Mark Riccobono:
Sticking with the discussion of technology, and Jonathan mentioned Meta. Sorry, I had a prop for this introduction, so I had to put my Meta Ray-Ban on. Okay, now I can do the introduction appropriately. So this would be the tide to put your Meta glasses. Maybe someone has the Oakley’s. I don't know.
This next presenter though is a first timer at this convention, and as all of you know, Jonathan already spoke to it. Meta is a company with which blind people have a challenging relationship, challenging relationship, as he's already articulated by some of the problems that we often encounter on the front lines with Facebook.
But at the same time, we have a lot of interest and excitement in our community because of some of the work that's happening related to AI and wearables. How many people are wearing your Meta glasses now?
There you go. It just goes to show you, but they're not perfect. Right? But fortunately we have a leader at Meta that takes this seriously, takes the relationship with the National Federation of the Blind seriously. And she's been given a mandate at the company that spans people, product and policy, so she's in a great position to do something about it.
She has built a strong relationship with us in dealing with problems and solutions very quickly, although she's only new, fairly new within the last six months to her role at Meta, so we're very happy to have with us for the first time, the vice president and head of accessibility and engagement for Meta. Please welcome Maxine Williams.
Maxine Williams:
Well, this is an exciting crowd. Yes, thank you. Thank you to everyone. Thank you President Riccobono for having us here. Thank you to all of the organizers of this amazing 85th national convention. Yes, thank you to every single member and every human being who is a participant in the blind people's movement.
As I was introduced, my name is Maxine Williams and I am in fact the Vice President of Engagement and Accessibility at Meta, I am a five foot two black woman with a blue suit on and Bantu knots in my hair, which are like little bumps all over my head.
Yes, you know what those are? Those are beautiful. Right now we are at a turning point. We honestly are artificial intelligence or AI is reshaping how we live, communicate, and navigate life. And for many of the 1.3 billion people around the world who experience some form of disability, especially those who are blind or have low vision, this moment brings both promise and questions.
There is promise in the idea that AI can support independence and connection in new and more powerful ways. It can help describe what's around you. Read a menu out loud, summarize a document or transcribe a voice message all in real time. There is promise in the idea that AI holds all of this potential to improve access, but this moment also comes with real questions.
How do we bring the lived expertise of people with disabilities into the design and development process? How do we leverage AI to meet the diversity of needs and perspectives across the disability community? Are we building products and features that are usable and that bring value to those who use them?
At Meta, we have been asking these questions. We know AI has enormous potential to improve the user experience, but we also know that potential does not become progress without intentional action and community collaboration.
Today I want to talk to you about what's possible at that intersection of accessibility and AI, not just what we are working on at Meta, but what we are seeing across the industry and how together we can shape the future of access. AI is something that works in the background to make your life easier, to make it more convenient and more enjoyable.
At its best, AI doesn't just automate tasks, it adapts to you. It augments how you move through the world on your terms, responding to your context, your environment, and your preferences. For blind and low-vision users, that promise is not abstract.
You've been using assistive technologies for years, navigating with screen readers, OCR tools, and description apps that have long provided foundational access. But what makes this moment different is the way that AI is enabling more dynamic, conversational, and context aware experiences that act more like a digital assistant than a static tool.
These new capabilities allow people to complete tasks that once required the help of others, such as identifying objects or understanding spatial layouts independently and privately. That shift is very meaningful because when assistive technology preserves your autonomy, it is not just more advanced. It helps to level the playing field. Let's talk about the Ray-Ban Meta glasses. Yay.
You already know the basics, right? Yeah. Hands-free interactions, AI powered guidance. But what we are hearing from community members is that it's the subtle things, time responsiveness, things like that are beginning to shift what's possible. Features like detailed responses, they don't just describe, they interpret. Instead of listing objects, they offer spatial cues or read intent from signage.
That nuance matters when you're navigating an unfamiliar place or trying to engage with your environment more fluidly. This feature detailed responses wasn't just dreamed up in a lab. It was shaped and led by Meta employees who are blind or who have low vision. Yes.
And it was tested by our partners at Be My Eyes, yes. And informed by direct feedback gathered through user research and a dedicated advocacy outreach session we held with organizations like you guessed it, the National Federation of the Blind, that collaboration didn't end with development.
It was continued through iteration. For example, we heard from the community that there were overly restrictive limits on their ability to get descriptions of people making it difficult to understand who was around them in public or social settings. In response, our teams lifted these limitations last year helping wearers to access the information they need about the people around them.
Having this product feature influenced by members of this community who deeply understand the real world friction points, ensures that we are solving for impact, not just assumptions and bringing in trusted partners like Be My Eyes, like the NFB provided us with grounded community informed insight that helped us refine both the technology and the experience.
Now, of course, it's not just about launching new devices or pursuing research breakthroughs. It's also about listening especially to those who rely on our products every day and making thoughtful, ongoing improvements based on that feedback. At Meta our products, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads, Quest, Ray-Ban Metas are all used by more than 3.4 billion people each month with various needs, various experiences, and various aspirations.
We've heard from members of the blind and low-vision community about what's working. And let me tell you, we have heard about where there's room for improvement, loud and clear. That input is informing how we apply AI across our products to make them more responsive to real world needs. This includes automatic alt text that now describes photos across several of our platforms in more than 45 languages.
Thank you for the feedback. Audio descriptions in reels and videos so that more visual content is accessible. Yes. Screen Reader support in Meta Quest, and if you haven't tried Meta Quest yet, run and try it. We introduce new possibilities for entertainment, education, and social connection in virtual reality.
We have enhanced color contrast and labels across WhatsApp, Instagram, Quest, and more to make contact easier to perceive and navigate. All of those improvements have come through your feedback, listening and continuing to strive to do our best. And we know we are not done.
We believe that in order to achieve our mission of building the future of human connection and the technology that makes it possible, we need to build products that are accessible and provide value to everyone. This is a direction that we are heading in with focus and intention. And one of our biggest lessons we've learned is that we cannot do this work in a vacuum.
In fact, it's something I'm extremely proud of, how much we've learned from the disability community. You've told us what's missing, you've tested features, you've pointed out friction points and helped us to continue to improve how we design. You helped us shape detailed responses.
You helped us refine, call a volunteer through our partnership with Be My Eyes, and you continue to show up with clarity and candor, helping us understand where our products can continue to evolve to meet your needs and beyond feedback, you've offered something even more powerful, which is your perspective.
Recently, we hosted a multi-day co-design focused entirely on Facebook accessibility. Yes. For those who are unfamiliar, co-design is a participatory research approach in which we bring users and experts together in our product design process as equal contributors.
For this particular engagement, which we had recently, we invited blind and low-vision users, advocates, and organizations to work side by side with our product teams to explore barriers, collaborate on solutions, and prioritize updates. This wasn't a surface level workshop, it was a deep immersive collaboration, one where the lived experiences and expertise directly impacted how our teams think about accessibility on the platform.
And you'll be happy to know, we did not ask community members to be participants. We asked them to be partners. Yes. They weren't there only to test or give feedback. They were there to shape the vision, to challenge assumptions, and to help us reimagine what is possible. Together, we reframed what is considered average or good enough.
You see, because we heard from many of our co-designers that a product or feature they used recently was average. That's the word they used. But when we probed, we discovered that average often meant barely or somewhat usable. And that realization reflected for us a history of how low expectations from technology had become.
Right? Because it was technology that wasn't being built with the community in mind. That insight has helped us to further fuel us, to work towards experiences that are not just average, not barely usable, but truly accessible for our users.
And today, the findings from that co-design are already informing improvements and new features at Facebook. But we know we can't stop there. Can't stop, won't stop. This is ongoing work and it's being shaped by your voices, your perspectives, your experiences, and your participation.
So where do we go from here? Well, on our part, we are going to keep listening. We are going to keep building. We will build AI that enables autonomy and independence. We will build with tools that are open and shareable. We build products that reflect your real world needs.
And we build with communities, not just for you. The history of accessibility has always been one of innovation captions, voice control, text to speech. These all started as accessibility tools and now they are part of everyday life for millions of people. That is what accessibility does. It does not just solve problems, it changes the standard.
And when we build with accessibility from the start and prioritize the people who need it most, we end up making products that are better for everyone. So thank you again and again, thank you for your leadership, for your feedback, and for your partnership.
You are not just influencing the products we build. You are shaping the future of what is possible, what is possible with AI, with technology, and with the future of human connection. Thank you. Wonderful.
Mark Riccobono:
Maxine. We look forward to having you back at many conventions and I think based on my meeting with her earlier today, she already knows that this group here in front of her won't hesitate to give feedback. So thank you for being open to the partnership. We look forward to doing more with Meta.