Google’s Super Bowl ad shows how Pixel’s Guided Frame helps blind or low vision people take great pictures or selfies.
Food and cooking have been the backdrop to so many special moments for me — after all, it’s what connected me and my wife when we first met. That made it hard not to smile when seeing videos of Alexis Hillyard, a LGBTQ+ chef with limb difference and the creator behind the YouTube series Stump Kitchen, with her partner and family sharing what she loves: cooking.
Six years ago, Alexis found out she was gluten intolerant and soon became vegan, so she had to learn how to cook for herself. When her partner saw how much fun she was having using her stump in the kitchen, she suggested that Alexis film herself. To learn how to film a video for YouTube, she turned to, well, YouTube. Stump Kitchen was born, becoming not only an award-winning YouTube vegan cooking channel, but also a way for Alexis to reach out to other limb-different people who might also be navigating relationships with their bodies.
Alexis uses her “stump” (hence the program name) as a cooking tool — using it to mash avocados, juice citrus, and scrape batter-filled bowls to create "gluten-free vegan eats and stumptastic treats." As her program grew, she began featuring local guests who were missing limbs as co-hosts — many of whom she met through the comments section of her videos. She also uses Google Meet to bring people from all over the country into her kitchen to learn to cook.
For me, the spirit of Pride is about celebrating and recognizing the LGBTQ+ community and its voices, history and continued challenges. Alexis’ channel and teaching sessions connect a broad intersection of people, cultures, and communities — from limb-different youth to LGBTQ+ new parents to aspiring chefs from all walks of life. And to me, that’s something worth sharing and celebrating.
Food and cooking have been the backdrop to so many special moments for me — after all, it’s what connected me and my wife when we first met. That made it hard not to smile when seeing videos of Alexis Hillyard, a LGBTQ+ chef with limb difference and the creator behind the YouTube series Stump Kitchen, with her partner and family sharing what she loves: cooking.
Six years ago, Alexis found out she was gluten intolerant and soon became vegan, so she had to learn how to cook for herself. When her partner saw how much fun she was having using her stump in the kitchen, she suggested that Alexis film herself. To learn how to film a video for YouTube, she turned to, well, YouTube. Stump Kitchen was born, becoming not only an award-winning YouTube vegan cooking channel, but also a way for Alexis to reach out to other limb-different people who might also be navigating relationships with their bodies.
Alexis uses her “stump” (hence the program name) as a cooking tool — using it to mash avocados, juice citrus, and scrape batter-filled bowls to create "gluten-free vegan eats and stumptastic treats." As her program grew, she began featuring local guests who were missing limbs as co-hosts — many of whom she met through the comments section of her videos. She also uses Google Meet to bring people from all over the country into her kitchen to learn to cook.
For me, the spirit of Pride is about celebrating and recognizing the LGBTQ+ community and its voices, history and continued challenges. Alexis’ channel and teaching sessions connect a broad intersection of people, cultures, and communities — from limb-different youth to LGBTQ+ new parents to aspiring chefs from all walks of life. And to me, that’s something worth sharing and celebrating.
Since he was young, Jason Barnes loved drumming. But when he lost his arm in an accident at the age of 22, he wasn’t sure if he’d ever drum again. Since typical prosthetics weren’t built with drumming in mind, he couldn’t quite keep rhythm in the way he wanted to. His goal was to build a robotic drumming prosthetic that could.
Jason worked with a team of researchers and developers to use artificial intelligence (AI), specifically Google’s open source machine learning platform TensorFlow, to build a prosthetic arm that would let him keep creating music as naturally as possible. Ultimately, his drive to keep playing music helped push an entire area of research forward to help build better products for the more than a billion people around the world with a disability.
We chatted with Jason to learn more about building a prosthetic that helped him keep making music and the importance of building accessible technology. If you’re interested in learning more about our recent accessibility work or tips for designing more accessible products, you can watch on-demand sessions from I/O, our annual developer conference.
How did you find music and what was your journey to becoming a musician?
I found my love of music through my dad and random jam sessions in the garage. It was one of the first things in life that actually interested me. My love for music grew and led me down a bunch of other paths, playing in multiple bands and different genres of music.
What inspired this project?
I was in my first private music lesson with Eric Sanders, a drum instructor at the Atlanta Institute of Music. I explained this idea I had of making an AI-powered drumming prosthesis. He thought it was a super cool idea and connected me to Gil Weinberg, a professor at Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, and his students. One thing led to another and within a week Gil reached out and was interested in the project.
What was it like to work with this team to build technology that fit your needs as a musician?
A lot of the people working on this project came from a more technological background. Even if they were musicians, they weren’t necessarily drummers. It was challenging to fuse those different worlds together to figure out how to make this applicable for a drummer and also meet the standards of building an advanced technological robot.
Where do you think this technology can take us next?
If we can build a fairly niche prosthetic specifically for drumming, then the options are endless — the sky's the limit. For example, based on the technology we developed you could help amputees who can’t use a computer mouse at all. They could essentially put on this prosthetic device and use a motion sensor to control the location of where the cursor is and be able to click and navigate.
Why is it important to build products that make something like music accessible to everyone?
Music is such a healing thing. I’ve seen a kid with cerebral palsy get a hold of drumsticks and play a beat almost perfectly and stay in rhythm. He’s completely oblivious to everything else that’s outside of that, he’s locked into what he’s doing and killing it — that’s amazing to me.
Personally, I don't know how I would have gotten through my accident without having music to turn to. It's something that has also helped me deal with losing my dad — it keeps my connection to him alive.
In 2020, global searches for "how to say i love you in sign language" reached an all-time high. While social distancing has been difficult for everyone, it’s disproportionately affected people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Wearing face masks and connecting over video calls has helped to keep us safe, but it’s made it harder to follow conversation through lipreading and more difficult to follow sign language that’s confined to a small screen.
So it makes sense that we’re searching for ways to communicate better. And I’m proud to work at a company that’s building technology to help people do just that. Products like Live Transcribe provide real-time transcriptions of what is being said so people can follow conversations even while wearing masks, and Live Caption automatically captions videos and spoken audio on your device and browser so no one has to miss out on their favorite content.
Behind all this technology are Googlers, like Tony Lee, who makes our films more accessible through captions and whose family uses captioning technology every day. The Googlers working on this technology are passionate about making the world more accessible for the deaf and hard of hearing communities — communities that some of them are also a part of. Here’s a glimpse at a few of the Googlers working on accessible features and the motivation behind their work.
Dimitri Kanevsky, Research Scientist for Live Transcribe, also on the Hearing Accessibility team
“I came to Google to work as a speech researcher to improve speech recognition algorithms. I completely lost hearing in early childhood and waited for so long to have this speech recognition application like Live Transcribe that I am using now everywhere every day. I was happy to be able to finally talk easily to my granddaughters.”
Live Transcribe is available for free on most Android devices in more than 80 languages. It transcribes conversations in real time, which can be helpful to people who are deaf or hard of hearing when speaking with a hearing person during face-to-face meetings. It can also be used to transcribe audio from videos and podcasts.
Ken Harrenstien, Software Engineer on YouTube captions
“For me and most of the Deaf/HoH in particular, captions are essential for accessible video content. I went to MIT. While there, I didn't go to classes because I didn't know ASL and couldn't lipread the lectures or anything. Just books. After we launched captions on YouTube, MIT began uploading many class lectures to YouTube, and I was able to find these videos and finally see how all those professors had been trying to make their subjects interesting. I can enjoy classes, lectures, talks, how-tos on literally any topic, personal stories, ASL performances, live streaming events… It's like having my own immense library of ‘just books,’ except with video. Without captions, we cannot achieve Google's original mission of making the world's information accessible and useful.”
In 2009, we launched YouTube Automatic Captions which use speech recognition to automatically add captions to videos. Since then, we’ve expanded to more than 10 commonly spoken languages and, to date, over 1 billion YouTube videos have been captioned.
Ricardo Garcia (Rago), Tech Lead on Sound Amplifier
“While most hearing assistive technologies focus on speech enhancement or intelligibility, we understood early on that the hearing experience goes beyond speech. Natural sounds — like birds chirping, a river stream or the buzz of a mosquito — and audible cues — like hi-hat cymbals or even the failing motor of a fridge — are well beyond the speech frequency range. I truly believe that by creating these audio algorithms, everybody benefits — not only the deaf and hard of hearing communities.”
Sound Amplifier is an Android application that when used with headphones allows you to filter, augment and amplify the sounds in your environment. It increases quiet sounds, while not over boosting loud sounds and gives the user control over noise reduction and sound enhancement settings.
Sean Kinzler, Software Engineer on Meet Captions
“I joined Google to work on features that are not only challenging, but also have a significant impact on people's lives. Since the start of COVID-19, virtual meetings have become a critical part of maintaining communication lines in the workplace. Making it possible to caption these meetings helps the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community more freely join in and have an impact in virtual meetings.”
Google Meet uses speech-to-text technology to provide live captions in meetings, which helps participants who may be deaf or hard of hearing follow along and stay engaged. The feature is available in several languages, including French, German, Portuguese, Spanish and English.
I am hard of hearing myself, and throughout my life there have been many times I have felt left out of conversations, or wanted to engage in the media content I was watching, but couldn't. I just wanted to be included and thought about. Working on accessible features has been my life’s work, and I am thankful that in my role at Google I’ve been able to help make sure all disabled people are included in the work we do, and the stories we tell. Across our products and stories, we aim to create a truly accessible world.
Thirty years ago, the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed to guarantee people would be protected against discrimination on the basis of disability in all areas of life—such as jobs, education and transportation. Since that milestone moment, there have been huge strides made to make the world more accessible for people with disabilities, from the creation of accessible parking spaces to the broader usage of captioning technology.
But as the world continues to change, people with disabilities face new challenges. On the anniversary of the ADA, we’re taking a moment to reflect on these issues, as well as share some information about how Google is working to make the world more accessible for all.
Search trends reflect an evolving understanding
Over the past three decades, the world gained a greater understanding of what disability means, and how disability affects different communities in a myriad of ways. Search trends can shed a light on this emerging understanding. For example:
Searches for ableism and ableist language are at an all time high—an encouraging sign for the disability rights movement.
In the past month, we’ve noticed an uptick in Google searches around “black mental health,” which hit record highs globally in June. The long-term impact of mental health conditions are often overlooked as a form of disability. And race can have a compounding effect for people with disabilities.
The world is searching disability pride parades at record highs, with the U.K. searching it most, as people continue to celebrate what their disabilities mean to them.
The effect of the global pandemic
The shift to remote life has given some people with disabilities the opportunity to engage more comfortably with work, healthcare, socializing, and culture and social institutions. But COVID-19 has created a set of distinct and profound challenges for people with disabilities, many of whom are more physically isolated and at-risk than ever before.
Technology can help create learning opportunities, allow for remote work and create connections with loved ones. For example, many people who are Deaf or hard of hearing may rely on lipreading to follow conversations, but facemasks make that virtually impossible. This is evident as searches for clear face mask are at all time highs. With Live Transcribe, an Android app that transcribes conversations in real time, people are able to follow conversations and get the information they need even while wearing masks.
As more learning takes place online, technology is helping make content more accessible. Students and educators around the world who are Deaf or hard of hearing have navigated the transition to distance learning with tools like automatic captions in Google Meet and Google Slides. For people who are blind or low vision, using Talkback braille keyboard, a new keyboard integrated directly into Android, means they can quickly communicate using braille—whether it’s in an email, a text message, or on social media—without additional hardware.
To help provide information for people with disabilities during this time, we created a set of Resources for Vulnerable Communities on our COVID-19 resource hub and accessibility resources for education on Teach from Anywhere. These sites provide expert guidance and support for groups facing higher risks to their safety and wellbeing, including resources for disability and neurodiverse communities, students with disabilities, domestic and sexual violence survivors, and people in recovery.
Google’s role in creating a more inclusive world
In addition to our technology, we’re committed to using our platforms to raise awareness of these issues and amplify the voices of a diverse range of people with disabilities. This includes true intersectional representation and considering disability and race together in our efforts to create change. For example, when we made our commitments to racial equity, we shared a fully inclusive video that has audio descriptions, captions and talks about how black mental health matters.
The massive shift towards distance learning presents many challenges for students, educators and guardians alike. But supporting students who have disabilities or require a hands-on approach in the classroom is an even greater challenge. Educators around the world are putting in long days to find creative ways to support all students in this new setting, especially students with disabilities. Here are some tips on using accessibility features to support all learners.
Distance learning has made it tougher for all students to pay attention and manage their time, and this can be especially hard for students with executive functioning challenges. These tools can hopefully help.
Use Calendar reminders to help students remember deadlines, and view due dates in the class Calendar in Google Classroom.
Encourage students to organize their assignments in Google Classroom or Google Keep, or in Google Drive.
Suggest students use Chromebooks in full-screen mode when working on assignments to minimize distractions.
Students can use Virtual Desks on Chromebooks or the Dualless Chrome extension for students who may benefit from seeing multiple Chrome windows on a single Chromebook monitor. For example, students can view a video lesson on one side of the screen, and a written assignment on the other side.
To help students manage their time, use the Stopwatch & Timer Chrome extension to create large on-screen timers.
Break up lessons into shorter parts, which can be beneficial for students with attention challenges.
Instead of doing video calls with the whole class, consider breaking the class into smaller groups, where each group meets one or two times per week. Prioritize 1:1 video calls for students who need it most.
For students used to working alongside teaching aides in class, you can create a Google Doc in which students can ask questions and get help in real time from their tutors, family members or support staff.
Now that many of us are doing everything from home—teaching, learning, playing, and working—finding time for it all can be challenging. But it’s important to help students, especially those with learning challenges, carve out space and time to focus on schoolwork.
Dedicate a space (even if it’s small) for learning time only. If possible, avoid spaces near windows, open doors, or noisy areas of homes.
Suggest that students with attention challenges sit on swivel chairs, if available, to let off some energy. Fidget toys like spinners can also help students focus during lessons.
For students using text-to-speech tools, headphones can be helpful, especially if they’re listening during a video class with other students.
Many Google tools have accessibility functions built in:
If you’re using G Suite for Education, you can enable captioning in Meet or in Slides. Captions can be helpful for students who are Deaf or have hearing loss, or those learning English—but also students in a noisy home environment.
Record your presentations in Meet or tools like Screencast-O-Matic or Screencastify for students to watch on their own as homework. This can help you make the most of live lessons, when you want to encourage as much interaction as possible.
Learn from your peers who are sharing stories with Google about engaging students through distance learning. Visit the COVID-19 distance learning resource page and Teach from Home for help.
To learn more and watch some tutorials, watch these videos, our G Suite accessibility user guide or join a Google Group. And find more on the Teacher Center, YouTube, and the Chromebook App Hub. Now is an important time to learn from each other—if you have other ideas, we encourage you to share them via this Google Form to help educators around the world benefit from your experience.
As billions of students are out of school due to COVID-19, we're sharing resources, product features and strategies to help teachers keep teaching.
