97 IN FOCUS: ACCESSIBILITY descriptions, the ability to identify personal objects and generate audio descriptions of moving images. The app also features an Ask Seeing AI chatbot, which allows users to ask questions about the object in view, such as items on a menu. Generative AI, and Microsoft Copilot in particular, has also had a significant impact on accessibility in the workplace. For example, Copilot in Microsoft Teams is helping deaf and neurodivergent individuals by generating meeting notes and feedback, while Microsoft 365 Copilot is supporting people with daily tasks and workload. “There are people on my team with muscular dystrophy who tell me they can now create a Microsoft PowerPoint deck in just three clicks, which is helping to reduce their workload and saving them valuable energy,” says Lay-Flurrie. During Microsoft’s Ability Summit 2025, viewers saw real-life examples of how Copilot is helping people work across different industries and roles. For example, Cat Susch, principal technical architect at Microsoft, outlined how she uses Copilot with her hearing aids in Microsoft Teams to generate transcripts quickly to save time. Meanwhile, Dylan Valic, lead marketing director at Spectrum Designs, spoke about how 65 per cent of the organisation’s 77 employees are autistic and explained how Copilot helps him to manage different tasks and keep up with the pace of the day. The assistive power of AI is also being seen with agentic AI, one of the newest tools to spark enterprise transformation. For Lay-Flurrie, joining a Teams call is a multiclick process to ensure that live captioning is turned on, her interpreter is in the right place and her meeting notes are in view. Using an AI agent can reduce this to a single press of a button, saving not only time, but energy too. At the end of 2024, EY and Microsoft shared the results of a collaborative study that explored the impact of Microsoft 365 Copilot for neurodiverse individuals and people with disabilities in the workplace. The study involved over 300 employees that identify as neurodivergent or disabled from 17 organisations across seven sectors. The results highlighted that Copilot was having a positive impact, with 91 per cent of respondents considering the tool as a helpful assistive technology. In addition, 85 per cent said Copilot has the potential to create a more accessible workplace and 76 per cent reported using the tool to help them thrive at work. From left: Microsoft’s Julian Duffy, general manager of packaging and content, Jenny Lay-Flurrie, chief accessibility officer, and Melanie Nakagawa, chief sustainability officer, at Microsoft’s Ability Summit 2025 Photo: Microsoft Photo: Microsoft
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzQ1NTk=