Welcome to the forty-fourth episode of Access On, the National Federation of the Blind's Technology podcast.
Episode
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Timestamps
Below is what's on the show this week, and when you can hear it.
- Introduction 0:00
- Join us for our boutique on what's new in iOS 26 2:06
- Travel with JetBlue 3:11
- Microsoft's Jenny Lay-Flurrie addresses national convention 5:56
- Maxine Williams from Meta addresses national convention 32:25
- Feeldom 51:00
- Orbit Research 52:52
- Dropbox tech tip 55:29
- Closing and contact info 56:48
Transcript
Speaker 1:
Live life you want.
Speaker 2:
Access on.
Jonathan Mosen:
Welcome to Access On, the technology podcast of the National Federation of the Blind. This week, sign up today for our presentation on what's new in iOS 26. We hear Microsoft's chief accessibility officer, Jenny Lay-Flurrie's address to National Convention. Then we hear from Meta's vice president of accessibility and engagement, Maxine Williams. And in this week's tech tip, how to make it easier to send and work with links from Dropbox.
It's Jonathan Mosen at the Jernigan Institute in Baltimore, Maryland welcoming you to episode 44 of Access On. Over the last week, some of you may have received new Apple things. And if you have, we'd be interested to hear how you're enjoying them. Have they lived up to your expectations?
As I put this episode together on September 19th, we have some visitors at the Jernigan Institute at the moment. We have the Kenneth Jernigan Leadership and Service program, which is a comprehensive leadership program we offer over a year-long period, and we also have the teachers of tomorrow visiting us at the moment.
So it's great to see so many visitors here talking with them about technology, what we do with the National Federation of the Blind's Center of Excellence in Non-Visual Accessibility. All this to say we've got lots going on. And I have an iPhone 17 Pro Max and an Apple Watch Ultra 3 that I have not unboxed yet.
And it's kind of like that bar of chocolate that's waiting for you there and you savor the moment when you finally can't wait any longer and you open the bar of chocolate. So when the weekend arrives, I will certainly be unboxing both of those things and setting them up. So no doubt, I'll let you know how I get on.
And that's a nice segue into telling you that on September the 30th, the National Federation of the Blind's Center of Excellence in Non-Visual Accessibility is bringing you a 90 minute boutique on what's new in iOS 26. There are plenty of new accessibility features and general features as well. And if you would like to register for this, you'd be most welcome.
Nfb.org/cena is where you go to do that, nfb.org/ C-E-N-A. It'll begin at 2:00 PM Eastern on September 30th and it's a 90-minute boutique. We will bring it to you on Access On as well because I know there's a lot of interest in all that is new in iOS 26. But attending in person is the most immediate way to hear it and it gives you the opportunity to make your own comment, share your experiences with us about iOS 26, and also to ask any questions that you may have.
So register now. Because sometimes you think you'll do these things and then other things get in the way and you forget. So why not press pause and do it now. Nfb.org/cena is where you go.
If you want to know about air travel and frequent flyer programs and hotels, Mika Pyyhkala is a fountain of knowledge here in the United States, a veritable fountain of knowledge I tell you. And he has been in touch to tell us that JetBlue has deployed a new web and mobile shopping and booking interface. He says, "While it's not perfect, it's much more accessible than the previous user interface."
Mika has been in touch with the president of JetBlue and another prior contact who put him in touch with the digital product team, coincidentally right around the time the new user interface was launching. Mika tells me that JetBlue is running a JetBlue 25 for 25 offer where if you maximize the promo, flying to 25 destinations, you are awarded Mosaic 1 status for 25 years and 350,000 points/miles.
Mika says that he's now at 15 out of 25 destinations. I'm not at all surprised to hear this. He says he's at Portland, Maine as he's writing this to me, and he says traveling to all those destinations has certainly helped him to stress test everything, find out where there are still pain points.
He says he's also discovered that it appears that the audio screen reading feature is not working at all on multiple JetBlue kiosks. He says he's been trying to use them with headphones all summer and not one has worked. A JetBlue employee told him in New Orleans that someone else who was blind was also not able to use it due to a technical issue. He says it's faster to use their kiosk and self-tag your bags rather than go into the elite Mosaic line.
Mika has just a few days ago advised the digital team about the kiosk issue, and he sent them a picture of the kiosk in case there's more than one manufacturer that they have developing them. He still hasn't gotten a response at the time of publication of this podcast. He says there are specific ACAA part 382 requirements that these kiosks must be accessible. He says he's used these kiosks in the past with the audio interface, and obviously they worked then, but they don't work now.
So if you've got any feedback on the JetBlue kiosk situation, if you have tried to use them recently, did you have success or did you not? Please let us know, [email protected] if you want to be in touch. I know that Mika is a seasoned advocate in general, and specifically when it comes to these travel situations. So we look forward to getting updates from Mika on this issue. Thanks for being in touch Mika.
Not only were there a range of very interesting sessions and seminars at National Convention covering technology, but we also had some presentations at general session of national convention on this topic. And we're going to feature some of those on Access On. Here is President Riccobono from the Friday afternoon general session to introduce Microsoft's Jenny Lay-Flurrie.
Mark Riccobono:
To give you a little history, one of the first things that I did in the office of the president, based on the priorities of this convention, was wrote to the CEO of Microsoft to express our deep frustration with accessibility at Microsoft. And the Federation requested respectfully, but with some urgency, that we needed a meeting with the CEO of Microsoft to talk about accessibility. Because of who we are as an organization and because of who he is as a corporate leader, Satya Nadella invited me to come to Microsoft for a meeting in 2014, which I reported to you on during my 2015 presidential report.
Our relationship with Microsoft 10 years ago was in a much different place than it is today. And one of the people that participated in that meeting, I think the first time that I met our speaker this afternoon was at that meeting just over 10 years ago. And we've been on a journey with Microsoft since then and continuing to grow and strengthen our trusted relationship where we give Microsoft honest but frank feedback on the product direction. And with our speaker today, we talk often more about policy as much as we talk about the products themselves and the technology.
She has proven to be a champion for us at Microsoft, but also in other spaces. And equally as important, she sincerely respects and invites the honest feedback. She's not afraid of the hard conversation and she's always willing to talk about where some of the limitations might be and to find a path to work together to continue to advance the approach.
So this presentation is about really the last decade of work that we have done in partnership with Microsoft, and maybe the next 10 years of our partnership. We're pleased to invite back to our stage the vice President and chief accessibility officer at Microsoft, here's our friend Jenny Lay-Flurrie.
Jenny Lay-Flurrie:
Good afternoon. How are we doing? I happen to know you can do better than that. How are we doing? All right, folks. I'm going to need that energy to continue. I am deaf and I cannot hear you. But I can see it and I enjoy it. My name is Jenny Lay-Flurrie. I am the chief accessibility officer at Microsoft. I have flown here from Seattle where it is, well, 70 degrees and sunny, which is a little different to what I saw outside before I came in here.
I should explain my accent. That is a British accent. I don't want any misunderstanding. I am not Australian. And I live in Washington State. So for you guys in the corner, I'm waving at you because I love you dearly.
I'm here to talk about many different things. By the way, I should also explain because of my deafness, you're going to hear a bit of deaf accent. So please if I mispronounce, will you forgive me? Okay, I'm glad we got that one out the way.
I'm going to talk a little bit about how I got to Microsoft and the journey that we have collectively been on. How did I go, and well, come from London to Seattle? Well, let me just first explain that. I joined Microsoft to work on a little product called Hotmail. Anyone? Amazing product.
I moved two years later, I moved to live in Seattle to work on another product called Bing. I like Bing. My day job was figuring out advertising, search, trying to compete with this little thing called Google. My night job was building the disability employee group at Microsoft.
Some of that group are in the room today. In fact, some of the Accessibilitarians, which is our beautiful accessible community at Microsoft are also here today. And I love and adore them all. It started incredibly small. I've now been at Microsoft 20 years. I've been a CAO, chief accessibility officer, for 10.
I've witnessed many, many, many shifts both in technology, people, and accessibility. I'm a user of accessibility. I sign, I use captioning. And I'm deeply grateful for the incredible ASL interpreters and captioners you have at this event, including my own ASL interpreter, Mary, who sat right in front of me.
What I want to do is take you through some of that learning. And I will mention that Dan Goldstein, who's sitting down here, when I got this job, told me that I needed to write it down. He told me that 10 years ago and I laughed. I did not think that I would ever be standing on a stage as glorious as this one trying to recall history and learning as I think about the future of accessibility.
But here we are, Dan. I should have followed your advice and I did not. So I'm going to take a stab at it. I'm going to talk a little bit about the past, the present, and the future. Are you with me?
All right. Well, let me start with a little bit of tech history. I'm going to go back a little further than Mark said, and I'm going to actually talk about where we are and where Microsoft is. Because we're actually celebrating a birthday this year. Microsoft is 50 years old. So am I, but I don't want to talk about that. It's terrifying. I will also say that we are celebrating over 30 years of accessibility at Microsoft. 30 years.
The first decade was kind of an interesting one when I go back and I did go back down. We built a lot of foundational practices. We put a new company-wide policy on accessibility. And in 1995, for those that were still were around at that time, Microsoft launched its first set of accessibility features in the menu. That included Sound Sentry, sounds so weird now, Sound Sentry, high contrast, and access to this product, which many of you may use today, ZoomText.
For the those with longer memories, we had some features before that. The first screen reading, I actually dug around and went into our history books and I sort of pulled out all the newspapers. They were paper newspapers back then. The first screen reading was actually a product called SlimWare Windows Bridge. Anyone remember that? In 1992, which was in Windows 3.1. Can you believe it? It actually was the first thing that gave access to the graphical interface.
Our first proper feature was 1994. It's a feature that actually is still in our product today. It's called Sticky Keys. And you will hit it if you hit shift too many times. It's still invaluable to our friends in the mobility community. Windows 95 went down well, but as always, disabled people know best. And in 1998, we had our first community meeting, that was with a guy that you will probably know called Bill Gates.
Bill Gates met with a room, an audience that included the late and the great Judy Heumann. That room requested many, many features to be a part of Microsoft and to be part of our products. And top of the list probably won't surprise you. An inbox screen reader. Narrator launched in 2000. It wasn't a great launch, as Mark tells me often.
But I will also say that internally within Microsoft, our internal community was growing. In fact, that's where I was focused. The ERG at Microsoft is probably my proudest accomplishment in my time and tenure at the company. By the way, I'm not done. I got way more to do.
In 2010, we launched this little conference called the Ability Summit. It had 20 people in it the first year. 20 people, and I thought that was a raving success. It's still going 15 years on. And in March this year we welcomed 21,000 people. And I pinch myself. And then it's very clear why that is.
Employee feedback, customer feedback is invaluable to the future of our products. You have made our products better with your feedback. And you've kept us grounded. You told us when we changed the Outlook ribbon. You told us how you felt. And we heard you. We also launched some really important services in that period of time just before Mark sent me his love letter. We launched, very importantly, the disability answer desk.
Who uses it? DAD? Anyone heard of the DAD team? Aka.ms/dad. Crystal Jones from our team is here today. We launched it with just five agents. Today, it takes over 10,000 calls a month. Your feedback, your questions, your issues, the error message, which has never happen on Windows, but sometimes maybe they do. We work to get them fixed quickly. You can contact us and speak to any of our agents.
But more importantly, you can also use the latest technology, AI, and Be My Eyes. And I'm grateful to our partnership with Be My Eyes. 50% of queries from blind people coming to DAD today are solved by Be My Eyes and AI.
We also launched the supported employment program, which hires intellectual developmental disabilities into Microsoft. This is a program that today operates in 28 countries and has over 600 hires. And here's the kicker, we do not support sub-minimum wage. We believe everyone is entitled to fair wages, and we do not work with 14(c) certificate holders.
Which brings me to the last decade and the future decade. When I came into this position at the end of 2015, I had a humbling place to start. The only way was up. I put in a new series of goals to empower every person, every organization to achieve more, in education, in employment, in the workplace, at home, and in play.
Because at the core, accessibility does one very important thing, it makes life possible. It makes everything easier. Reflecting back, it was a challenging time. Windows was launching every three to five years, Office every two years, and there was this little thing called a Windows phone. I'm not going to talk about that.
Gaming was new, LinkedIn was coming in. LinkedIn, by the way, updates three times a day. My job has evolved since. Microsoft has over 6,000 products, websites, and tools, and my job is to shepherd those, 335 buildings, and to make sure that our workplace and our hiring practices are accessible for everyone. We are not perfect, but I'm incredibly proud at how accessibility has become part of our DNA.
There's a couple of things that I've learned from this. One, every employee in every company should be trained on accessibility. This year alone, we have trained 235,000 Microsoft employees on their obligations to make every product, every website, every tool, every meeting, every event accessible. We need every person to know this.
We made that training publicly available, by the way. You can take it, you can have a look at it. We ripped out the Microsoft stuff by the way. It's gone. All the nerdy stuff. We just put the framework out. 5.5 million have taken that training so far, and my new goal is far higher than that. The team doesn't know that yet.
Accessibility must be managed as a business, as a priority. That means that you have to have consistent monitoring of what you do, and you have to move accessibility instead of break fix to build by design. Our testing tools that we use, which is accessibilityinsights.io, we have made available and free online for everyone to use.
We have to remember, number three, that compliance is the floor, not the ceiling. I want every product to be usable, delightful, easy for everyone. And compliance is a beautiful thing, but it is not the goal. I love that Office now has an accessibility assistant that makes making an accessible document easier. Microsoft Teams has taken this theory. They've just actually launched Reflow. And Xbox, well, they said they needed a screen reader, and it got one.
And then four, you've got to innovate with people. The biggest, most important innovation that I think we probably created was done by an incredible person who is here today, Saqib, who created Seeing AI, which is used every month by hundreds of thousands of blind and low vision people. It is our only medically certified device at Microsoft, and it continues to evolve. Seeing AI now provides video descriptions free. And if you haven't downloaded it on your fruity device or your robot device, what are you doing? Get on it right now.
So let's talk about the future. We're not perfect, but we're committed and we've learned a lot. And of course the future includes one little thing that I haven't yet mentioned, artificial intelligence. Anyone heard about it? Let me just add to the beautiful words of Jonathan Mosen.
AI is not new. It started in the 1950s. And it's gone through incredible chapters in its journey from descriptive to predictive to prescriptive. Good grief. Did I say that right? Woo. That's a lot. And what everyone is talking about right now, generative AI.
Generative AI is revolutionary. It trains on immense amounts of data, immense texts, images, audio, and video to learn patterns and relationships. Once it's trained, it does not need to look at the code. You can point a camera at a screen and it will describe what it sees in inordinate amount of detail. That training is important, but it means that the quality gets better and better and better. What it means to you is that you can get on the spot context on images. Images that previously required manual tagging. Does it replace the need for accessibility and code level design? Absolutely not.
Which is why I love that Microsoft called its AI Copilot. Copilot, when it came out, we were like, what? But it makes so much sense. You are in control. AI is your copilot. We're early on this journey, but we are learning so much. We're learning that it can have a profound impact on blind and low vision. We're also learning that it can have a profound impact on other communities, especially neurodiverse. We did a study with EY. We spoke to 300 people across 17 companies, and 91% said that Copilot is a helpful assistive technology, an assistive technology. That floored me.
But this is the next chapter, and the one that we get to write. If we use the learning from the last decade, there are a couple of key principles as we go forward. One, we have to remember the basics. AI tools must be accessible, they must be navigable, they must be usable and delightful. It must be easy to find them.
Even yesterday, Xbox made sure that every single game in the Xbox.com and digital priority sets now have tags so you can see all of the features, every single one before you download and buy them. Simple things that make gaming discoverable. And by the way, my recommendations are Forza, Sea of Thieves, and Flight Simulator, all of which are great for blind and low vision. Just saying.
Data must be representative and we've got to innovate. And I will say this is where I come back to my partnership with Mark. We took a risk a few months ago, and did something that no one else has done. We methodically partnered with an organization that we love and trust Be My Eyes to buy data, to bring data from Be My Eyes into our AI to train it. In fact 21 million minutes of data. Train it on blindness, on canes, on dogs, and the use of technology so that when you search for blind imagery, you get representative results. Not societal lens of what it thinks blindness is, which as we know isn't great.
It was done carefully, thoughtfully. With privacy and security, always top of mind. And consent. And I called Mark and I said, "I'm a bit nervous about this one. I'm a bit nervous." And so did Mike sitting back there. And Mark said, "We need to do it. AI must be representative of blind and low people." I'm really thrilled to share with you that the results of this are beginning to come through.
When you create an image using Bing Creator coming through, which will give you the ability to create Marvel type image or a cartoon image of anything or anyone, the data, if you ask it to create a blind person of any kind, will be representative and accurate. There will be no ski masks, night masks, or any of the ilk that you may have seen on search materials before because of this training.
So as I wrap up, I know I need to wrap up because the food here is so good. So good. We're in Louisiana, people. We are at an inflection point. We have huge challenges. Just 1 to 2% of websites are accessible today. Just breathe that in. It's a number that hasn't changed, and Mark and I have talked about many times, how do we change this? I believe that AI is going to have a big part to play in that dilemma. AI will understand images and pictures. It won't replace the need for code level accessibility, but it will give you another tool, another assistive technology.
Technology is a changing, people. I cannot wait to see what happens in the next five to 10 years. I cannot wait to hear your feedback, whether it's to me directly or to DAD. Let me mention that again, aka.ms/dad, we collectively need to be guardians of this next chapter to make sure that AI does not produce the harms. I do not want to see it impacting employment. By the way, we do not use AI tools. That is not our charter. And I have trained every single recruiter at Microsoft. And if we see the word JAWS, NVDA, blind, or low vision, we go after that talent.
Accessibility needs to be driven by the blind and low vision community, and my colleagues in the deaf, neurodiverse, and disabled. So my ask to you all is to try it. I do not care what device you use. I don't care if it's fruity, I don't care if it's robot, I don't care if it's a PC, although I do recommend, download Seeing AI, try Copilot, and please give us your feedback. And a deep, huge hug and thank you to all of you for the feedback, the patience, and resilience that you have given me and my team as we have charted this journey. And a special thank you to Mark Riccobono. Thank you for your time.
Mark Riccobono:
Awesome. Great. Thank you so much, Jenny, for being here and for setting the stage for the next 10 years of work that we need to do together. I think we have enormously more confidence than we did 10 years ago in Microsoft. And a big part of that is the honest, open, and passionate work that Jenny Lay-Flurrie has done. So let's give her another round of applause.
Jonathan Mosen:
We're going to talk accessibility at Meta. That's next on Access On.
Speaker 6:
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Post a status update explaining why the National Federation of the Blind is close to your heart, and how your friends and family can join in making a difference. By using your birthday as a platform for giving, you're not just celebrating another year older, you're using your special day to support a cause that truly matters. So when your birthday rolls around, don't forget to start a Facebook birthday fundraiser for the National Federation of the Blind. Together, let's make every birthday count.
Jonathan Mosen:
Well then some beautiful segue into our next presentation, which comes from Maxine Williams from Meta. She also spoke on the Friday afternoon general session at National Convention. Once again, here's President Riccobono to make the introduction.
Mark Riccobono:
Sticking with the discussion of technology and Jonathan mentioned Meta. Sorry, I had a prop for this introduction, so I have to put my Meta Ray-Bans on. Okay, now I can do the introduction appropriately. So this would be the time to put your Meta glasses. Maybe someone has the Oakleys. 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?
Crowd:
No.
Mark Riccobono:
But fortunately we have a leader at Meta that 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. And 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 5'2" 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.
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 know. 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? Hands-free interactions, AI-powered guidance. But what we're 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, you know. 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 all 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 introduced new possibilities for entertainment, education, and social connection in virtual reality. We have enhanced color contrasts 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, a 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 use. 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 come. 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.
Mark Riccobono:
All right. Wonderful. Thank you.
Thank you. 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.
Jonathan Mosen:
Let's conclude our look at the vendor showcase that took place at National Convention. Just a couple more exhibitors to go.
Adrianne:
My name is Adrienne and here's my precious nephew, Calvin, say hello.
Calvin:
Hello.
Adrianne:
And we're here all the way from Philadelphia, and I'm here from South Korea. Our team is from South Korea and our name is Feeldom. F-E-E-L-D-O-M. We want you to feel the freedom. We are probably only company here that makes something that doesn't plug in. But you know what? We make backpacks, we make pouches, and we make all kinds of bags not only for wheelchairs but for the blind and visually impaired. And our backpacks are amazing.
They're different than any other backpack you've used. They stand up on the table, they open like a box. They have tons of pockets inside and outside that are tactile, even with Braille labels, Braille branding, bright lining and large white zipper rings so that you can actually find your stuff and not waste time digging around looking for your expensive technology that you need to run your life.
So what we have is the bag that solves the problem. And we have all sorts of bags ranging from price, 60 dollars up to 350. Everything is on sale, 15% off. Plus, if you have the secret code, you can get some little extra things. I would like to ask you to come to Booth C-22. Again, C-22. There is no other bag company at this convention, so that's good. I don't really have to sell you anything. If you need a bag, C-22.
If you need a fanny pack, C-22. If you want anything related to bags or something, a bag that is not going to fall apart. Our bags are hand-crafted, literally by hand. Our hands. We craft them in South Korea, and they have a five year warranty. So all of our stuff is amazing quality, and it's worth the price. We hope to see you again. C-22. Meet me, Adrienne, and my precious nephew, Calvin, say hello.
Calvin:
PNC for short.
Speaker 11:
Okay. Now Venkatesh just wrote me little thing to mention to you guys. Orbit Research develops and manufacturers a range of affordable, educational, professional, and daily-use products, including tactile graphics displays, single and multi-line Braille displays, DAISY players, digital magnifiers, calculators, money identifiers, and apps for inclusive education and communication.
Orbit will be showing the brand-new Orbit player, which is the most affordable, full-featured daisy and media player on the market. It is compact, rugged, easy to use, and it lets you enjoy books, music, podcasts, internet radio, and it also connects to online libraries. All in one device for about 300 dollars. Come try it out in their booth, which is D-9.
They're also showing the Orbit Speak. That's the pocket-sized Braille note-taker with speech output and real Perkins-style keyboard. Perfect for reading, writing, and staying organized, and being productive wherever you are.
Also, check out the GraffitiPlus, that's the first and only product in the world, Venkatesh says, to bring interactive real-time refreshable, multi-level tactile graphics and Braille together in a single device. It can display pictures in all popular formats, and connect instantly to computers and smartphones and show their displays in a tactile form. Users can also draw and edit pictures by touch.
The GraffitiPlus enables users to seamlessly and intuitively experience graphics and text together for the first time ever. And it levels the playing field for students and professionals in any field, including STEM. They're also displaying the Orbit slate family of multiple Braille displays. They're in booth D-9, that is Orbit.
Jonathan Mosen:
I hope you enjoyed those presentations from the Vendor Showcase. It really is a good thing to go to at National Convention to find out about things that you might want to check out at the exhibit hall. And the next best thing is for us to bring it to you on Access On so that you may like to contact any of the companies who have products that you 're interested in. I want to extend thanks to Mark Jones and Brett Boyer for doing such a great job of that vendor showcase. As always, it was informative.
Time for another tech tip as we get ready to conclude Access On. And once again, it comes from this terrific tech tipper, Karl Smith. Once again, we're focusing on Dropbox. He says, when clicking on a Dropbox link to a file someone wants to share with you, you may get a message asking you to log in to your Dropbox, or set up a new Dropbox account.
To prevent this, do the following. Copy the link and paste it into a text editor. Outlook Notes works well for this. Navigate to the end of the link and delete the zero that appears there and insert a one. Copy the link and paste it into your favorite browser. When you press enter on the link, the download will begin. Note if you are the sender of the link, you can make the changes listed above and send the modified link to the person you want to share the file with.
Thank you, Karl. This is something I do all the time. I try to be considerate and change that zero to a one when I am sending Dropbox links. But if I see a Dropbox link that I've received that has the zero, yes, I always change it to a one, and voila, you get the download right away. That's a great tech tip. Thank you for sharing it.
That concludes this episode of Access On, the technology podcast of the National Federation of the Blind. To send in a contribution for a future episode, email us, attach an audio clip, or just write it down and send it to [email protected]. That's [email protected]. To keep up to date with Access On, follow us on Mastodon, [email protected]. That's [email protected] on Mastodon.
To subscribe to an announcement only email list about upcoming episodes, send a blank message to [email protected]. That's [email protected]. To learn more about the National Federation of the Blind, visit our website, nfb.org, or phone us, (410) 659-9314. That's (410) 659-9314. And be sure to check out the Nation's Blind Podcast right from where you heard this podcast.