At its annual Devices & Services event earlier this week, Amazon introduced a slew of new products. The event, held at the company’s Arlington, Virginia headquarters, saw the unveiling of hardware such as a Fire TV soundbar, two new Fire Sticks, Echo Show devices, and more.
On the software side, Amazon’s announcements included two new accessibility features: Eye Gaze and Call Translation. The advent of Eye Gaze is somewhat of a landmark moment for Amazon, as the feature’s arrival marks the first time the company is letting users control Alexa with their eyes as opposed to voice and touch. Available on the new Fire Max 11 tablet, users with mobility and/or speech disabilities will gain the ability to control Alexa to perform a variety of preset actions. The company noted it collaborated with United Ability and United Spinal in building Eye Gaze, saying they’re “excited” by its potential for the future.
Eye Gaze will begin rolling out to customers free of charge later this year in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan.
As to Call Translation, Amazon said audio and video calls can be augmented by providing support for real-time captioning. The company noted Call Translation is useful in breaking down language barriers, but it’s also just as beneficial to the Deaf and hard-of-hearing and/or who cope with certain cognitive conditions. The feature will launch later this year on Echo Show devices and in the Alexa app on iOS and Android. It will be available in over 10 languages, including English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish, with availability in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, and Spain.
Elsewhere for accessibility, Amazon is touting its new Alexa Emergency Assist functionality as a fast, hands-free way to call for help when emergencies arise. The subscription service, which connects people to emergency personnel, is supported on Echo devices and will cost $5.99 per month or $59 per year in the United States. In a disability context, Alexa Emergency Assist should prove eminently useful to those with motor delays such that dialing emergency services is difficult and/or infeasible. While it’s admittedly true Alexa Emergency Assist may actually be inaccessible to those with certain speech delays, the salient point is simply that voice-first user interfaces have bonafide merits as an assistive technology for segments of the disability community.
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