Microsoft Ignite featured several sessions focusing on the importance of accessibility in technology and the opportunities that artificial intelligence provides for disabled and neurodivergent people in the workplace.
First, Nicole Dezen, chief partner officer and corporate vice president of global partner solutions at Microsoft, and Jenny Lay-Flurrie, vice president and chief accessibility officer at Microsoft, hosted a session on ‘Advancing accessibility in the era of AI’.
“We’ve been around for long enough to see lots of new eras of technology and this one is very exciting for the world of disability and accessibility,” said Lay-Flurrie.
Dezen shared examples of Microsoft partners that are striving to help their disabled employees have a better work experience such as Vodafone, which has an ‘Inclusion for All’ strategy to ensure all its employees have access to the connectivity and digital skills they need to perform in the workplace. As part of the strategy, Vodafone deployed Microsoft Copilot to all its employees and saw a “noticeable impact” on performance. For example, workers with dyslexia were using the technology to review and summarise meetings more easily.
Lay-Flurrie then spoke about Microsoft’s partnership with Be My Eyes, which provides an application for blind and low-vision individuals to connect with human volunteers across the world over voice and video call for help with daily tasks such as reading labels. Microsoft first partnered with Be My Eyes in 2018 to help provide its blind and low-vision customers with better support and is now working with the firm to develop an AI chatbot that can provide users with technology assistance on-demand.
“We’re now able to resolve calls 50 per cent quicker without the need for a human agent,” said Lay-Flurrie. “Not only does this save us money but the blind individuals using the service love that they’re getting quick resolution and independence.”
Following this session, Lay-Flurrie then joined fellow Microsoft executives including Tara Roth, corporate vice president of customer success engineering, and Angela Byers, senior director of product marketing, to further discuss how to empower neurodivergent employees with Copilot.
Byers first shared some of the key use cases she’s seen for neurodivergent people and Copilot, such as “using Copilot to break down complex tasks into simpler, manageable steps, to keep up with meetings, so they can more fully engage in a conversation, to help with social scripts”.
Kayla Patterson, product marketing manager for Microsoft 365 Copilot at Microsoft, then took to the stage to present a live demonstration of some of the ways she uses Copilot to support her ADHD, which she referred to as a “trusty sidekick”.
One example was using Copilot to provide an overview of a meeting, including positive reinforcement, notes for improvement, suggested next steps and explanations of any uncomfortable interactions to support Patterson with her rejection-sensitive dysphoria, a condition linked with ADHD.
“Hearing it from Copilot, it hits different than hearing it from another human,” said Patterson. “I’m not going to feel the same sting of rejection from generative AI, as if those same words were coming from an actual person that I work with. Now, I can move on to my next task without fixating on that discomfort all day.”
Tara Roth, Jenny Lay-Flurrie and Angela Byers speaking at Microsoft Ignite
Later, another breakout session, ‘Harnessing Copilots to empower accessibility in the workplace’, took a more in-depth look at how AI is enabling accessibility in various industries.
First, Anna Cook, senior designer at Microsoft, shared how providing equitable workplace experiences brings long-term benefits to the organisation.
“Accessibility is key to workplace productivity,” said Cook. “Companies that prioritise accessibility find that up to 70 per cent of employee productivity increases by offering experiences that let people work in their own way. Furthermore, companies that support accessibility through workplace accommodations tend to find that their turnover is lowered by up to 30 per cent.”
Cook then discussed how Copilot can help improve work conditions for disabled and neurodivergent people. For example, Cook, who has dyslexia, shared that she uses Copilot to summarise chats and emails in Teams and Outlook.
Hiren Shukla, global neurodiversity and inclusive value leader at EY, then reflected on his own similar experience with neurodivergence and how Copilot has adapted to his individual needs.
Shukla then discussed EY’s work with Microsoft in improving Copilot adoption for neurodivergent people and the Azure AI Foundry, including a six-week workshop hosted in 2023 that allowed neurodivergent technologists to use Copilot. The workshop helped EY and Microsoft discover how the technology was meeting their accommodations and also where there needed to be improvements for accessibility.
“If you’re sitting here today and your intention is to lead and to drive some momentum towards the accessibility inclusion journey and the intersection with technology in your workforce, you have partners like Microsoft and EY who are willing to share our stories and information with you and your leadership,” said Shukla. “So, please, let’s be on the journey together. I think together we’ll make a massive difference in the world.”
Discover more news from the event on our dedicated Microsoft Ignite page