As many in the accessibility community will tell you, inclusive design isn’t an endeavor that’s “one and done.” It’s a continuous, ongoing effort to ensure that as new products and services are made, people with different needs or disabilities aren’t left out. Over the last three years, Engadget has produced a report, in addition to our regular coverage, that looks back on the developments in the tech industry that impact the accessibility community, focusing on the largest companies like Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta. Of course, there are plenty of other big companies to consider, like Uber, Airbnb, Netflix and more. But the six we’ve selected have an outsized impact and influence on the industry..

Last year, we saw significant developments that could pave the way for more accessible designs in future, such as the opening of Microsoft’s Inclusive Tech Lab. In October, the University of Illinois (UIUC) partnered with Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft on a Speech Accessibility Project to improve voice recognition for those with atypical speech patterns that AI algorithms rarely consider. But there were also major setbacks, such as Elon Musk dismantling the accessibility team at Twitter, amid everything else that happened in that hellhole.

All around the industry, we saw pieces of news that showed greater interest overall in accessible products and design. According to LinkedIn’s vice president of engineering, Erran Berger, there has been a 33 percent increase in the last year in “people sharing insights, ideas and problem solving together related to accessibility”. Berger said this corresponded with a “significant uptick in the total annual number of U.S. job postings with the word ’accessibility’ in the job title.” LinkedIn data shows that these postings have “spiked 171 [percent] since September 2019.”

This increased interest permeated all of tech. Comcast debuted its Xfinity large button voice remote last year, for example, while popular chat app Discord updated its Windows app to support high contrast mode, as well as enable alt-text for image in iOS. There were also plenty of startups and smaller device makers that are creating products like wearables and hearing aids to help those with disabilities better interact with the world.

As we continue to call for a more inclusive design process that follows the accessibility community’s mantra of “nothing about us without us,” it’s worth taking the time to see which companies have fared well and which have failed to consider people with different needs.

Amazon

Amazon

Like most companies on this list, Amazon updated a number of its products across various categories to offer better accessibility. For example, it added gesture support to Echo Shows, allowing users to dismiss timers by waving or holding up an open palm, so those who don’t want to or can’t use their voice to silence alarms can do so without touching the device. It also added support for audio streaming for hearing aids to its Fire TV platform, and brought the Tap To Speech (or Tap To Alexa) feature from its Fire tablets to the Echo Show displays.

Amazon also teamed up with a selection of organizations to bring its products to communities that could benefit from them. It donates products like Echos, Ring home security devices and more to Home For Our Troops and the Gary Sinise Foundation, which help get these to veterans. The company also works with the National Association of the Blind in India by giving local school districts Echo devices so they can be used as teaching aids for kids with vision disabilities.

Many new Alexa features also have accessibility benefits. The Person and Package announcements, for example, let you know through the Alexa mobile app, Echo Show, Fire TV or Fire Tablet when your compatible Ring camera or video doorbell detects a… you guessed it, person or package. This way, you can choose to be alerted by visual or audio cues. On the latest Echo Dot, an onboard accelerometer allows you to tap the top of the speaker to pause and resume media playback, snooze alarms or end timers and calls. This offers those with speech impairments an alternative means of interacting with the device.

It’s also worth noting that Amazon’s remote caregiving service Alexa Together also received updates that allow users to add more family members to care for aging loved ones, and enabled primary caregivers to remotely set up Routines for their wards.

In October, the company released a new campaign that included videos featuring an Amazon employee and people with disabilities using accessibility features across Alexa, Fire TV and more. It also redesigned its accessibility home page to make its tools easier to discover. And, as we’ve mentioned in previous editions of this report, the company’s venture capital arm — the Alexa Fund — invests in startups, some of which work on products to improve accessibility.

Apple

As an established leader in making accessible products, Apple continued to do well lastyear despite not doing a lot. On Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) on May 19th, it announced a new door detection feature for iPhones that would help those who are blind or have low vision by identifying entryways and reading any signs or words on them.

At the same time, the company unveiled Apple Watch Mirroring, which lets people with motor and physical disabilities control their smartwatch using the iPhone’s assistive features. These include Voice Control, Switch Control, head tracking, sound actions and external Made For iPhone inputs.

Apple also brought Live Captions to iPhone, iPad and Mac, which would transcribe all content playing through the device, as well as the speech of people in the real world. Those using Live Captions for calls on Mac can also type a response and have that spoken aloud to their callers. It also added 20 new languages to its VoiceOver screen reader, as well as voices and locales.

Apple

Other features include Buddy Controller, which lets users ask another person to co-control a game character with them and Siri Pause Time to adjust how long the assistant waits before responding. The company also updated Sound Recognition so it will now identify custom noises like a unique doorbell or alarm and added new themes, font and line customizations to the Apple Books app for improved readability. A slew of other small updates were also announced on GAAD, which would be too much to exhaustively detail here, but a complete list can be found on the company’s website.

On Dec. 3rd, the International Day of the Person with Disabilities, Apple released a short film that showcases its assistive features. The video was well-received and not only helped highlight the ways people with disabilities can use their i-devices to live their lives, but also introduced some lesser known features to a wider audience.

Google

Google is basically the internet, so its contribution to accessibility is of particular importance. Because its product portfolio is so diverse, spanning smartphones, speakers, displays, browsers, apps, email, search and more, the company’s reach is immense. That also means that Google typically has a lot more updates than any other name on this list. Across Android, Pixel, Chrome, Search and more, the company rolled out improvements to its screen readers, captioning and alt-text support, among others. A lot of its work in 2022 was around expanding existing features to cover more platforms and languages. For example, in December, the company announced its Project Relate non-standard speech-recognition pilot would expand to include Hindi.

On Global Accessibility Awareness Day in May, Google also said it was building out-of-the-box support for braille displays into Android’s Talkback screen reader, eliminating the need to install a separate app. It also announced new education-related updates like support for alt-text in gmail and tweaks to the Docs experience for those using Braille readers. Chrome OS also got a little easier to use, with improved voice control and dictation, while Meet now allows users to pin multiple people on their calls, allowing those who use ASL to be able to see their sign language interpreters and other speakers at the same time. The company even looked at making fonts that were easier to read.

Notably, Google also introduced Guided Frames, a tool to help blind or low vision users take selfies, when it launched the Pixel 7. Instead of being relegated to a separate day or buried in a press release, it was nice to see such a feature share the stage with other highlights during a flagship phone reveal.

Google continues to engage the disability community, and appears to be reaching out via its Accessibility account on Twitter. As of August, it was looking to work with students with dyslexia for a research study on the Chrome browser. In December, it opened its first Accessibility Discovery Center in the UK. With this pattern of outreach and engagement, Google appears to have a meaningful approach to accessibility that adheres to the principle of “nothing about us without us.”

Microsoft

In 2022, Microsoft continued to display a thoughtful, holistic approach to accessibility. Not only did it launch its Inclusive Tech Lab this year to welcome and involve the disability community in design and ideation, but it also released a new Adaptive Mouse kit that offers ways for people with motor limitations to more easily use their computers and phones.

But where Microsoft tends to excel, at least compared to its peers on this list, is in considering a broader spectrum of disabilities and needs. This April, the company launched a Neurodiversity Career Connector (NDCC) in collaboration with the nonprofit Disability:IN. The NDCC is intended as a jobs portal “dedicated to neurodivergent career seekers,” Microsoft said. It will feature listings by US employers looking for applicants who are neurodivergent, including those who have autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia and Tourette Syndrome. The program will connect neurodivergent people with “companies already committed to neurodiversity hiring programs”, and companies backing the NDCC include Microsoft, Dell Technologies, Google, HP, Dell Technologies, SAP, CAI, EY and Spectrum Designs Foundation.

Speaking of careers, LinkedIn also announced updates around helping people with disabilities “voluntarily self-identify on disability and other demographic features.” For example, it added “Dyslexic Thinking” as a recognized skill that people can add to their profiles. “This example showcases that disability can also be viewed as a strength and meaningful differentiator,” Berger wrote in a blog post announcing the updates.

Microsoft also rolled out automatically generated captions for videos on LinkedIn (English, for now) and enabled alt-text for images on the platform’s ads. Last year, it also updated its Seeing AI app, which lets the people who are visually impaired use their cameras to identify currency, read text and see faces. In October, in collaboration with healthcare company Haleon, Microsoft added the ability to scan the barcodes of products like Centrum, Emergen-C and Sensodyne. The app will then read out instruction, ingredients and other critical information.

Peter DaSilva / reuters

Meta

Since the company’s rebranding, there are two main ways to think about Meta — Facebook (and apps like Instagram and WhatsApp) and VR. In March, Instagram rolled out auto-generated captions for videos on the iOS and Android apps, and they’re enabled by default. In May, the company brought alt-text for stickers on Facebook and Messenger, while hosting an accessibility summit where it demonstrated a host of its existing assistive features.

On the VR side, Meta brought better disability representation to avatars, and otherwise had a very bad first year. The VR workout app it owns, Supernatural, did launch a new One Controller Mode in October that’s designed to help those who can only use a single device.

Meta also released a “guide on designing inclusive policies in programs” in February, with accessibility being the top consideration on a list of recommendations to consider. While these aren’t rules that the company will enforce when approving content that would exist on its various platforms, it’s a helpful resource for creators and developers who may not know where to start.

This year, the company was also named the best place to work for disability inclusion by the Disability Equality Index, marking the fifth year in a row it’s received the honor. Overall, it seems like Meta was distracted by the issues that plagued its Metaverse ambitions and launched few actual assistive tools.

Dado Ruvic / reuters

Twitter

Amid the chaos that happened to Twitter late last year, Elon Musk gutting the small in-house accessibility team might have dealt an outsized blow to the community. Formed in 2020 in response to very embarrassing blunders that left out the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, Twitter’s accessibility team worked to address the platform’s shortcomings. In 2022 alone, Twitter introduced new icons for better readability, added reminders for users to fill in image descriptions and updated its emoji library to better represent people with disabilities.

It was also nice to see clear and consistent communication from the Twitter A11y account, with monthly updates on its feature roadmap and timeline. As of November, its final #TwitterA11yStatus post indicated that it was working on a setting to disable keyboard shortcuts on its web platform and toggles for closed captions. Unfortunately, that was the last check-in from the team since, and the future of accessibility at and on Twitter is currently uncertain.

Because of its reach, Twitter helped boost the voices of members of the disability community, helping spread awareness and education to the mainstream audience. With the elimination of A11y, improvements to make the platform more inclusive and accessible have come to a halt, and there may be no one around to address issues that break the service for people with disabilities. The outlook for Twitter users with disabilities (and the rest of the platform) is depressingly bleak.

The European Space Agency on Wednesday selected the world’s first astronaut with a disability. John McFall, whose right leg was amputated at age 19, is the first recruit for a new program investigating accommodations for astronauts with disabilities.

The agency called for applications in March 2021, seeking people with disabilities who could pass stringent physical and psychological testing but were limited by a lack of hardware accommodations. The program will investigate the changes and costs required to send astronauts with disabilities into space. The ESA chose McFall out of 257 entrants, and describes him as the world’s first “parastronaut.” And next spring, he will enter the 12-month training program at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany.

“I’ve always been hugely interested in science generally, and space exploration has always been on my radar,” said the 41-year-old McFall on Wednesday. “But having had a motorcycle accident when I was 19, like wanting to join the armed forces, having a disability was always a contraindication to doing that.”

After McFall’s accident and amputation, he learned to run again and won a bronze medal in the 100-meter dash at the 2008 Paralympic Games. In addition, he earned several medical degrees and was a Foundation Doctor in the British National Health Service from 2014 to 2016. McFall currently works as a trauma and orthopedic specialist in South England.

“In early 2021 when the advert for an astronaut with a physical disability came out,” said McFall, “I read the person specifications and what it entailed, and I thought, ‘Wow, this is such a huge and interesting opportunity.’ And I thought that I would be a very good candidate to help ESA answer the question they were asking: ‘Can we get someone with a physical disability into space?’ And I felt compelled to apply.”

The American Council of the Blind, National Disability Rights Network, National Federation of the Blind and more than 170 other disability organizations signed a letter published today, calling for the Department of Justice to finalize rules for online accessibility. According to the letter, the rulemaking process began in 2010 "under Titles II and III of the ADA" but was withdrawn in 2017. Last year, US representative Ted Budd (R-NC) led the re-introduction of a bill proposing an Online Accessibility Act, which was initially introduced in October 2020.

In today's letter, addressed to assistant attorney general Kristen Clarke, the signees urged "the Department of Justice to maintain this rulemaking process as a priority and finalize a rule by the end of the current administration." It states that while the DoJ has held that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) includes websites and other technologies critical to accessing a business' services, it has "failed to define when and how they should be accessible."

Director of advocacy and government affairs for the American Council of the Blind Clark Rachfal told Engadget that at the moment, the DoJ enforces accessibility online "on a case-by-case basis." 

"This is equivalent to enforcing the Americans with Disabilities Act for the physical build environment by going door-to-door along main street," he said. The signatories of this letter want the DOJ to create enforceable accessibility standards "to ensure equal access to telehealth, distance learning, remote work, and online commerce for all people with disabilities," he added.

Efforts to come up with these rules have ebbed and flowed. The letter noted that "In 2018, the Department reconfirmed its position that the ADA applies to the internet but never completed rulemakings that were begun in 2010 under Titles II and III of the ADA and withdrawn in 2017."

The result is an online world where people with disabilities struggle to get their needs met. According to WebAIM (Web Accessibility In Mind), about 97 percent of the 1 million pages evaluated had WCAG 2 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) failures. These issues ranged from using low contrast text and missing form input labels to empty buttons and missing alt text for images.

zlikovec via Getty Images

"The absence of digital accessibility regulations in the intervening time period has resulted in persistent exclusion of people with disabilities from digital spaces covered by the ADA," the letter notes. It also highlights issues like "persistent barriers in telehealth accessibility," particularly for deaf users. While there haven't been quantitative studies on intersectional disabilities and how they relate to online accessibility, the letter states "anecdotal reports suggest that the vast majority of DeafBlind people are completely unable to utilize telehealth as it currently exists."

An American Foundation for the Blind study that's cited in the letter found that almost 60 percent of educators surveyed in Fall 2020 reported "their blind and low vision students could not access one or more of the digital learning tools they were expected to use in class." 

As the world increasingly lives and conducts business online, it's crucial that the digital world is accessible by design. The letter points out that "These findings are neither exhaustive of all website-related issues nor comprehensive of the entire disability community." There's a lot of work and research still to be done. 

"The disability community is large and diverse, facing access issues that continue to grow and evolve with the ever-changing landscape of websites and applications." Having a set of rules in place will help enable clearer communication and implementation of the tools that will make websites (and apps) accessible to all. 

Jabra announced its Enhance Plus earbuds back in August, debuting a model that offers assistance to people with mild-to-moderate hearing loss. At the time, the company also announced that it would sell it directly to customers as a FDA-cleared self-fitting hearing aid. Later this month, Jabra will do just that. On February 25th, the company says you'll be able to purchase the Enhance Plus from select hearing care clinics for $799. 

The earbuds put "medical-grade hearing enhancement" inside a more approachable form factor that looks like a set of regular earbuds. Jabra says this device is also quite compact, 40 percent smaller than the company's Elite 7 Pro which are already very small. The Enhance Plus can be customized to fit the user's needs, including three speech filters and three listening modes. The earbuds not only help with in-person conversations but also offer the ability to take calls and listen to music — the core features of any set of earbuds. 

Four microphones work to reduce background clamor while improving the overall clarity of speech according to Jabra, so they're suitable for use in noisy settings. The company says you can expect up to 10 hours of battery life with an additional two full charges in the included case. The earbuds are also IP52 rated dust and water resistant and are equipped with on-board controls for basic functionality. 

Jabra says the Enhance Plus have FDA 510(k) clearance as a self-fitting hearing aid. This means that it will be available direct to consumers as an over-the-counter device inline with the agency's pending regulation that expands access to hearing assistance products by creating a new hearing aid category. Jabra isn't the only company with devices that fit the FDA designation for OTC products. Another example is Bose's SoundControl hearing aids, which have been available nationwide in the US for $850 since last summer. Those, however, look more like traditional hearing aids rather than earbuds. 

For now, state law may require a hearing test to make sure the Enhance Plus is right for you. If it is, the set will be available in grey and beige color options when it goes on sale later this month. 

In spite of all the advancements we’ve seen in tech, the industry as a whole has consistently neglected people with disabilities. There have been some improvements, including video call apps like FaceTime, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts and more adding better support for sign language interpreters and closed captioning. And, this year, Instagram and TikTok finally added stickers that enable automated captioning for speech in videos, too. But major organizations continued to make decisions that exclude people with disabilities. The organizer of E3 2021, for example, failed its deaf and hard of hearing viewers during its live streamed show.

There are too many individual transgressions and improvements to exhaustively detail here. Due to their sheer size, though, tech’s largest companies wield the greatest influence over what the rest of the industry does. By holding them accountable, we have a better chance of seeing widespread change in the way tech thinks about inclusive design. Here’s how Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta (formerly Facebook) and more did to improve the accessibility of their products and services in 2021.

Apple

Apple has led the way in inclusive design for years, and in 2021 the company continued to launch new features that made its products easier for those with disabilities to use. In addition to updating its screen reader, VoiceOver, to enable better descriptions of images for the visually impaired, Apple also launched several new products. In May, it rolled out a service called SignTime, which allowed customers to engage sign language interpreters on demand when communicating with customer service representatives (via their browsers at least). The feature is available in the US, UK and France and supports American, British or French sign languages in their respective countries.

Apple also introduced Assistive Touch for the Watch this year, allowing for touch-free interaction with its wearable. The idea is that users can clench their fists or pinch their fingers together to navigate the smartwatch. In practice, Assistive Touch took some learning, and it still may not be feasible for those who don’t have the dexterity or strength to clench their fists to trigger the “double clench” action. But it’s a start, and one that few other smartwatches offer.

For those with very limited range of motion, this year also saw the launch of the first medically certified eye-controlled iPad by Tobii Dynavox. Called the TD Pilot, it’s a case for iPads as large as the 12.9-inch Pro model and comes with Tobii’s powerful eye-tracking sensor, large speakers, additional batteries and a wheelchair mount. Together with iPadOS 15, this will allow those with cerebral palsy, for example, to interact not only with the tablet, but also communicate with others more easily. A window on the other side of the case can display words to show what the user is saying.

Apple also added improvements for hearing aid users with iPhones this year, allowing for bi-directional communication. This means that those who connect compatible hearing aids to their iPhones no longer have to use their handset’s mic to be heard by their callers — the hearing aid can pick up the speaker’s voice, too. So far, Starkey and ReSound have released compatible “made for iPhone” devices.

On macOS, Apple also made it possible to customize the outline and fill color of the cursor so those with visual impairments can more easily tell when the mouse moves or changes shape. The company also expanded its keyboard shortcuts to allow users to control everything on a Mac with a keyboard (no need for a mouse or trackpad).

Finally, Apple added tools for developers using SwiftUI to make their apps more accessible. With this simplified workflow, there are now fewer obstacles in the way when trying to make more inclusive products.

Unfortunately, when Apple released iOS 15, it removed some features from Siri that were “used by many individuals for accessibility purposes,” according to Clark Rachfal. He’s the director of advocacy and governmental affairs for the American Council of the Blind. Rachfal told Engadget that users “could no longer access their calling history, voicemails, emails and messages through Siri” when the OS was updated. The council and its members alerted Apple of these issues, he said, adding that the company said it’s working on “restoring this functionality to Siri.”

Google

Google continued to add tools for people with disabilities across its broad portfolio of products and services in 2021. One highlight was the launch of Project Relate, an Android app that would generate custom voice recognition models for people with severe speech impairments. Then, the app can transcribe, display and read out what the user said. Project Relate is currently in beta, with Google inviting those with atypical speech to sign up as testers.

The company did plenty to improve its existing products, too. In February, it revamped its Talkback screen reader to offer new gestures and voice commands. In March, it announced that the Chrome browser could transcribe audio from the web for users who are deaf or hard of hearing. That transcription would be performed on-device, meaning you could get your captions without worrying about connecting to the cloud.

Later in the year, Google also added 10 languages to its auto-generated image descriptions tool, brought more natural-sounding voices to the “Select to speak” feature in Chromebooks and made it easier to interact with Android devices using facial expressions.

In addition to improving its existing products, Google also explored accessible experiences that could produce learnings for the industry at large. It teamed up with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and The Guardian on Auditorial, which it describes as an experiment in storytelling that “adapts to suit the reader.” It’s a fully customizable experience that Google said will “offer those with visual disabilities an experience that is as comfortable, rich and creative as any other reader.”

According to the company, Auditorial “is intended to pose a question about how much more accessible the world’s information could be, if you could simply tailor every website to suit your personal sensory needs and preferences.” The hope is that this triggers a discussion on how the web could become more inclusive instead of “a one-size-fits-all approach.” Google published its findings in an “Auditorial Accessibility Notebook,” in order to help other publishers learn tips on how to “open up online storytelling to millions of blind and low vision users.”

Google also launched a browser-based game this year called SignTown, which uses your camera to teach you sign language and assess your progress. The game is just “one component of a broader effort to push the boundaries of technology for sign language and Deaf culture.” The company said it’s also exploring building “a more comprehensive dictionary across more sign and written languages, as well as collaborating with the Google Search team on surfacing these results to improve search quality for sign languages.”

Microsoft

In 2021, Microsoft surprised us by releasing Windows 11, which it called the “most inclusively designed version of Windows yet.” The new OS brings nicer-looking dark and high contrast themes, plus updated sounds that are more soothing and can be heard by more users. The company also renamed its “Ease of Access” section to “Accessibility” to make assistive tools easier to find. Windows Voice Typing also makes it easier to dictate your messages.

Prior to launching Windows 11, though, Microsoft announced a five-year commitment to “help bridge the ‘Disability Divide’.” It focuses on hiring and educating people with disabilities, as well as building more accessible products. That includes using AI in Word to detect and convert heading styles for blind and low-vision readers, a new navigation pane in Excel for screen readers and expanding Immersive Reader to better convey what’s on PowerPoint slides and notes. It added a new accessibility checker that works in the background and prompts users to fix issues across Microsoft Office apps and Outlook.

The company not only expanded live captioning and transcription capabilities in Teams, but also rolled out support for CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) captions, as well as the ability to pin and spotlight multiple presenters. Auto-captioning is also available for LinkedIn Live broadcasts.

To make its hardware easier to use, the company launched a new Surface Adaptive Kit in September. The bundle includes tags, labels, keycaps and more to make PC parts and important buttons more identifiable. Like Apple, Microsoft also added sign language support (specifically ASL) to its Stores to assist deaf shoppers. Unlike Apple, however, Microsoft doesn’t appear to offer this for after-sales support yet.

Microsoft is one of few companies in tech that’s transparent about its efforts to improve training and hiring processes for people with disabilities. It made investments via its Urban Airband initiative “to provide affordable broadband, hardware and software to people with disabilities starting in Los Angeles and New York.” Following a pilot at the University of Illinois, Microsoft said it’s expanding to additional tertiary education institutes to “increase graduation rates of students with disabilities in STEM education.” It’s also working to “create best-in-class Universal Design Learning (UDL) environments in STEM education.”

To connect people with disabilities to employers, Microsoft announced that it’s adding new accessibility resources and features to LinkedIn, including a LinkedIn Learning course focusing on “accessibility in the modern workplace.” There were also LinkedIn Coaches events specifically aiming to help job seekers with disabilities find employment opportunities. The company also partnered with Be My Eyes, an app that connects blind and low vision users with sighted volunteers, to make LinkedIn staff available for visual assistance on video calls.

Microsoft also launched an AI for AccessibilityLow-Cost Assistive Technology Fund to make assistive technology reachable to those who can’t afford it. Considering how expensive assistive technology currently is, this is a promising step towards getting people the gear they need. Though it’s still limited in its reach, the Fund is at least an acknowledgement of the high price that people with disabilities continue to have to pay to be part of the world able-bodied people take for granted.

Amazon

Amazon’s accessibility efforts aren’t just aimed at people with disabilities. The company says it pays attention to aging individuals and helping them feel more confident living independently. This year, it introduced two programs as part of its Alexa Smart Properties service that enable administrators to offer voice-assisted experiences in places like senior living facilities and hospitals. The company also launched Alexa Together to keep caregivers and elderly individuals connected via an Alexa-enabled device. It would offer features like fall detection and remote assist to give loved ones peace of mind.

Amazon also updated the Alexa app to offer light and dark modes, as well as text scaling. It rolled out a new option to give people more time to finish speaking before Alexa gives a response, which it said is designed to help people with certain speech impediments. The company also included cards with braille text in the boxes for the Echo Frames 2nd gen, guiding users to a website with screen-reader-friendly setup instructions. On the Kindle app for iOS, Amazon launched a dictionary audio feature to read out individual selected words and help those with learning disabilities or foreign language speakers better understand pronunciations.

This year, the company introduced a new home robot called Astro that follows you around your home and provides easy access to helpful info via its display. It works with Alexa Together to help caregivers look out for loved ones remotely and keeps an eye on your home while you’re away. The robot features similar accessibility features to the Echo Show smart displays and has been trained “to work for customers who use wheelchairs, walkers or canes.” It will also play specialized driving sounds to stop it becoming a tripping hazard.

Cognixion

Amazon also invests in several accessibility-minded projects through its Alexa Fund, including Labrador Systems, which makes home robots to help people with limited mobility live more independently. The company has also worked with neural interface startup Cognixion to add Alexa support to its brain-computer interface headsets for easier smart home device control. Amazon and Voiceitt also released a new speech recognition app this year to help users with atypical speech converse with Alexa and other people.

Though its Alexa-focused products have received many updates to improve accessibility, Amazon’s Prime content appears to have been neglected. According to Rachfal, though Prime TV offers audio descriptions on a large amount of content, many titles use text to speech with synthetic voices. Rachfal added that these “lack the quality of human narrated audio description and the overall quality of the content suffers, making it less enjoyable for blind and low vision consumers.”

To Rachfal, this is an example of something that’s done for people with disabilities “without input, feedback and collaboration with the disability community.”

Meta / Facebook

Amid all the drama surrounding Facebook, its whistleblower and its rebrand this year, it’s easy to overlook the company’s accessibility-related updates. At the start of 2021, the company updated its Automatic Alt Text (AAT) system to recognize over 1,200 objects and concepts in photos on Instagram and Facebook. According to Meta, this represented a 10x increase since AAT’s debut in 2016. It also rolled out additional features to Facebook on iOS that provided more detailed descriptions like positions of objects in a picture and their relative sizes.

Unfortunately, as it pushed out these updates, Facebook may have broken some accessibility features along the way. Rachfal said that when the company turned off its facial recognition system this year, it led to less-informative descriptions for users who are blind or have low-vision. Rachfal said this change “was done due to privacy concerns,” and he believes these decisions were made without considering accessibility and the disability community. “Nor were they given the same weight and consideration as privacy concerns,” Rachfal added.

Facebook published a post addressing this issue in November. In it, the company’s vice president of artificial intelligence Jerome Pesenti wrote, “We need to weigh the positive use cases for facial recognition against growing societal concerns, especially as regulators have yet to provide clear rules.”

Meta

In the post, Pesenti acknowledges the critical role face recognition plays in AAT to help blind and low-vision users identify their friends in pictures. But while some facial recognition tools, like identity verification, will remain, for the most part features like alerting users to photos potentially including them or automatically labeling their friends are going away. That’s for both sighted and visually impaired users.

“We know the approach we’ve chosen involves some difficult tradeoffs,” Pesenti wrote, adding that “we will continue engaging in that conversation and working with the civil society groups and regulators who are leading this discussion.”

Elsewhere in Meta’s family of products, the company added an Accessibility tab to the Oculus Settings menu to make assistive features easier to find. It also brought Color Correction and Raise View tools to offer more legible palettes and enable a standing perspective for seated users respectively. Meta said it’s still iterating on Raise View, working with the Oculus community to improve the feature and will permanently add it to the Accessibility menu when ready.

Meta also collaborated with ZP Better Together, a company that makes technology for deaf and hard-of-hearing users, to bring sign language interpreters into video calls on Portal devices. As of December, people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can also apply on ZP’s website to get free Portals which will come with the ZP apps.

Handout . / reuters

Facebook launched Clubhouse-like audio rooms in the US this year and, notably, did so with live captioning included from the start. It also included a visual cue to indicate who’s speaking, and offers captions for other audio products like Soundbites and Podcasts on iOS and Android.

Let’s not forget the company’s renaming to Meta this year and its new focus on the metaverse. According to head of accessibility Mike Shebanek, “we're already working to bring the metaverse to life and are excited to explore the breakthrough possibilities it presents to make the digital world even more accessible and inclusive for people with disabilities.”

We’ll have to wait and see if and how that comes true, but in the meantime, Meta must continue to engage with the accessibility community to make sure that its expansion of the metaverse is inclusive from the start.

Twitter

Twitter only set up its two accessibility teams last year, after an embarrassing launch of Voice Tweets that excluded its deaf and hard of hearing users due to a lack of captions. Since then, though, the company has shown noteworthy improvement. In 2021, Twitter introduced captions for voice tweets, added captions and accessibility labels in Spaces and brought automatic video captions. That last one is “available globally in most languages,” according to the company and supported on Android, iOS and the web.

Though this may seem like a small set of updates compared to the rest of the companies in this roundup, Twitter also has a smaller portfolio of products. Still, it has managed to make significant changes. Rachfal praised Twitter as being “the first social media platform to conspicuously prompt users to include alt text with images,” though he did note that filling out the field is still optional.

Other noteworthy developments in tech this year

Alt text and captioning continue to be tricky accessibility features for the industry. They’re labor-intensive processes that companies tend to delegate to AI, which can result in garbled, inaccurate results. This was especially evident at this year’s virtual E3 gaming convention, where illegible closed captions sometimes made the show incomprehensible for those who relied on subtitles to understand the announcements.

There are also large parts of the online world that are in dire need of accessibility-related upgrades. According to a February 2021 study by WebAIM (Web Accessibility In Mind), for example, a whopping 97.4 percent of websites had mistakes that failed the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2). The most common errors included missing alt text, low contrast text, missing form input labels and more.

It’s not just websites that need work: Other media formats also need to be more inclusively designed. The National Association of the Deaf (NAD), for example, filed a lawsuit with Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) this year against three major podcast providers: SiriusXM, Stitcher and Pandora.

Spotify

According to the NAD, because the three defendants “do not make transcripts or captions available for any of the podcasts offered on their platforms, more than 48 million deaf and hard of hearing Americans are denied full and equal enjoyment of the content they offer their hearing users.” Meanwhile, Spotify announced this year that it will start offering automatically generated transcripts for podcasts, and Amazon Music launched synchronized transcripts in November.

Then there are entire industries that could use accessibility improvements. Rachfal notes that healthcare is a continually problematic area for people who are blind or have visual impairments. “This is still an entire sector that we hear about far too often from our members,” he said. Given that we are currently in the mires of the third wave of COVID-19, it’s inexcusable to continue excluding people with disabilities when it comes to things like scheduling vaccination or testing appointments.

In November this year, the Justice Department announced it had reached a settlement with Rite Aid to make COVID-19 testing and vaccination websites accessible. Rite Aid’s vaccine registration portal was not compatible with some screen readers and was not accessible to “those who have a hard time using a mouse.” The calendar on its website, for example, “did not show screen reader users any available appointment times,” while people relying on keyboard-based navigation instead of a mouse could not use the tab key to complete a consent form required to schedule an appointment.

The ACB also worked with CVS to offer accessible prescription information in all locations in the country. This includes a Spoken RX feature that would read out prescription labels via the CVS Pharmacy app.

Though there have been many transgressions in the past year, we also saw many promising developments in ensuring technology is inclusive. The FCC, for example, proposed rules in December to make emergency alerts more useful and informative for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

KAREN BLEIER via Getty Images

Meanwhile, HBO Max launched 1,500 hours of audio-described content starting in March 2021 and committed to including the descriptions to all newly produced original content as well as adding more to its back catalog. Also, in collaboration with the Coalition for Inclusive Fitness, Planet Fitness said it will buy and install accessible exercise equipment in its stores across the country.

I’ve only scratched the surface in this roundup of updates. What’s most encouraging, though, is the increasing willingness of companies to work with disability rights groups and advocates at the earliest stages of product design. Lizzie Sorkin, director of engagement for the NAD, said it’s “seeing more and more companies reach out to us in the beginning phases for input rather than late in the process.” Rachfal also noted a “growing commitment to accessible media and content” that’s “born out of the advocacy work of ACB and the Audio description Project through collaborative discussions with industry.”

Meta's Portal devices are now much more practical for the deaf and hard of hearing. The social media giant has teamed with ZP Better Together to enable Video Relay Services (VRS) on Portal hardware through apps, letting you bring an English or Spanish sign language interpreter into conversations with hearing people. You can place video calls to a far larger audience, in other words, and ZP's interpreters are available 24/7 if a chat can't wait.

The functionality works across the range of Portal products. You can also apply to receive a free Portal through ZP's website if you're deaf or hard of hearing.

The move could help Meta corner video calling for those with hearing issues, of course, but that doesn't change the vital role it could serve for some people. While smart displays have long been useful for calls between sign language users, this expansion could help the hard of hearing communicate with virtually anyone. That's particularly important during a pandemic, when in-person interpreters might not be available.

The US Department of Justice has sued Uber for allegedly discriminating against passengers with disabilities. In a complaint filed with the US District Court for Northern California, the agency claims Uber violated Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by implementing a policy that has seen the company charge “wait time” fees to passengers who, as a result of their disabilities, need more time to enter a car. The law prohibits discrimination of individuals with disabilities by private companies.

According to the Justice Department, the policy has been in place since 2016 when Uber implemented it in a number of US cities before eventually expanding its use nationwide. Anytime a passenger needs more than two minutes to enter an UberX car or more than five minutes in the case of an Uber Black or SUV vehicle, the company charges that individual a wait time fee. Uber contends most users pay, on average, less than $0.60 when that’s the case. However, passengers with disabilities, including those with wheelchairs and walkers, often need more time to enter a vehicle than those without.

“People with disabilities deserve equal access to all areas of community life, including the private transportation services provided by companies like Uber,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.

A spokesperson for Uber called the lawsuit “surprising” and “disappointing.” The full statement reads:

Wait time fees are charged to all riders to compensate drivers after two minutes of waiting, but were never intended for riders who are ready at their designated pickup location but need more time to get into the car. We recognize that many riders with disabilities depend on Uber for their transportation needs, which is why we had been in active discussions with the DOJ about how to address any concerns or confusion before this surprising and disappointing lawsuit.

It has been our policy to refund wait time fees for disabled riders whenever they alerted us that they were charged. After a recent change last week, now any rider who certifies they are disabled will have fees automatically waived. We fundamentally disagree that our policies violate the ADA and will keep improving our products to support everyone’s ability to easily move around their communities.

The company also pointed to the fact it does not, by default, charge a wait time fee when someone requests a wheelchair accessible or Uber Assist ride. This isn’t the first time Uber has been sued for allegedly violating Title III of the ADA. In 2017, disability advocates in New York City filed a class action complaint against the company. At the time, the group said Uber was inaccessible to 99.9 percent of people with mobility disabilities.