As we have fun innovation in accessibility at Microsoft’s Ability Summit 2025, we invite you to discover how Azure AI can improve accessibility in your services. The future isn’t nearly eradicating boundaries—it’s about constructing a world the place everybody strikes ahead collectively.
When my spouse and I had our first youngster, I began seeing the world in another way. Pushing a stroller via our neighborhood, I shortly realized how a lot I had taken without any consideration—sidewalks that all of a sudden ended, intersections with out curb cuts, pathways that have been technically walkable however not constructed for wheels.
It wasn’t only a minor inconvenience. It made me take into consideration my aged grandmother, who relied on a walker. And my mother and father, who’re lively now however received’t at all times transfer as simply as they do right now. Mobility and accessibility are deeply linked, and for the primary time, I noticed how infrastructure shapes our day by day experiences—whether or not we discover it or not.
But bodily mobility is simply a part of the equation. In the digital world, there are simply as many curbs that want slicing. Websites that don’t work with display readers. Captions that lag behind real-time speech. AI fashions that fail to grasp various voices. These boundaries could also be invisible to many, however they create actual limitations for tens of millions of individuals.
And identical to curb cuts in sidewalks, digital accessibility doesn’t simply profit one group—it makes know-how higher for everybody. That’s the place Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI Service, and the most recent improvements in multimodal AI and Responsible AI (RAI) are available—serving to organizations lower digital curbs and construct a world that works for all.
As we acknowledge the influence of accessibility innovation at Microsoft’s Ability Summit 2025, we encourage you to discover how AI can drive larger inclusion in your services.
The aim isn’t simply to remove obstacles—it’s to design a world the place everybody strikes ahead collectively. Here are a few of my favourite real-world examples.
Real-world influence: How Azure AI is slicing digital curbs
The curb cuts of digital accessibility didn’t begin with generative AI—Microsoft has been constructing inclusive applied sciences for many years. From early display readers to speech-to-text improvements, AI has lengthy performed a pivotal function in increasing entry. But now, we’re going even larger.
Bridging the psychological well being hole with AI-powered conversations
Technology: Azure AI
Mental well being assist is a rising necessity worldwide, however in Kenya, the place there are solely about 100 psychiatrists for a inhabitants of fifty million, entry to skilled care is extraordinarily restricted. Financial and cultural boundaries usually preserve folks from looking for the assistance they want.
Kenya Red Cross noticed a chance to bridge this hole utilizing Azure AI-powered chatbots. In partnership with Pathways Technologies, they developed Chat Care, an AI-based psychological well being assistant that gives steering, emotional assist, and referrals—all in English and Swahili.
This isn’t only a chatbot; it’s a lifeline for individuals who might in any other case endure in silence. Chat Care permits customers to begin conversations about their psychological well being in a low-pressure, nameless means, lowering stigma and providing sources which might be accessible 24/7. It can recommend respiration workout routines, gratitude practices, and in-person companies, all tailor-made to the person’s responses.
And for people who find themselves deaf, onerous of listening to, or unable to talk on the telephone, Chat Care provides text-based assist, making certain psychological well being companies can be found to everybody, no matter skill or circumstance.
Improving AI speech recognition for non-standard speech
Technology: Azure AI Speech x UIUC Partnership
Voice recognition know-how usually struggles to grasp folks with non-standard speech patterns, making it tougher for people with circumstances like cerebral palsy or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) to work together with AI-powered experiences.
To clear up this, Microsoft partnered with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and fellow tech leaders to construct the Speech Accessibility Project—a analysis initiative to coach AI fashions that acknowledge various speech patterns.
By integrating this breakthrough into Azure AI Speech, Microsoft is making certain that AI-powered voice know-how works for everybody, making digital experiences extra inclusive throughout industries.
Making AI extra accessible from the bottom up
Technology: Azure AI Foundry
With Azure AI Foundry, Microsoft has embedded accessibility into the AI growth lifecycle itself. By partnering with EY, the Azure AI Foundry now empowers neurodivergent clients, and options improved usability, lowering cognitive overload and enhancing navigation for all folks.
In 2024, Azure AI Foundry reached a milestone for usability, reflecting suggestions from folks with disabilities that helped enhance the platform. The updates included:
- Grouping notifications and deployment errors to scale back cognitive overload.
- Ensuring display readers present structured, easy-to-follow AI workflows.
- Enhancing keyboard navigation for individuals who depend on shortcuts over mouse enter.
This is a first-rate instance of why accessibility is about constructing higher, extra intuitive know-how for everybody.
Making accessible AI work for brokers
Technology: Computer-Using Agent (CUA)
Microsoft’s Computer-Using Agent (CUA) in Azure AI Foundry allows AI-powered automation of digital interactions, making software program extra accessible for folks with restricted mobility or dexterity. By permitting CUA to navigate interfaces, full multi-step duties, and execute actions via pure language instructions, it reduces reliance on conventional keyboard and mouse inputs.
This breakthrough enhances digital accessibility, empowering individuals who use any sort of assistive know-how. As CUA dynamically interprets UI parts, it makes it simpler to navigate purposes and workflows.
Hope, motion, and shifting ahead along with Azure AI
There are days when it seems like progress is sluggish. That accessibility, whether or not bodily or digital, takes too lengthy to enhance. But then I take into consideration one thing so simple as the sidewalks at my cross streets.
Not that way back, they have been utterly inaccessible. But after making a name, submitting a report, and pushing the difficulty, these sidewalks lastly obtained curb cuts simply in time for the beginning of our second youngster. It was a small repair within the grand scheme of issues, nevertheless it made an actual distinction.
The reality is, generally it simply takes somebody noticing the issue and taking motion. But I additionally know I say that from a spot of privilege—I had the time, the sources, and the flexibility to advocate for that change. Many folks don’t. That’s why it’s so necessary that we construct accessibility into our programs from the beginning—in order that nobody has to battle for the fundamentals.
With Azure AI Foundry, organizations can now scale accessibility sooner than ever, making the digital world extra navigable, usable, and welcoming to all. The curb cuts are being constructed—and the way forward for accessibility is large open.
Join us at Ability Summit 2025
As we have fun innovation at Microsoft’s Ability Summit 2025, we invite you to discover how AI can improve accessibility in your services.
The future isn’t nearly eradicating boundaries—it’s about constructing a world the place everybody strikes ahead collectively.