garden." LaMDA will generate lists of subtasks to help you get started, and according to Google, may even offer ideas you might not have thought of. In addition to giving you the names of vegetables you can grow, for example, AI Test Kitchen might also give you a set of steps to take or weather conditions to consider. During the demo, the app offered a tip for users with limited space, sharing the types of plants that might thrive in smaller gardens. 

According to CEO Sundar Pichai, Google is using this app in part to gather feedback on its new AI model. It will open up access "over the coming months, carefully assessing feedback from the broad range of stakeholders — from AI researchers and social scientists to human rights experts." Pichai said these findings will be incorporated into future versions of LaMDA. He added that, over time, the company intends to "continue adding other emerging areas of AI into our AI Test Kitchen."

Follow all of the news from Google I/O 2022 right here!

The Xbox Adaptive Controller was Microsoft’s first real attempt at making accessible hardware. And while it was very well-received, it didn’t really impact non-gamers. Today, the company is launching a new product with a much wider audience: a mouse. The Microsoft Adaptive Mouse kit actually consists of a mouse, attachable tail, hub and button. They’re modular and highly customizable, offering a wide variety of ways for people with different needs to interact with their laptops, tablets or phones.

At the heart of the new Adaptive Mouse kit is, well, the mouse. Because you can insert this into different attachments, it’s sometimes referred to as the core. It’s a tiny square, approximately two inches (50mm) wide, and about as thick as my finger. There’s a scroll wheel between the left and right buttons, and on the underside you’ll find an optical sensor and triggers for Bluetooth and ejecting the back bumper.

I’ll get to the removable piece in a bit but at this point in the demo I was already enamored with the mouse, which I found really easy to use. As someone who suffers from shoulder and neck pain due to a home office setup that’s not ergonomically ideal, I loved the idea of a low-profile mouse that I didn’t have to strain to use.

At the conference table in Microsoft’s new Inclusive Tech Lab, I placed the mouse under my palm and dragged it around. Since it’s so small, I could move it more easily than a traditional mouse by pushing it with my fingers, instead of using my upper arm or forearm. Being able to lay my fingers mostly flat also felt less strenuous on my nerves. I barely had to lift a finger to use it.

Of course, I’m not a professionally trained ergonomist, and there are other issues like elbow angle and table height to take into consideration. I’ll also need to spend more time using the Adaptive mouse to see its long term effects. But the best part about the new kit isn’t the shape of the core, it’s that you can easily customize it to suit your needs.

The second part of the Adaptive Mouse kit is the tail. You can insert the core to this piece, after removing the bumper, and get a larger, more traditional-looking mouse with a curved shape. There’s not much to explain here, except the fact that the thumb support on the bottom is reversible for left-handed or right-handed use.

This is important. You won’t have to go and buy a separate device if you’re left-handed, which would create an othering experience that often happens with assistive tech.

The Adaptive kit becomes a lot more useful with the Hub and Button. The Hub is a rectangular block that’s basically a dock with ports and buttons on it. Along the back are five 3.5mm jacks, while three USB-C ports sit in front, next to a sync button. On the top are a round Bluetooth key and a square button for toggling through up to three profiles. These are shaped differently for easy recognition by touch, and don’t require much force to press.

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

The Hub serves as a bridge between various switch-input controllers like Braille keyboards and mouth sticks, and devices like your laptop and phone. Your PC, tablet or phone will recognize these input methods as it would a typical mouse or keyboard.

Possibly the most intriguing component of the Adaptive Mouse kit is the new Button, which you’ll also need to connect to your device via the Hub. Like the core, it’s a 50mm square, but it has eight buttons laid out in a circle. Using a PC, you can program these to perform any task you want. There’s a wide variety of possibilities here: You can map them to scroll up or down, open apps, or enter keyboard shortcuts.

The Button can also handle sequential tasks, so you can have the first push open an app, then have the second tap of the same button enter a phrase, and a third send an email, for example.

At the demo, director of accessible accessories Gabi Michel showed me how to record a sequence of actions. We decided that the macro I wanted to program is to enter the words “I agree to the embargo, please share more” and hit send. In the (non-final) Windows software, Michel started a new macro, named it “Embargo agreement” and chose to record an action. She entered the sentence, inserted a pause (which tells the system to wait for a subsequent button push), then hit the Control and Enter keys on her keyboard, which would send the email in Outlook.

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Some of the commands you can program require the relevant app to be open first, so in this case I’d have to be on Outlook before starting the macro. You can also set things like Alt-Tab or more complicated Adobe keyboard shortcuts that require several buttons to be pressed at once. As someone who frequently uses Photoshop’s Ctrl-Alt-Shift-S shortcut to save images for the web, I can already see the benefits of mapping this combination to one key.

The beauty of the Adaptive Button, though, lies in its customizability. You can twist off the wheel on the top surface and replace it with a joystick or a setup with two semicircles, which Microsoft calls a dual button. With these, people who have limited mobility can hit bigger targets to trigger their macros. The joystick, for example, can be pushed with an elbow or a head, and the eight buttons underneath can be programmed correspondingly.

With the dual button, for instance, the top four inputs can be mapped to one action, while the bottom four can perform another. This is how lead industrial designer for the Adaptive accessories John Helmes has a Button set up for his daughter, who has cerebral palsy. For her, pushing the top and bottom halves trigger up and down scrolling, which is helpful since she doesn’t have the dexterity for a scroll wheel.

The d-pad, dual button and joystick are toppers that Microsoft will offer at launch, but it’s teamed up with 3D printing service Shapeways to give people additional options. At the demo, I saw various designs, including one that looked like a Dyson bladeless fan.

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

The 3D-printed pieces don’t just work with the Button — you can create them for the mouse core, too. Hermes said his daughter, who has involuntary movements and light spasms in her hands, uses one with deeper finger grooves on it and a stiffer, grippier texture. This helps to keep her fingers on the buttons.

Michel also showed me some other pieces, like an extended palm rest for the core, covers for scroll wheels and tails with higher arches. Whatever shape might suit you better, it seems as if there is a way to 3D print an attachment that would make the mouse easier to use.

Microsoft may have created its new Adaptive Mouse kit with the disability community in mind, but as is often the case with inclusive design, products that are made to solve problems for a small community can have benefits for a larger population. The Button can make interacting with a phone or laptop easier for people with limited mobility, but it can also simplify the workflow for so many others. Video editors could map common actions to specific buttons, for example, while I would love to actually have a one-button embargo agreement shortcut.

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

I applaud Microsoft’s thoughtfulness here, but I still have lingering questions. The Adaptive Mouse, Hub and Button will be available this fall, but many details – including price – are still unclear. Too often, assistive technology is prohibitively priced, and it would be disappointing if Microsoft charged too much of a premium. With the Xbox Adaptive Controller, which launched for $99, it's more expensive than the Xbox Wireless Controller ($50-$60) but notably cheaper than the premium Elite Controller ($170). 

Without knowing the exact price of the Adaptive Mouse kit and the 3D printed pieces, it’s hard to tell how much of an impact it will have. But I do think Microsoft’s continued development of products for people with disabilities is laudable, and will hopefully spur on the rest of the industry. Because fostering more competition and driving prices down will benefit not only the disability community but all of us as well.

On the north campus of Microsoft’s 500-acre headquarters, anticipation is quietly mounting. The company is gearing up to launch its new Inclusive Tech Lab, which sits in Building 86 — one of 125 buildings in its Redmond, Washington grounds. This 2,000-square-foot room used to be a reception area, with a set of doors leading to the offices within and another pair facing the rest of the world. It only seems fitting, considering what Microsoft envisions this lab to be: a place to welcome members of the disability community, the tech industry and its own designers. Importantly, it’s close to key personnel in Microsoft’s product teams. Across the street is building 88, where you’ll find chief product officer Panos Panay’s office, while down the road is the Hardware Lab in building 87.

On a recent visit to the Inclusive Tech Lab, I met a few members of the team (and Panay briefly dropped in via video chat) ahead of the launch. They were eager to welcome the world into the carefully designed room. “This is an embassy for people with disabilities,” accessibility program manager Solomon Romney said, “it is the connection between the community and our product making teams.”

The new Inclusive Tech Lab is the successor to an earlier version on the West campus that the Xbox team opened in 2017, when it was developing the Adaptive Controller. But that wasn’t a dedicated space. Senior director of hardware accessibility Kris Hunter described it as a “grassroots effort.”

“Some of the team members came together, we built IKEA furniture over the weekend,” she said. “It was just this passion project.” Though that was initially imagined to be an incubator for the Xbox team to work with designers and engineers, it evolved beyond gaming. Over the years, the lab in Studio B on the west campus hosted about 7,000 people, including clothing designers, members of congress and even competitors like Nintendo and PlayStation.

Microsoft

When Hunter was transferred from Xbox to the devices team, she was asked to replicate that experience — this time with a designated space. “Panos came through one day and said, ‘There’s a space over at 86, I think it would be perfect for you guys to show and expand your thinking here,’” she said.

The space at 86 is an open-plan square that’s reminiscent of a child’s playroom. It’s bright and airy, with colorful toys and a giant fiber-optic jellyfish hanging from the ceiling in one corner. The lab is sectioned off into six general areas, including the welcome desk, a sensory stimulation corner, a demo classroom, a faux conference room and a “work and play” area. These are meant to simulate environments in which people use technology, to help product designers and members of the disability community have a basis for discussion and sharing experiences.

For that to be a conducive and welcoming environment for their guests, the Inclusive Tech Lab team had to take many different needs into consideration when designing the space, quite literally, from the ground up.

To start with, the floor of the room is divided into sections with visually distinct patterns and different tactile surfaces like wood and carpet, which makes them easier to tell apart by people using canes. Microsoft’s team was also careful to make sure the borders between them were flat to avoid potential trip hazards. “It took about 12 different attempts to come in and re-level the floor perfectly,” Romney said.

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

The lab’s ceilings have felt baffles, and the room uses felt walls that “help suck sound so that we have much clearer audio in here,” Romney explained. “For people who have limited hearing, it’s much easier to hear what’s being said.” It also provides a more comfortable environment for individuals with neurodiversity who might feel overstimulated in a large echoey space.

The light system, which can be controlled by a wall panel or via an app that Romney ran on a Surface Duo, offers dimming and color settings. “This is designed specifically to assist with sensitivities in neurodiverse individuals as well. If there are particular colors that are more soothing or others to be avoided, we can do that in real time,” he said.

He also highlighted the double motorized doors leading into the room. Both doors open automatically when you push a button or wave your hand in front of a nearby motion sensor. “That is the only place in Microsoft that you’re going to find that. It’s something we have been working on for months and months to make that a reality,” Romney said. He pointed out that although some other doors may be ADA-width, people with wheelchairs can still have a hard time fitting through them if they’re carrying bags or bulky items.

The team also made an effort to ensure the bathrooms nearest to the lab could cater to the needs of people with disabilities. Around the corner from the lab is a gender-neutral bathroom that is not only wheelchair-accessible, but also contains the first adult-sized powered changing table on the campus. Romney mentioned that this was a priority after previously encountering cases where visitors had to resort to being changed on the floors of bathrooms. “It was undignified and it was unsanitary,” he said.

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Bearing in mind people who may be moving around with walking aids or reaching out to objects for support, the Inclusive Tech Lab team chose furniture that would not topple over easily. None of the chairs or tables have wheels, although some of the heavier storage benches do. That’s in part because, as Romney explained, the lab is “a living space” that would evolve and adapt as needs arise. The team might move closets around or re-designate the sections, for instance.

For now, though, the six areas in the lab reflect the way our lives are today. The work and play area, specifically, is set up to show a home office, kitchen table and living room. Along the back wall is a desk with a Surface Studio, showing Windows accessibility features for people with low vision. On the kitchen table, the team has laid out not only a Surface Laptop Studio connected to a Braille display and audio scales, but also a mug with a “Say When” sensor that provides audible alerts to prevent overfilling.

“What we showcase here is the best that Microsoft has to offer alongside the best that our partners have to offer,” Romney said. “We rely on a lot of other people to help fill out that ecosystem of accessibility.” Both he and Hunter reiterated that “accessibility is not a competition.” When she was telling me about bringing Nintendo and PlayStation to the lab in Studio B, Hunter said, “we believe that a rising tide floats all boats.”

To the right of the faux dining area is a hypothetical living room, with a couch and a large TV. Here, the team has provided the Xbox Adaptive Controller and setups for one-handed Halo and no-hand Forza. Gaming is the team’s heritage, Romney said, and since the new lab is twice the size of its predecessor, they haven’t had to reduce the footprint of the gaming area at all.

In the classroom space, three tables have been set up facing a Surface Hub. Each desk features different devices with assistive tech built in, including Microsoft’s Surface Adaptive Kit that was released last year. There’s also a Surface Laptop SE with a JCPal keyboard skin that brought increased visibility and tactility to its buttons. In the front row, there are augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices like a Surface Go 3 in a Targus case with speech-generating software as well as a computer with a Tobii eye-detecting sensor connected.

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

But the gadgets themselves aren’t the only area of focus. The Inclusive Tech Lab team is aware that it’s set up an “idealized version of a classroom,” clarifying that desks like the ones they’ve chosen aren’t available in all learning institutions. The team has deliberately designed its space this way to “show what is possible when we normalize assistive technology,” Romney explained.

“A lot of times, not just in school but in the workplace as well, when your technology looks so different from everyone else’s, that can be really off-putting,” he added.

That principle applies to the conference room portion of the lab as well, although Romney acknowledged this is an area that is likely to evolve as the team learns more about remote work. Right now, it consists of a long oval table with six chairs set up around it with a screen on a wall behind one end.

Contemplating a hybrid workplace also involves thinking about telepresence robots. For members of the team who live in other countries, the Inclusive Tech Lab also has a robot with a screen and wheels to allow them to “visit.” This helps them “have a physical presence in the space when we're doing things like inclusive design sprints so that they don't feel left out,” Romney said.

Finally, in the back left corner of the room, anchored around a giant fiber-optic jellyfish suspended from the ceiling, is the Sensory corner. It’s basically a section that Romney said has “a lot of additional sensory options” like lights, colors, textures and sound for “individuals who need extra stimulation to transition between tasks or focus or to re-center.” Here, the team has placed bean bag chairs with piles of colorful plush toys on them, a pair of approximately six-foot-tall bubbling lava lamps against a wall and a soft green bench with cushions in metallic hues on it. A soft, low-pile rug in Minecraft green spreads across most of this section, for people who might want a soft surface to crawl or lay on.

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

The main attraction of this corner, and arguably of the whole lab, is the “jellyfish.” It’s really a domed light fixture with 300 strands of slightly wavy color-changing fiber optics dangling from it in a ring. When Hunter turned down the room’s lights and Romney fired up the so-called tentacles, I got inside the jellyfish and played with the soft, wispy wires.

I’m not one for extra sensory stimulation — if anything I prefer reduced or hypostimulation — but I could see how the experience might be calming for some. The team had set up a makeshift version of this in the old lab, using a hula hoop as the base for the light cables. “We found in the old lab [that] the tactility of touching the strands and the changing lights [gives] a very soothing element to the jellyfish,” Romney said.

Like I said though, hyperstimulation is not for everyone, and the Inclusive Tech Lab team is aware of that. “This is one of the areas that’s probably going to change the most,” Romney said. “This is an area that is new in our understanding, at Microsoft, of how neurodiversity and hardware interact.” But, Romney assured me, the jellyfish would remain.

With this particular section, the team is exploring transitional spaces. Hunter explained that one use for sensory rooms is for children who need a place, before entering a classroom, where they can get calm or get ready to learn. It’s not just for kids, either. People who are neurodiverse or have anxiety could potentially benefit from such transitional spaces, and the team wants to learn more about how to thoughtfully implement them.

Microsoft

To best understand how Microsoft will use its new Inclusive Tech Lab to engage the community, we can look back to what it did in the past. Hunter said that at the old facility in Studio B, the company not only hosted Nintendo and Playstation, but also brought in industry leaders to discuss topics like inclusive clothing, as well as members of Congress to look into building inclusive voting machines. “We believe everyone wins when we can do this as a community,” she said.

That’s one of many, many mantras that members of the team repeated during my time with them. I kept hearing variations of the saying “Solve for the one and extend to the many,” for example, or “Nothing about us without us.” The latter refers to the importance of including and engaging members of the disability community when creating products for them. This is clearly something that’s important to the Inclusive Tech Lab team, who are spread out across Microsoft’s hardware, accessories, Azure and Windows departments. The company also employs people with disabilities and involves them in the design process.

Romney is looking forward to opening the lab. “I imagine I am just going to get swamped with requests,” he said. The challenge, ultimately, is getting the word out. “We have decades of features in Windows, but people don’t know about them,” Romney said. He added that thinking about what conferences to go to, who to reach out to is part of the solution. One of the reasons the new lab is in building 86, he said, was to be closer to the tours conducted in building 87 and potentially be a stop on them to help spread awareness to visitors.

“We believe accessibility isn’t a one and done,” Hunter said. Of all the sayings I heard the lab team repeat, this struck me as the one to leave with. The responsibility of making inclusive design an industry standard doesn’t and shouldn’t lie with Microsoft alone. More companies need to be proactive and persistent in making sure their products don’t leave people out. A dedicated Inclusive Tech Lab may not be the approach for all businesses, but the determined mentality I saw (and in this case manifested as a physical space) is something they should all strive to emulate.