Google opens London Accessibility Discovery Centre to build new assistive technologies

Google has opened a new Accessibility Discovery Centre in London, a space where engineers, researchers, product teams, and partners can build new kinds of accessible and assistive technologies to remove more of the barriers that people with disabilities face every day.

The Accessibility Discovery Centre has been built in consultation with local partners like the Royal National Institute of Blind People; the Royal National Institute for Deaf People; Everyone Can, a charity that specialises in technology that can improve and enrich the lives of disabled people; and Google’s internal Disability Alliance employee resource group.

This is Google’s first Accessibility Discovery Centre outside the US. It will be a workshop for research and product development and a space for collaborating, co-designing and learning with the accessibility and disability communities, building on years of investment and innovation in helpful technology.

Academic, community, or charitable/non-profit organisation that wish to visit the Accessibility Discovery Centre can email adclondon@google.com

Bringing Project Relate to people with non-standard speech in the UK

The most recent example of investment in helpful technology is Project Relate, an app which Google has launched in beta in the UK very recently.

According to Google, roughly 250 million people worldwide have non-standard speech and may have trouble being understood. To help address this, Project Relate enables anyone with non-standard speech to teach the app to understand their unique speech patterns and easily communicate using three features: Listen, which transcribes their speech into text; Repeat, which repeats what is said in a clear voice; and Assistant, which connects with Google Assistant to help people get things done.

Google says that early testers of Project Relate describe how the app has helped them be better understood and build more meaningful connections. One user, Debra, shared how she went from having less than 10 percent of what she says being understood by people she’s just met to having more than 90 percent of her speech understood.

“Relate has changed my life,” Debra said.

English-speaking adults in the UK can sign up to be an early user of the Android app.

Over £1 million to support people with disabilities

People with disabilities are nearly three times more likely to be economically inactive than people without disabilities, according to Google. The firm has also announced over £1 million in philanthropic funding to help create opportunities for people with disabilities across the UK and Europe to fulfil their potential through three grants.

In addition, Google is making fully-funded Google Career Certificate scholarships available through residential care company Leonard Cheshire, in partnership with a global organisation that is building a new environmentally sustainable and socially responsible economy, INCO, to create accessible pathways for people with disabilities into high-growth tech jobs.

Google says that 78 percent of people who have completed one of its entry-level certifications report a positive impact on their career, such as getting a new job.

The multinational technology company is also providing grant funding for the Royal Mencap Society to deliver digital citizenship and online safety education for children with learning disabilities in the UK. Mencap will create a range of inclusive content based on the Be Internet Citizens curriculum developed by YouTube and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue; and deliver wrap-around care and support.

Furthermore, Google is supporting the European Disability Forum to carry out research into employment barriers for people with disabilities across Europe and the UK, with a focus on the role of digital skills in opening up economic opportunities.