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2025 – A year in recap – Windows Accessibility

Akheel Firoz — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 14:00:02 +0000

On this International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we reflect on how our products are evolving based on feedback and insights from the disability community and want to highlight some of the progress from the last year.

Nothing about us, without us

The Windows Accessibility team adheres to the disability community’s guiding principle, “nothing about us without us.” In the spirit of putting people at the center of the design process guided by Microsoft Inclusive Design, working with and getting insights from our advisory boards for the blind, mobility and hard of hearing communities is critical to creating meaningful and effective features that empower every single user. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxTajh3CCrE

Fluid Dictation on Windows enables you to dictate with ease

Fluid Dictation, a feature designed to make voice-based text authoring seamless and intuitive for everyone, intelligently corrects grammar, punctuation and spelling in real time as you speak. This means your spoken words are instantly transformed into polished, accurate text, reducing the need for tedious manual corrections or complex voice commands. In addition, Fluid Dictation can leverage your custom vocabulary defined within Voice Access, so specialized terms and names are recognized correctly. Powered by on-device AI on Copilot+ PCs without the need to connect to the internet, this capability can be leveraged across both first- and third-party apps on Windows—whether you’re drafting emails, taking notes or collaborating in your favorite applications. With Fluid Dictation, we want you to focus on your ideas, and not the mechanics of text entry by minimizing errors and streamlining corrections when typing with your voice. To try it out, enable Fluid Dictation in the manage options menu under Voice Access settings and interact with any text editing surface of your choice. Here’s a guide to help you get started. This feature is also available for Windows Insiders for Voice Typing. Simply press Windows + H and get started.

Voice Access: Understanding everyone better

Voice input is a spectrum; not everyone’s way of communicating using their voice is the same. We’re evolving the way Voice Access understands you to make your experience seamless.

Wait time before acting: Everyone speaks at their own pace and with the wait time before acting setting, people can configure a delay before a command is executed. This provides greater flexibility for individuals with varying speech patterns, enabling more accurate recognition whether speaking slowly or quickly. To set this up, navigate to Voice Access settings > Wait time before acting, and choose the option that best fits your preferences.
Custom word dictionary: We have introduced the ability for you to add your own words to the dictionary in Voice Access. Adding your own words, including difficult to pronounce words, to the dictionary in Voice Access will help improve dictation accuracy. It increases the probability of recognizing these words more accurately. The feature will be available in all the currently supported Voice Access languages. Manually add a word anywhere in your workflow by using the “Add to Vocabulary” command or directly from Voice Access settings > Add to vocabulary.
Flexible and natural commanding: We released more flexible and natural command execution in Voice Access on Copilot+ PCs. Voice access now understands multiple variations of an existing command. You can say:
- “Can you open Edge application”
- “Switch to Microsoft Edge”
- “Please open the Edge browser”

And Voice Access will recognize your intent and execute the command accordingly.

Improved speech pattern recognition: Voice Access now offers enhanced recognition for speech patterns, especially those associated with Parkinson’s, reducing errors and making dictation and navigation smoother.
Chinese and Japanese Support: Voice Access now supports Chinese and Japanese, expanding accessibility for more users. You can now navigate, dictate and interact with Windows using voice commands in Chinese and Japanese.

More natural and expressive voices for Narrator and Magnifier

Narrator and Magnifier, in collaboration with Azure AI, now provide the option to use new state of the art, delightful human sounding voices. These voice options are designed to sound more human-like to help reduce cognitive load by mimicking the subtleties of human conversation through natural pauses, emphasis and emotional tone. To try out these natural voices, navigate to voice options in Narrator or Magnifier settings, select the HD voice option, download the voice model and you’re all set for more engaging screen reading and read-aloud experience.

Efficient document creation with Narrator and Word

We’re excited to share that creating and reading documents in Microsoft Word is now smoother and more intuitive for people using Narrator. Recent updates address your valuable feedback and enhance the overall experience across drafting and reviewing text to navigating lists, tables and comments so you stay focused on your work without interruptions. You’ll now find it easier to read and write with confidence. Narrator provides more natural, streamlined announcements when reading tabular data, footnotes and formatting changes. Engaging with comments is now easier and requires fewer keystrokes. You can efficiently read comment text and its associated content without losing your place in the document. Proofing has also become more seamless. Spelling and grammar feedback is now announced in a clearer, more concise way, with automatic speech-rate adjustments and improved keyboard shortcuts that make correcting errors faster and less disruptive. Finally, we’ve made meaningful improvements to Copilot usability with Narrator, ensuring a more accessible experience when working alongside AI.

Focus on fundamentals, powered by your feedback

Ensuring consistency and reliability across assistive technologies on Windows is the foundation of our experiences. We prioritize addressing critical and functional issues shared through your feedback and our engagements with our advisory boards. Through these efforts, we ensure that you can continue to focus on what’s important to you without distractions.

On Narrator, your feedback has helped shaped improvements such as:

Screen Curtain: When activated completely blacks out your display to enhance privacy and focus, ensuring only the user hears what’s on the screen through Narrator. Press Caps + Ctrl + C when Narrator is running to enable Screen Curtain.
Richer image descriptions: On Copilot+ PCs, Narrator leverages AI to provide rich detailed descriptions of images, charts and graphs. Press Narrator key + Ctrl + D to get a contextual description of the image, detailing people, objects, colors, text and numbers from the image.
Speech Recap and live transcription: Need to save, share or review what Narrator said last? You can press Narrator key + Alt + X to open Speech Recap and view the last 500 spoken strings. If you’re an Assistive Technology (AT) trainer, Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments (TSVI) who supports students in class or for professionals who are hard of hearing and want to use Narrator, you can quickly access spoken content, follow along with live transcription and copy what Narrator last said—all with simple keyboard shortcuts.

Join us on the journey

Thank you to all our Windows customers for trying out these new features, providing your feedback and helping us create better experiences for all, especially those who try out our Windows Insider builds to give feedback earlier in the release process. Consistency and reliability across assistive technologies on Windows is the foundation of the experience. We will continue to prioritize critical and functional issues shared through your feedback and our engagements with our advisory boards. There is still a lot more to come, so join us on this journey by trying Windows 11 and continuing to share your valuable feedback. Just press the Windows logo key + F to launch the Feedback hub to share what you like, dislike or just wish the product could do! If you are a customer with a disability and need technical assistance with Windows or any other Microsoft product, please reach out to the Disability Answer Desk via phone, chat or American Sign Language (via videophone).

Year recap

Assistive Technology	Description	Links
Voice Access and Voice Typing	AI-powered dictation that cleans up your speech automatically across Voice Access and Voice Typing, conversational commands that “just work,” personalized vocab, adjustable command timing, profanity control, and expanded support for Chinese and Japanese.	[Fluid Dictation]* • [Natural Language Commands]* • [Custom Dictionary] • [Wait Time] • [Profanity Filter] • [Language Support]
Narrator	Get richer image descriptions, smoother Word reading, privacy tools like Screen Curtain, Speech Recap for quick review, and a new Braille Viewer and HD voices that sound natural, expressive and easier to follow.	[Image Descriptions] • [Word Improvements] • [Speech Recap] • [Screen Curtain] • [Braille Viewer] • [HD Voices]
Magnifier	Faster, clearer navigation with one-click zoom controls and HD voices for a more natural and engaging read-aloud experience.	[1 Click Zoom Toggle] • [Reset Zoom] • [HD Voices]

Features marked with an asterisk (*) are available only on Copilot+ PCs.

Unlocking talent with Windows accessibility

Steve Clarke, Editor — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 17:00:42 +0000

Starting a career comes with a handful of challenges—and some level of anxiety—for almost everyone. From meeting colleagues for the first time to finding your way around new physical or digital workspaces, there’s plenty to navigate. Microsoft Senior Director of Accessibility and Human Factors Dave Dame knows about first day jitters all too well. “When I got my first job, the office wasn’t designed to be accessible,” he recalls. “I didn’t know how to ask for what I needed.” Dame was born with cerebral palsy, a physical disability that requires him to use an electric wheelchair and has left him with a relatively low ability to use his hands. Yet, it became clear to him that nothing was going to hold him back from the career he was destined for. "My dad said, 'David, you’re not going to be a firefighter, a police officer or a construction worker. But you also know what you’re not going to be? Living under this roof forever.'” The encouragement (and a little tough love) from his father propelled him. And now he’s become a powerful voice of innovation in tech accessibility. He’s acutely aware of not only the challenges people with disabilities face, but also the incredible potential that assistive technology can unleash. Dame’s experiences and insights shed light on the way that technology can unlock the human potential of those experiencing disability and the workforce as a whole.

Increasing untapped talent

Dame’s experiences motivated him to join Microsoft with a goal of developing technology and tools that would enable those with disabilities to do more with less physical effort. And ultimately, both his product expertise and lived experience drove him to change how people think about product accessibility and inclusive design. Today, the way innovative companies approach accessible technology has changed dramatically, as have the impacts. With leaders like Dame, companies are increasingly building accessibility features into the products in a way that helps everyone. Consider effective voice to text commands or AI summaries—two features that were once considered as only for accessibility but are now in use by business leaders and work-from-home parents alike. "Accessibility benefits everyone," Dame notes, highlighting the need for tools that adapt to diverse users' needs without extra effort. Dame also stresses that as the global workforce ages and more people experience temporary or permanent disabilities, designing for accessibility becomes crucial. “When you design for someone like me today, you’re designing for your future self,” Dame explains. Inclusive design anticipates diverse needs, enabling technology to support employees at every stage of their careers. Organizations can unlock new talent pools by embedding accessibility into their technology, enhancing experiences for everyone. Accessible technology fosters collaboration and boosts productivity. Through inclusive design, companies liberate the collective potential of their teams, enabling creativity and better outcomes for all. Simply put, companies that prioritize accessibility support worker productivity. Diverse workplaces attract and retain top talent, fostering environments where employees can thrive. Dame’s leadership exemplifies this shift.

Creating opportunities with assistive technology

Today, success at work depends on keeping up with productivity demands, so any delay to someone’s ability to perform their job matters greatly. Dame emphasizes that current technologies are helping him to be productive and ultimately thrive, “Copilot doesn’t just help me work better—it helps me reach my full potential.” Tools like Windows and Microsoft 365 Copilot save him time and enable him to focus on creative and strategic work. “It used to take me 14 minutes to draft an email. Now, I can generate it in minutes,” he notes. “With tools like these, I’m not just navigating challenges anymore—I’m thriving,” Dame emphasizes.

What the future holds

As technology evolves, building accessibility into the foundation of all products and processes will become an important best practice. Dame and his team envision a future where all assistive technologies are seamlessly integrated into all products to eliminate the need for additional tools or custom configurations. Systems will be designed to adapt to situational limitations (e.g., voice assistance that automatically activates while driving). AI will be used to improve tools like screen readers, enabling them to better understand user intent and dynamically adapt. Dame expanded on that idea with this example, “What if [a device’s] camera could read my eyes and see where I’m looking on the screen? So instead of using my voice to augment a mouse, maybe my head and eye movement are enough to be able to click something.” By prioritizing accessibility, organizations unlock potential, drive innovation and create opportunities for all. “Windows gave me the freedom to contribute in ways I never thought possible. That’s the true power of accessibility,” Dame reflects. As his journey demonstrates, accessible technology is not just about leveling the playing field—it’s about transforming lives and redefining what’s possible. Learn more about Windows and accessibility here. https://youtu.be/IHcA7-99hQI

Forza Motorsport is now available for PCs and Xbox

Athima Chansanchai, Writer — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 14:00:18 +0000

Forza Motorsport’s general manager Dan Greenawalt and creative director Chris Esaki have spent decades rebuilding cars. “It’s a constant sort of passion,” Esaki says. The game they reimagined will both thrill experienced racers and immerse beginners. Forza Motorsport is now available on Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Series X|S consoles, Windows PC and Steam, and Cloud Gaming (Beta). Head over to Source to find out more.

Student researchers work with ALS community to evolve DuoRhythmo music app for everyone

Athima Chansanchai, Writer — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 17:00:10 +0000

For Dr. Alper Kaya, the darkest days of his life happened about 10 years after he found out he had ALS. Based in Turkey, the ophthalmologist felt fortunate in that the disease progressed slowly, after the initial diagnosis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in 1990. He could still perform surgeries, help patients and play classical guitar – one of the constants in his life, ever since he was a teenager. After about a decade, he lost the use of his hands to do those things he loved. He lost hope, too. At the time, it felt unbearable. But with the help of his daughter, he found other ways to make music again. Assistive technology gave him the ability to blow into a MIDI wind controller (“a hands-free electronic, breath-powered instrument”). Later, when he couldn’t close his mouth, he found other music-based software to respond to eye tracking and small head movements. He’s got a YouTube channel where he’s uploaded some of his compositions. [caption id="attachment_177843" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Dr. Alper Kaya[/caption] Most recently, he was an early tester for DuoRhythmo, a Windows app that recently released its first major update. It enables anyone, including people living with disabilities, to create music collaboratively and remotely in real-time. With it, he can create original rhythms and beats using his eyes. “Communicating through music is very important for me,” says Kaya, 61. He played in bands throughout his younger days. During high school, university and medical school, he never left music. “Music represents the color of my spirit and when I make music, it develops my spiritual life. I feel free and more creative. If you want to make music, you need an instrument and you bond with it. It’s a special relationship.” While he can no longer play instruments the way he used to, technology has given him another way to be creative and connect to music. He immediately liked the DuoRhythmo interface and being able to play hand drums (with his eyes), something he hadn’t done before, and found it very easy for a beginner like him to incorporate the irregular rhythms he grew up with in Turkish music. [caption id="attachment_177844" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Screenshot of DuoRhythmo app[/caption] What Kaya can do with the app is the culmination of years of research by students at Aalborg University Copenhagen who are studying Medialogy, a major that explores how people interact with computers. That field includes technology such as desktop apps like DuoRhythmo, as well as virtual and augmented reality. “We really like this concept of extreme constraint design, when you have a very specific target group who have limited ways of interacting with the product. And then instead of making a product and then making it accessible afterwards, we build it from the bottom up to make sure interaction comes first and then everything else comes after,” says Truls Bendik Tjemsland, one of the core group members who created the app -- students who are in the master’s leg of the Medialogy program, scheduled to graduate in summer 2023. As they were looking for projects to work on, music emerged as the focus because of its creative and collaborative nature, a means to connect people and bring them together. A collaboration between Multisensory Experience Lab at Aalborg University Copenhagen and Microsoft Research, they practiced user-centered research alongside people with ALS (PALS) and their families. [caption id="attachment_177848" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Some of the students who worked on DuoRhythmo (Photo by Frej Reosenstjerne at Danish Sound Day event showcasing DuoRhythmo in May 2022)[/caption] They pitched the idea of an app based on an accessible drum pattern, akin to a drum circle. “Through music you can get to this true pure joy of co-creation and collaboration with people living with ALS,” says Balázs András Iványi, who is studying in the Bay Area with Tjemsland for a semester before returning to Denmark. “I think this sort of collaborative aspect is like when you're making food together, that joy of doing something together. These people were able to actually play something together and make something meaningful.”Since the idea came to fruition during the pandemic, they had to test the idea remotely. They were able to find five people living with ALS all over the world. “That was a really, really interesting journey, meeting all these stakeholders and convincing people they don't have to be musically adept to be able to enjoy this experience,” Tjemsland says. In the spring of 2022, the student researchers went to a Danish convention for people with ALS. They learned several things during that event, one being that as long as they were able to use a mouse or touchscreen, people living with ALS wanted to use that, vs. an eye tracker. “We learned that along the way that we need to cater for all these other users,” Iványi continues. “As the disease progresses unfortunately, there is this continuum of inputs they can use, starting with a traditional mouse, then towards the very end an eye tracker. We wanted to overlap these as much as possible, so we have multiple input devices for every stage or can support multiple input devices for every stage of the disease.” [caption id="attachment_177851" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] ALS testers helping with the development of the DuoRhythmo app in Denmark[/caption] Developers on the project, also students at the university, built the app using the Unity 3D game engine. “Quite early on, we decided that we wanted to be spatial and 3D, to have a feeling of space,” says Christian Tsalidis, who studied electronics engineering for a year in Spain before he moved to Denmark, where he’s able to combine programming skills with design. Unity was also a good choice for them, he says, because it was important to be able to release it on different platforms. “We can build for Windows, phones and/or augmented and virtual reality devices.” They looked to Microsoft researchers for inspiration. The idea of building something for play and to improve quality of life resonated with them. “There's not a lot of research allowing people with ALS to play music with other people. So this multiplayer aspect that we incorporated into DuoRhythmo was a main attraction,” says Scott Naylor, another student developer on the project. “Our whole interface was designed from the beginning with that in mind.” Currently, two people at a time can collaborate on the app. One person can modulate the effects for the speeds/beats the other is creating, and they can also decide to trade places.It's inclusive in many ways. It's not exclusively designed for people with disabilities.The students made custom buttons that are interactable with eye and head tracking, as well as those aligned with mouse and keyboard controls to open the app up to as many people as possible depending on how far they are through their diagnosis. The team found that working with Windows 11 helped them throughout the building process, as they find it’s more accessible in terms of how much more development and research is available when designing for as many as possible. Bill Buxton, a partner researcher at Microsoft, served as an advisor on DuoRhythmo. A former professional sax and synthesizer player, he pivoted to computer science and human computer interaction design decades ago. Among his numerous accomplishments, he headed the team that developed the user experience for the 3D software used to design cars. He takes a design-first perspective in each project, asking about the process and creating a culture of design that integrates all stakeholders so they can all work together contributing their expertise. [caption id="attachment_177850" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] A video call on Microsoft Teams showing Microsoft advisors and Danish students working on DuoRhythmo[/caption] The design problem Buxton was interested in solving with the students was how to point and trigger things that could create music using only eyes or tongues, depending on the disabilities a person may have. Buxton and the students embrace the notion of “universal design” – such as wheelchair ramps to buildings, which came from the disability community yet benefited the general population. “For this project, the approach began with accessibility to a specific community with special needs, but the solution – likewise – brought the benefits to the general population, providing a demonstration that with appropriate design, we can have inclusive design with minimal compromise,” Buxton says. Knowing that they wanted as many people as possible to use the app – and still be valid musically – the team approached the project from the perspective of an orchestra conductor focusing on the percussion section instead of the musician that needs fingers to play the guitar or piano. “You don't have to articulate every note to make music. You can also shape and initiate phrases,” Buxton says. “You can start these percussion patterns and as you can gradually modify them, you can conduct them and change the tempo. You can start to do amazing things that are highly creative. The key thing is the choice of the patterns that you can bring into the sequence and what you can do with them, like a DJ.” In addition to assistive devices like those involving eye tracking, the app can incorporate input from a touch pad, touch screen, mouse, foot paddle or joystick. “It's inclusive in many ways,” Buxton says. “It's not exclusively designed for people with disabilities.” But ALS testers were essential in creating the app. Cathy Cummings, executive director of the International Alliance of ALS/MND Associations, helped connect the students with their future users during the development of the app.Cummings, whose mother passed from ALS in 2005 after living with the disease for five years, volunteered with ALS Ontario, where she became chairman of the board. She also sat on the board of ALS Canada and after completing board terms in 2013, she became the Alliance’s new executive director. Microsoft already had a presence on the Alliance Innovation and Technology Advisory Council and made the introductions to the students in Denmark. “I can't say enough positive things about them. They were great to work with. The students were really diligent about knowing what they wanted to do and how they wanted to proceed, and they were really interested right from the beginning with involving people with ALS so that they felt like they were actually meeting a need as opposed to something that they had dreamt up,” says Cummings, whose organization was looking at the patient journey over time and what technology they might need throughout their journey with ALS to improve their quality of life. “A lot of technologies support the very basic physiological needs, but the more interesting ones to our group of people living with ALS falls into the higher order of Maslow's hierarchy of needs: music, art, appreciation of things that improve their quality of life that aren’t directly related to their ability to cope with the day-to-day. So, the more nuanced parts of life they felt made life worth living. And it was right at the convergence of that time when we were looking at how to define that matrix that we were introduced to this fantastic team.” Cummings adds that the collaborative nature of the app also helps counter the social isolation that often results from the disease. “Once people have their basic physiological needs satisfied, life is much more than that,” says Cummings, who appreciates how the app is available to so many people through the Microsoft Store. “Anything that's built into something that's available publicly is hugely helpful. ALS/MND is a fairly rare disease, and so the exposure to students at the university level when they're working on products and services in technology to improve quality of life really helps others gain an awareness of our disease. Once someone's aware of something, they take it with them for the rest of their life.” It's important, Cummings says, for businesses to include people with disabilities as they develop products. “At any of our education seminars or our conferences each year, we see what Microsoft is bringing in the future and how they're working forwards on things like natural voice and translation,” she says. “All of those kinds of things aren't products on the market yet, but they give people a lot of hope that they're going to be able to keep their identity and be able to communicate as they progress through this disease.” Top image: Photo by Frej Reosenstjerne at Danish Sound Day event showcasing DuoRhythmo in May 2022, with original illustration by Bernardo Henning

How inclusion drives innovation in Windows 11

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 17:00:28 +0000

Earlier this year we announced four exciting features coming to Windows 11 designed for and with people with disabilities: system-wide live captions, Focus sessions, voice access and more natural voices for Narrator. As those features start to become available today, we wanted to pull back the curtain and share a bit more about how the culture of inclusion within the Windows engineering team has helped to foster the development of more inclusive and delightful Windows experiences for everyone. That culture has three main ingredients: people, process and ambition.

The makeup of our team: as diverse as the communities we aim to empower

On the Windows Accessibility team we embrace the disability motto, “nothing about us without us”: to create products that empower each of us, ideally the creators should be as diverse as their audience. When we built the team that would be developing the accessibility experiences for Windows 11, we very intentionally hired people with disabilities to drive those investments, so that their lived experiences could help inform and guide the design of the solutions. Let’s meet a few of the product makers behind the new Narrator and Focus enhancements in Windows 11: Jeff Bishop and Alexis Kane. Jeff Bishop is the product manager driving Narrator, the built-in screen reader in Windows. Jeff has been blind since birth and has dedicated his career to building experiences that empower people who are blind. And over the past few years, Jeff has led the way in making Narrator easier and more delightful to use. As he tells it:

As a screen reader user myself, I truly understood the need for some changes to Narrator’s voice. Listening to that voice all day while working, reading an article or book, or just surfing the web on the sofa – it needs to be a delightful experience. To develop the new natural sounding voices for Narrator – “Aria,” “Guy” and “Jenny” – we had to figure out what made a voice “great” for a screen reader user. I spent considerable time with our engineering team to improve responsiveness and other characteristics of the voices, and we tested and gathered tons of feedback to ensure they met my needs as a user and for the needs of all screen reader users around the world.

Drawing on his own lived experience and feedback from the community, Jeff helped bring new natural sounding voices to Narrator. These new voices use state-of-the-art text-to-speech that more closely mirror natural speech, making everything from browsing the web to reading and authoring documents more enjoyable for users who listen to their screens rather than looking at them. Alexis Kane is the product manager behind Focus sessions, a new experience on Windows 11 that uses proven techniques to build healthy digital habits and get more done. Alexis has ADHD and personally felt how notification distractions impacted her productivity. This is how Alexis describes her experience:

The way my computer behaves in a day influences my mood, my productivity and my energy levels. This became ever more apparent with virtual work when I had no break from my computer. The number of notifications I was receiving increased significantly and so did my anxiety levels. When I see a notification, I immediately start thinking about the topic of that message, how I will respond, how others are going to respond and that I should reply immediately. I also didn’t feel like I could turn my notifications off because then I would be distracted all day wondering what I was missing out on.

I am very much not alone in these feelings, and this is why we knew we had to do something to calm down the PC and reduce distractions for users. We started thinking very broadly about how we could create a calmer environment on the PC and through lots of design iterations and customer feedback, we created Focus sessions and Do Not Disturb.

With Focus sessions and Do Not Disturb, users have a simple way to quiet down Windows and focus on the work they need to get done. When you start a new focus session, Windows will turn on Do Not Disturb, which silences notifications, and turn off task bar badges as well as flashing of applications on the task bar. Focus is also integrated with the Clock App, so it launches a timer to help you focus and reminds you to take breaks, which is proven to improve productivity.

The team’s process: rooted in partnerships with the communities we aim to serve

Of course, with a limited number of people on the team, the ideal of fully representing the diversity of our user base will always remain out of reach – and that’s why partnerships and outreach are such an important piece of our process as well. Truly, partnerships are fundamental to understanding, developing and validating the features we build: through conversations with our customers, we create shared understanding of the challenges and opportunities we have in order to create more inclusive experiences. One of these partnerships, with our mobility advisory board, was crucial to the development of the new voice access experience in Windows 11, now in preview. The mobility advisory board is comprised of people with limited mobility and their support network: for example, occupational therapists or parents of children with limited mobility. Through our conversations with the members of the mobility advisory board, we learned that our existing voice commanding solutions were not as efficient as our users needed them to be. So we began a series of conversations with the board that helped us envision and co-create a new experience – one that enables people with limited mobility (and anyone) to control their PC and author content in any application using their voice. One feature within the new voice access experience that emerged directly from this collaboration was the voice access interactive guide and help experience. Board members, especially occupational therapists, stressed how important it is to help users learn how to use a new technology when it is first available. Based on that feedback, we made sure that the first time you start voice access, it pops up an interactive guide to help you learn how to complete common tasks using your voice. And as you’re using it, you can also always get to a complete list of commands by asking “what can I say?” Voice access even gives you real-time feedback of what it heard so that you know which word was not recognized correctly when it makes a mistake. We are very grateful for the time and feedback the mobility board has given us on voice access and we are excited to continue our journey together.

The team’s ambition: to create delightful experiences for each of us

The personal stake our team has in the quality of the experiences we create, combined with the depth of our connection to the communities we serve, has always led us to have big ambitions. We want to envision and create experiences that go beyond “access” to create delightful experiences that inspire and empower each of us to do our best work in Windows. And sometimes realizing that ambition means re-envisioning established solutions – as we did when developing the new system-wide live captions experience. Live captions have existed inside of many apps in Windows for some time – and working with employees and advisors who are deaf and hard of hearing, we learned that having the captions contained inside of an app can lead to inefficiencies with collaboration and multitasking: when you close or minimize the app, the captions go with it. And so, working together with people who are hard of hearing and deaf, the team re-envisioned live captioning as a system-wide experience. Now, live captioning in Windows 11 goes beyond the app. The captions are displayed at the top of the screen by default, right under the camera on most systems, which makes it easier to follow while continuing to appear engaged in online meetings. But location is in your control, so you can move live captions to the bottom of the screen or into a floating window, so you can multitask, not lose the captions, and most importantly not block any important content. And while this solution solved one of the main problems we set out to address, our ambition to provide delightful experiences pushed us to look even further – and we saw an opportunity to solve a real-world problem: making in-person conversations accessible. By capturing microphone audio, Windows 11 live captions can also transcribe in-person conversations. And since the captions are produced locally on the machine itself, those conversations – like all your captioned content – stay inside the room. This is a game-changing feature for a whole range of scenarios – meetings where everyone is wearing face masks that block lip reading, impromptu conversations between deaf and hearing people where no sign interpreter is readily available, and, of personal relevance to me, helping non-native language speakers follow along with audio content and conversations both online and off.

Join us on the journey: give us your feedback

Accessibility and inclusion in Windows 11, as everywhere, is an ongoing journey – and one we’re committed to pursuing through our products, our culture and our partnerships with you, the community. Your feedback and input have been crucial to helping our teams and products continue to evolve in the right direction. And we know that we still have more to do, and we will need your help. So keep the feedback coming. You can start by getting the new update to Windows 11 today – and then tell us what you think, to help create better experiences for each of us. Just press the Windows logo key + F to launch the Feedback hub and share what’s on your mind. Finally, if you are a customer with a disability and need technical assistance with Windows or any other Microsoft product, please reach out to the Disability Answer Desk via phone, chat or ASL (via videophone). Please contact us, we are always happy to help. Editor’s note – Sept. 21, 2022 – The voice access guide image above was replaced post-publication.

How Windows speech-to-text and other tools can help address educational inequity

Athima Chansanchai, Writer — Thu, 12 May 2022 15:58:10 +0000

Graham, a 12-year-old boy who lives in Kansas, has a neurological condition that renders him unable to read or write. But, thanks to Windows speech-to-text, Immersive Reader and other tools, he’s been able to look forward to the future. He now aces book reports and makes business cards for his lawn-mowing service thanks to those tools. He dreams of being a doctor. Features like these can help address inequity in schools, empowering students like Graham to find their voices and be game changers. See the video below. To learn more about Graham and some of the ways teachers are using technology to help address inequity in the classroom, visit Microsoft Stories. https://youtu.be/dN9Znrt7p0w

An update on our commitment to making the web more accessible for everyone

Liat Ben-Zur, Corporate Vice President — Tue, 10 May 2022 15:00:10 +0000

Today, Microsoft is kicking off the 12^th Annual Ability Summit, a free community event that brings together people with disabilities, allies and industry professionals to imagine and build the future of inclusion and accessibility. It showcases our commitment to accessibility across the company and our fundamental belief that technology should be inclusive, ensuring everyone can access its benefits regardless of ability level, learning style or level of familiarity with technology. We’ve seen the PC become even more integral to productivity, connection and play over the last two years as we transitioned to hybrid ways of working and learning. The internet is a core part of the PC experience and Microsoft Edge is committed to building a more accessible and inclusive web, so everyone can experience it in ways that work for them. We’ve made a lot of progress on this journey with tools you can tailor to your needs like read aloud, Immersive Reader, Editor in Microsoft Edge, and most recently, automatic image descriptions. We know that when we design a solution for one, the benefit extends to many. That’s why community feedback is essential to driving this innovation. We can’t do this alone, and we’re just getting started in this ongoing journey together to build a more accessible web. I’m excited to share the steps Microsoft Edge has taken so far to help you experience the web your way.

Automatic image descriptions in Microsoft Edge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByQB283P9PM Pictures are worth a thousand words, but how can they be more accessible? Many people who are blind or low vision experience the web primarily through a screen reader, which is an assistive technology that reads the content of each page aloud. Screen readers depend on provided image labels (alternative text or “alt text”) that allow them to describe visual content – like images and charts – so the user can understand the full content of the page. Alt text is critical to making the web accessible, yet it’s often overlooked: our data suggests that more than half of the images processed by screen readers are missing alt text. We’re filling that gap and Microsoft Edge now provides auto-generated alt text for images[1] that do not include it. Auto-generated alt text helps users of assistive technology such as screen readers discover the meaning or intent of an image on the web. To try this out, go to edge://settings/accessibility and look for the new setting “Get image descriptions from Microsoft for screen readers.” When this setting is enabled, a prompt will appear with a summary of the feature and a link to additional privacy information, and ask for permission to continue. Once turned on, Microsoft Edge will provide alt text on images being read by a screen reader when they’re not present. This feature was made generally available in February and we’re looking forward to getting your feedback and for it to be even more widely used!

Experience the web your way

https://youtu.be/4ExqwcqUaoY Read aloud and Immersive Reader in Microsoft Edge have been some of the most popular tools since we launched the browser, especially among learners and educators. These features are fan favorites, allowing you to easily remove distracting content when reading articles online or go hands free to multitask as Microsoft Edge reads aloud to you. This way, everyone can experience and read the web their way. Read aloud brings the power of text to speech to everyone, making the web better for all, including people with dyslexia and ADHD, temporary disabilities due to circumstances or injury, and even those just looking to multitask or rest their eyes. We know voice and audio tools can help everyone experience the web more effectively as their needs change over time. For example, having articles read aloud helps people with ADHD stay present and it also aids those dealing with declining vision due to aging. For those with dyslexia, it can enable more productive reading and learning by having articles and other content read to them versus reading the text on their own. For students who are English language learners or learning to read, read aloud empowers them to identify parts of speech, translate the page or enable line focus. We’ve also heard positive feedback about how natural read aloud sounds with multiple voices to choose from. There is also clear, seamless pronunciation for text that can be read aloud in 40+ languages. Immersive Reader easily removes distractions from the web, so you can focus on the task of reading. It’s especially helpful for people with ADHD, color blindness or those who find some websites overwhelming. Immersive Reader is also customizable to your preferences, so you can change font, text spacing, language and page themes across the web instead of adjusting individual webpages each time you want to read something.

Helping you write more confidently on the web

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIx39MkFSqg In March, we announced Editor[2] in Microsoft Edge. This is the same editing tool in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint we already know and love, built into the browser. We also shared that we’re rolling out text prediction[3] in Editor, too. This feature helps improve everyone’s writing skills, whether you’re dyslexic or dysgraphic, writing in a second language, or correcting basic grammar or spelling errors. Editor helps you be more productive online, empowering everyone to write more confidently with clarity and efficiency as they complete work and personal tasks. It’s just another step in our journey to help everyone experience the web their way.

Tools to help make the web more accessible

Making the web more accessible takes all of us. If you are a web developer or if you create content for the web, you have a critical role to play in creating an inclusive experience.

The World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) provides more information about creating good image alt text for site authors wishing to adhere to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) specification. Tutorials provide patterns for alt text across a variety of functions that images may serve in the context of a web site. Microsoft also offers some recommended guidance.
For web developers, The Microsoft Edge Developer Tools help remind authors to provide alt text and provide many other tools to help diagnose, debug and improve accessibility on web sites.
You can also find additional design resources at: https://www.microsoft.com/design/inclusive/.

We need your help

Your feedback is critical to our success in this journey to make the web more accessible for everyone. We need to hear from all of you to design products and tools that are more inclusive for everyone. You can submit feedback via the Microsoft Edge Feedback tool (Settings menu, Help and Feedback, Send Feedback), and let us know what you think. Microsoft is committed to meeting or exceeding WCAG and other accessibility compliance standards in our products and web sites. If you notice an issue we might have missed, we would love to hear about it and get it fixed. Thank you, as always, for reading. At Microsoft, we’re dedicated to empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more, and I believe the web plays a significant role in this mission. When it comes to accessibility on the web and bridging the digital divide, we’re just getting started and we look forward to continuing this important work together. [1] Please note the following image types will not be sent to the auto-image caption service nor provided to the screen reader: images that are marked as decorative, images that are smaller than 50x50 pixels, excessively large images, and images categorized by the Vision API as pornographic in nature, gory or sexually suggestive. [2] Editor runs on websites where spellcheck isn’t already available. Click here to see available languages. Editor is not available in KP, IR, CU, SY, UA and SD. [3] Starting to roll out in March 2022 available in English, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese languages. Text prediction is limited to the user’s top language in the Edge browser. Text prediction availability will be limited to United States, Great Britain, Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and Chile.

New accessibility features coming to Windows 11

Tue, 10 May 2022 15:00:07 +0000

Last year, Microsoft renewed and strengthened its commitment to closing the disability divide; to work toward improving educational and employment opportunities for people with disabilities around the world. And that commitment has been central to the development of Windows 11: the most inclusively designed version of Windows yet. At its launch last fall, Windows 11 included a whole host of accessibility improvements designed for and with people with disabilities: calmer, more appealing sound schemes; beautiful new contrast themes and closed caption customizations; a more responsive and flexible experience for working with assistive technologies; and a new Accessibility Settings pane to make all of these features easier to find and use. And we’re continuing to innovate.

Windows 11 is the most accessible version of Windows yet

Today, we’re excited to take a deeper dive into four of the new inclusive experiences coming to Windows 11, some of which we introduced during last month’s Windows Powers the Future of Hybrid Work event: a more immersive Focus experience, system-wide live captions, more powerful voice access tools and more natural voices for Narrator. Let’s dive in.

Focus makes it easier for everyone to be more productive on Windows

The way we work has changed over the last few years. We’ve gained efficiencies, but also have a lot of information competing for our attention. New hybrid workstyles, online meetings and remote collaboration offer the potential for constant distractions and mental fatigue. This is especially challenging for people with ADHD. To help navigate this new way of working, we envisioned a new Focus experience with people with ADHD to help the ADHD community, and everyone, focus and do more. We made it simpler to control your notifications by adding an option to turn on Do Not Disturb, which reduces the number of notifications that can distract you. Do Not Disturb announces priority notification and alarms, and Action Center tracks all your notifications, so you can have confidence you are not missing important information. And, we introduced Focus sessions, a new experience that uses proven techniques to build healthy digital habits and get more done. When you start a Focus session, Windows will turn on Do Not Disturb and turn off task bar badges. Focus is integrated with the Clock App. It launches a timer to help you focus and reminds you to take breaks, which is proven to improve productivity. It is integrated with Spotify, so that you optimize your environment with your favorite audio to get into and stay in the flow.

Live captions make it easier for everyone to consume audio content

So many people benefit from captions on audio content: people who are deaf and hard of hearing, non-native language speakers, if you’re in a loud or quiet room, and more. With system-wide, on-device live captions coming to Windows 11, speech to text will be available in so many more contexts than before. We envisioned live captions with people who are hard of hearing and people who are deaf to enable them, and everyone, to consume audio content on Windows. Live captions on Windows 11 can automatically transcribe spoken content from any audio, including from applications like Microsoft Edge and even from microphones – which means you can get captions for a live, in-person conversation! It's available now for Windows Insiders. You can find live captions from Settings > Accessibility > Captions or from Quick Actions > Accessibility. Unlike most closed captions, which appear at the bottom of the screen, live captions on Windows 11 run along the top, right under the camera on most systems, which makes it easier to follow the captions while continuing to appear engaged in remote meetings – but they can also be moved to the bottom or into a floating window if you’d prefer. The captions were designed to work with other windows, so that they don’t occlude app content. They can be personalized with different fonts, font sizes and colors. Importantly, live captions on Windows 11 leverage state-of-the-art speech recognition while staying completely local to your device. This means that once they are set up, they are always available, without an internet connection; they are instantly responsive; and they can be trusted to respect users’ privacy because they are generated on device, and don’t send any content to the cloud. Live captions are available with support for U.S. English.

Voice access makes it possible for everyone to control their PC with their voice

Many disabilities – and many circumstances – can make it difficult to use a keyboard and mouse. We envisioned a new voice access experience with people with limited mobility, e.g., people with mild-severe arthritis, cerebral palsy and other conditions that make it difficult to use a keyboard and mouse, to make it possible for them, and everyone, to command and control their PC and to author content in any application using their voice. For example, voice access supports scenarios like opening and switching between apps, browsing the web, and reading and authoring mail. Voice access is available now for Windows Insiders. You can find voice access in Settings > Accessibility > Speech. When you turn on voice access for the first time, it will prompt you to download a speech model for the on-device speech recognition. Once it is downloaded, you can choose which microphone you want to use with voice access and start using your voice to control your PC. To help get you started, voice access includes an interactive guide that explains how to complete common tasks using your voice. You can also access a complete list of commands by asking “what can I say?” when voice access is listening. Voice access even gives real-time feedback of what it heard so that you know which word was not recognized correctly when it makes a mistake. In addition to navigating and interacting with Windows, you can emulate standard inputs like keyboard and mouse with your voice using the grid and numbers overlays, so you can access content in any app or web page. You can even dictate and edit text with voice access. Like live captions, voice access leverages state-of-the-art speech recognition directly on your device – which means it too is available when you’re offline, responds instantly and keeps your data on your machine. Voice access is available with support for U.S. English. Additional information, including an introduction to common voice commands and the complete set of supported commands, is available in this voice access commands list.

Natural Narrator voices make it delightful for people who are blind to consume content

Finally, we are excited to announce the availability of natural voices for Narrator. One of the top pieces of feedback we have from our customers on the Narrator experience is that our current voices are not great to listen to. Especially for cases when you may want to read an article or extended text. To address this feedback, we are bringing natural voices for Narrator to enable people who are blind or with low vision to enjoy scenarios like browsing the web, reading, authoring mail and more. Natural Narrator voices leverages state-of-the-art text-to-speech on device with Windows. Once set up, the new voices are always available (without an internet connection), instantly responsive and can be trusted to respect users’ privacy because text to speech is processed on device, without sending information to the cloud. Narrator natural voices are available with support for U.S. English.

Try Windows 11 and give us feedback

Windows 11 continues our journey to empower every person on the planet to achieve more; to empower people with disabilities to cross the digital divide at school and work. Importantly, we are designing inclusive Windows experiences both with and for people with disabilities. And we all reap the benefits. We are leveraging state-of-the-art technology to deliver experiences that are accurate, natural and delightful. Still, we recognize we have much more to do. Preview builds of Windows 11 with all of these experiences are available now to Windows Insiders. As you try these features out, please let us know what you think. Whether you’re using an Insider build, or a generally available version, Windows makes it easy to share your thoughts and suggestions — just press the Windows logo key + F to launch the Feedback hub and share what’s top of mind. We’re excited for your feedback. Finally, if you are a customer with a disability and need technical assistance, the Disability Answer Desk is there to assist via phone (800-936-5900) and chat. In addition, we also have an ASL option available for our customers who are deaf or hard of hearing in the U.S. (+1 503-427-1234). Please contact us, we are always happy to help.

Forza Horizon 5 update introduces sign language support

Athima Chansanchai, Writer — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 17:57:45 +0000

Even though Cameron Akitt grew up hard of hearing, for him British Sign Language is a second language. English is his first. An avid gamer, subtitles supplement what he hears, correcting things he may have misheard or missed because of too much background noise. But he has friends who are deaf, for whom reading captions can cause fatigue. “For them, it’s a really tiring experience, not being able to access your first language,” says Akitt, a London-based teacher of deaf/hard of hearing young children in a hospital-based school. “We should be able to access the same story beats and narrative components. Otherwise, we’re only getting half the picture and not getting the full experience. Including sign language is about enabling more deaf and hard of hearing people to have ownership over their gaming experience.” Xbox Game Studios developer Playground Games and Xbox invited Akitt in as a consultant when they decided early in development to incorporate sign language support into Forza Horizon 5. Starting March 1, a free, in-game update will include American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL) support for its in-game cinematics. The update includes actors from the deaf and hard of hearing community signing in parts of the story between driving, such as jumping into challenges, getting ready for a race, meeting other players and racing across Mexico while planes fly overhead. Read more about this update on Microsoft Stories.

The people behind Windows 11: Working with communities to improve input and accessibility

Athima Chansanchai, Writer — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 17:00:21 +0000

John Porter is an input and accessibility designer who is unable to use what so many take for granted: a keyboard and mouse. Porter relies almost entirely on his voice and speech recognition technology, in addition to switches (a series of buttons with pre-defined actions to cover a small range of motion) to interact with his PC. Working on Windows 11 as part of the Modern Input & Accessibility team, he’s been creating solutions to help others who use their PCs in different ways. “My role on the team is to think about how we can create new and more inherently inclusive input modalities that will not only address the needs of customers with disabilities, but have mainstream value as well,” says Porter, who joined Microsoft three years ago while in a doctorate program at the University of Washington in the department of Human Centered Design and Engineering. In Windows 11, you’ll now see Accessibility in Settings, new contrast themes and an ongoing commitment to engage with the disability community in doing even more with their feedback. “Having someone on the team like me who didn't grow up entrenched in a traditional notion of what it means to interact with a computer allows me to think outside the box,” says Porter, who has a neuro-muscular condition called spinal muscular atrophy. When he was a young child – about 5 – he had enough manual dexterity to use a keyboard and mouse on his first computer. But as his condition evolved, he had to adapt, using a pencil to “hunt and peck” on the keyboard, and a stylus instead of a mouse. “When I think back to my own childhood, being in the classroom or computer class, my most vivid memories include using alternate input devices and the way all the kids crowded around to witness this novelty. For me, I was incredibly fortunate, that manifested as a pretty positive experience, but I also recognize that is far from typical,” Porter says. “Often, for people with disabilities – sensory, physical or cognitive – accessibility features and assistive technologies you rely on to mediate your interaction with the world around you may as well be a flashing neon sign that says 'I'm different.' So with Windows 11, that was one of our real commitments and priorities. Regardless of whether you’re using Windows with mouse, touch or voice typing, using a default color theme, etc. – all of it had to feel like you were using Windows in the way it was meant to be used. “It was critical to recognize that no two people with disabilities are alike. One person who’s blind or low vision can’t act as a proxy for an entire community. What I try to communicate to my team and all of our partner teams is that we’re off to a good start, but how do we push this further? I’ve broken down that door, so to speak, so how do I use that privilege in the world of Windows to find more seats to that table, bring more people into that conversation? The only way we’re going to be able to move forward to represent the full spectrum of human diversity is by being understood and represented in the things we create,” Porter says. [caption id="attachment_176274" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Jiwon Choi[/caption] Porter’s manager, Jiwon Choi, has been at Microsoft for eight years, straight out of college, channeling her experience on Windows into a mindset pervasive throughout her team. They acknowledge people have different preferences and abilities. So, they asked, how do these folks prefer to interact with Windows? Do they have low vision, and so therefore the software experience needs to be kind of augmented so that it helps them see the screen better or see based off the way that they like? Or, some people can't see at all. They might need an experience where everything is read out loud. “We always knew that Windows 11, even before it was called that, that it was going to be this big push and that it was going to be this new page. We wanted to make sure we really buckled down on the things that we believed in and the things that we felt like was going to really move the needle for people, for the customers,” says Choi, who admits she learned a great deal from her team, reinforcing the understanding that “We're building this together, so we did really try to uplift each other and teach each other.” The Carnegie Mellon School of Design instilled in Choi the basic principle of form follows function. “It's always about questioning what the problem is. And I think that hunger to always identify the nugget at the real core is something that I always continue to hold on to, and I think it's helped us limit our distractions,” she says. “We’re really trying to create meaningful, intentional and thoughtful solutions.” Choi thought she’d end up in print design – even studying abroad in Switzerland in a school that specialized in print design – but changed her mind after she visited a Microsoft booth at a recruiting event.We’re really trying to create meaningful, intentional and thoughtful solutions.Choi thought she’d end up in print design – even studying abroad in Switzerland in a school that specialized in print design – but changed her mind after she visited a Microsoft booth at a recruiting event. “I was blown away at how unexpected that experience was, back in 2013. You never really heard Microsoft and design put in the same sentence together, but I could tell these design leaders who came to our school really believed in the vision and the power of what design could bring in,” says Choi, who grew up back and forth between the East Coast and South Korea. “There was just something super compelling about working for a company that had such a large reach and potential for impact that I think it was really contagious, that feeling.” Choi has developed that feeling into listening to people and working with others within the company to evolve to their needs. Her team collaborated with teams working on hardware, which gave them insights into how people hold their devices, acknowledging the fact that not everyone has a desktop tower setup. They looked at how people used their PCs beyond a stationary desktop setup and observed the needs of people who prefer to work in fluid ways like on the couch and on-the-go. And places where typing when the keyboard and mouse aren't readily available. It helped her and her team design around a variety of postures and environments. Her team heard from customers that they wanted to use their voices to type and create content across these postures (physical arrangements of a user and their device), so Choi and her team embraced that. These input solutions, such as Windows voice typing, also often have natural accessible outcomes as well. For example, although voice typing was initially designed primarily for a mainstream use case for convenient text entry across diverse device postures, the team found that the feature was also valuable for customers with physical impairments that made traditional typing difficult. “That's a game changer,” she says. “We really want to double down on those efforts.” They made it easier for people to find the places where they could use their voice. “We hope people find it an elegant solution that tries to really meet you where you are,” she says. “It's reliable, it’s valuable and I hope people really get to try it out and see what the benefit is and for us to learn from that.” What also meant a lot to her with this release was the rebranding of the Accessibility icon. “Accessibility wasn’t an afterthought. All those aspects were important,” Choi says. “We wanted it to be consistent to that message of Windows 11 being this new journey and everyone’s included. What I like the most about the icon being a human figure is that we're not just talking about one type of disability. We want to embrace the fullness of that range in the spectrum. And to recognize first and foremost, that what it means to be human means to have differences and diversity and to celebrate that. We really felt like the human figure really embraces those principles. We’re just getting started.” Before she joined Choi’s input and accessibility team as a designer, Natassia Silva worked directly with people every day. As a manager at a sushi restaurant in San Francisco, she jotted down notes about regular customers, remembering names of family members, allergies and favorite dishes. [caption id="attachment_176273" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Natassia Silva[/caption] “I found myself learning about the customers, learning their habits, the menu and trying to find ways to improve the menu. I helped build it. I did things that were outside expectations,” she says. “But I was really passionate about not just making a business successful, but also making the people that come to it happy and have a memorable experience. I have a deep empathy for folks and learning and listening to feedback.” Born and raised in Hawaii, Silva took some time to figure out what she wanted to do. She was always very creative. She loved computers, drawing and fashion. She even made her own zines. But she also knew she wanted to do something that helped people. Silva went to The Academy of Art University and worked in the men’s fashion industry – doing a little bit of everything – before a chance meeting changed her life. “I was at a point when I was considering going back to school for graphic design. I met someone at the restaurant that I was managing who was a UX [user experience] designer and he asked me, have you thought about UX design? He shared all these resources that sparked my curiosity. Long story short, I decided to move to Seattle just to switch it up, try a new city,” says Silva, whose cousin urged her to join a design program there. “On the very last day of my interaction design classes, my instructor was showing us portfolios of designers to look up to and one of them was the same designer I met in San Francisco who told me I should go into UX design.” For Windows 11, Silva worked on the pen menu, the handwriting panel, the language switcher and the input method editor (IME) for East Asian languages. She also worked on accessibility settings such as text size, visual effects and color filters. But the bulk of her focus was on high contrast themes, something she wasn’t familiar with when she started. She relied heavily on past research as well as talking directly to customers, especially those who have experience with needing/using such themes. The team worked with a low vision advisory board, made up of external customers who identify within the spectrum of low vision, whether it's color blindness or light sensitivity. “I didn't realize how difficult it can be for them,” Silva says. “There are so many problems I wasn’t aware of.” For instance, some folks had a hard time distinguishing where the borders of one window met the other when they had many windows open. Others would use the magnifier tool because they would have difficulty being able to view their display, so they would use that accessibility tool to zoom in. But when they zoomed in closely, it could be even harder to differentiate between various elements in the user interface. These insights helped Silva create more aesthetically pleasing contrast themes that give people more choices in what works for them. “When it comes to human-centered design, it’s people at the root of it all and being able to empathize with our customers,” Silva says, of her approach to solving these pain points for users. “I was also very fortunate to work with a product manager who did identify as someone with low vision. It was helpful to have multiple perspectives and it's those multiple perspectives and listening to those with lived experiences that helped shape and drive the design.” Find out more about Windows 11 and check out previous stories about the people bringing Windows 11 to you that focus on widgets and the taskbar/Start.