Missing The Accessibility Angle

<p>Believe it or not it was Google I/O keynote yesterday! I completely missed this until the event was on, not sure if it is publicised less or I take less of an interest now. Even so Google put all of their eggs in the AI basket and also demonstrated loads of updates to Android. Throw in a few self driving cars for good measure, but most controversially Google Assistant voice capabilities.</p><p>The demo of <a href="https://thenextweb.com/google/2018/05/10/googles-duplex-voice-bot-is-clever-but-im-probably-never-going-to-use-it/">Google Duplex</a> lead to initial amazement, lots of worry about AI and then the inevitable backlash. Most notability of which on this weeks <a href="http://pca.st/episode/e0480447-a19f-4a4d-90dd-0d275432cbdb">Connected podcast</a> the technology was completely ripped apart. Not just a little bit, but completely dismissed as not needed and pointless. The service is indeed initially very creepy but this is indicative of a lot of tech commentators – they completely miss the accessibility angle.</p><p>It shouldn’t even really be referred to as an angle, accessibility should be front and centre of everything. I don’t expect every person to understand what technology such as this can do to people with a disability, but people need to start considering others. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that a service such as this could revolutionise the lives of those with communication issues. Not simply for those that are mute, but a whole range of speech impediments completely remove the possibility to use the telephone. Yet Google are working on the ability for voice communication to be done entirely autonomously – current systems are very expensive, clunky to use or rely on preprogrammed responses.</p><p>I do agree that perhaps the person on the other end should be informed, but if Google know everything about you they might be able to make a pretty good replacement anyway!</p>