Day 2: Welcome to Day 2 of Sight Tech Global

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ROSS MINOR: Good morning, everyone, and welcome back to Day Two of Sight Tech Global. Yesterday was truly remarkable. We explored so many facets of accessible technology, from our opening discussion about the future of accessibility with Microsoft to all sorts of revolutionary tech dedicated to independent navigation.

KARAE LISLE: Yes, Ross, and the innovations for wayfinding and navigation were amazing yesterday. Well, one thing I’d like our audience to know is that we will have a live demonstration of Glidance at our San Jose location in California the day after the conference, which is December 6th. You can find information on how to register at the Glidance website, which is glidance. io. Well, welcome back to people from yesterday and our new folks in the audience today. I’d like to share that Sight Tech Global is a fundraising conference for Vista Center, a non-profit that I lead that serves blind and visually impaired people here in Silicon Valley. This year’s Sight Tech Global is packed with session discussions and speakers who are continuing progress and breaking new ground in accessibility. We will hear from industry leaders at companies like Intel, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Waymo to startups. We have a full day two, and we’re excited about the advancements and accessibility to share with you today. Yesterday, we heard a series of innovations and learned how gaming is becoming more inclusive. We also explored workforce development with Salesforce and the Braille Institute, and learned about Intel’s groundbreaking cloud. We’re excited to share with you today that we’re going to be talking about the future of mobile technology and the future of color mapping technology for colorblindness.

ROSS MINOR: For sure. One of my personal highlights was the mobility technology showcase, where we not only discussed, but got to watch demonstrations of Glidance and Biped’s navigation solutions. Additionally, I especially found the intersection of Aira and Haptic to be fascinating because, as many of you know, having multiple modalities with assistive technology really helps with that cognitive load. And I think they’re on to something great.

KARAE LISLE: Speaking of complementary technologies, that’s a perfect lead-in to our first session today, where we’ll explore how AI is innovating personal assistance with InVision’s new bold step forward with the app, Ally, built to serve individuals with visual impairments, seniors, and people of all disabilities across multiple platforms, from smartphones to wearables.

ROSS MINOR: I love that. I’m really excited for this fireside talk because it’s another example of a company utilizing AI models to enhance the lives of blind users, but with their own spin on it. Joe Devon will be moderating this fascinating discussion about the future of AI-powered assistance. Joe, over to you.