96 perspectives emerge continually. Microsoft, for example, has already been on this journey for 30 years and is continually adapting and improving its own operations and policies. According to Lay-Flurrie, Microsoft’s journey can be divided into “three key chapters”, starting with the creation of its dedicated accessibility team in 1995. This chapter was focused on creating technology to empower users with additional needs. The launch of Windows 95 was a major step in the right direction, with features for blind and low vision users, those that are deaf or hard-ofhearing and even neurodiverse people. Many of these features still exist today, such as Sticky Keys which was designed to help individuals with low mobility press multiple keys simultaneously. The second chapter of Microsoft’s accessibility and inclusivity journey started in 2015. “This was when we began to more carefully weave people into the process,” says Lay-Flurrie. “So instead of thinking about accessibility as an engineering discipline, we thought about it as an ecosystem. “I was chair of the employee disability group at Microsoft by this point, so I could see the talent and expertise right in front of me and how that could be woven into the engineering process.” Thanks to this shift, the insights of employees and customers are now methodically integrated into how Microsoft develops its products and accessibility policies, and it has become a cultural practice with every employee requiring mandatory accessibility training. The third, and current, chapter of Microsoft’s accessibility journey is centred around exploring the potential of AI. One of Microsoft’s first major uses of AI for accessibility was to provide descriptive AI, and create the Seeing AI app. The app was developed in 2017 as part of a hackathon project and now supports blind and low vision individuals around the world with day-to-day tasks such as reading mail, identifying products and describing images using the camera on their mobile devices. Over the past couple of years, Microsoft’s rapid advancements in AI have been used to improve Seeing AI with more accurate image As chair of Microsoft’s employee disability group, Lay-Flurrie ensures employee and customer insights are considered when developing new products and accessibility policies FEATURE
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