"8 New Accessibility Features in Lookout, Google Maps, and More"

Today marks Global Accessibility Awareness Day, a special occasion where we focus on digital access and inclusion for the over 1.3 billion people with disabilities worldwide. We're excited to introduce eight fresh accessibility features across our products and platforms, developed hand-in-hand with the disability community.

AI-powered accessibility updates for Android

Alongside the recent announcement of Gemini's integration with TalkBack, we're rolling out new AI-powered accessibility tools to enhance your mobile experience.

• Find objects around you easily and capture images with Lookout. Lookout on Android is a game-changer for those with blindness or low vision, using your phone's camera to reveal more about your surroundings. We're now launching Find mode in beta, which lets you pinpoint specific items from seven categories, like seating and tables or bathrooms. As you sweep your camera around, Lookout will guide you to the item with directional and distance cues. Plus, earlier this year, we rolled out AI-generated image captions globally in English within Lookout. Now, snap a photo in the app, and you'll get an AI-generated description, making your captured images even more informative.
Lookout's Find mode and Image capture button help you get more information about the world around you
• Use a text-free mode to communicate using Look to Speak. With the Android app Look to Speak, you can communicate by selecting pre-written phrases with your eyes. We're excited to introduce a text-free mode today, allowing you to personalize your communication with emojis, symbols, and photos. This feature, inspired by community feedback, aims to make communication more accessible for those with cognitive differences, literacy challenges, or language barriers.
Use Look to Speak text-free mode to communicate with images and symbols
• A hands-free cursor for Android Developers. Following last year's release of Project Gameface for PC, we're now making it available for Android developers on Github. Thanks to the Accessibility Service for Android and Google MediaPipe, developers can craft apps where users control cursors with facial expressions and gestures. Our collaboration with Incluzza, a social enterprise in India, has shown us how Project Gameface can extend beyond gaming into education, work, and other areas, like typing messages or job searching.
Expanded accessibility features in Maps

Expanded accessibility features in Maps

We're enhancing Maps to better serve people with disabilities by expanding access to features and adding new options for businesses.

• Receive more detailed walking instructions and learn more about the world around you with Maps. For those who are blind or have low vision, we're expanding detailed voice guidance and screen reader capabilities for Lens in Maps on both Android and iOS globally, in all supported languages. With screen reader support, you'll hear about nearby places like ATMs, restaurants, or transit stations, along with their distance. Detailed voice guidance will help you navigate with audio cues when walking, ensuring you stay on track, know when to cross busy streets, or if you need to be rerouted.
• Get Accessibility information no matter where you search. Maps now boasts accessibility information for over 50 million places, thanks to contributions from business owners and the Maps community. The ♿ icon marks places with wheelchair-accessible entrances, with more details available under the About tab, including accessible restrooms, parking, and seating. This icon, previously available on mobile, is now expanding to desktop. Plus, when viewing a place on your mobile, you can filter reviews to find specific information about wheelchair accessibility.
• Find places that can cast to your hearing devices. For those needing hearing assistance, business owners can now add the Auracast attribute to their business profiles. Auracast enables venues like theaters and auditoriums to broadcast enhanced audio to visitors using Auracast-enabled Bluetooth hearing aids, earbuds, or headphones. Learn how to add this attribute to a business profile here.
New designs for Project Relate and Sound Notifications

New designs for Project Relate and Sound Notifications

We're dedicated to continuously improving our accessibility features through ongoing collaboration with the disability community, incorporating user feedback into our updates.

• Customize how you teach Project Relate. Launched in 2022, Project Relate is an Android app designed for people with non-standard speech, allowing them to create a personalized speech recognition model. Custom Cards let you tailor the phrases you teach the model, focusing on words important to you. Now, you can select text and import phrases from other apps as Custom Cards, like from a Google Doc.
• New design for Sound Notifications with feedback from you. Sound Notifications alert you to household sounds, like a doorbell or smoke alarm, through push notifications, camera flashes, or phone vibrations. Based on user feedback, we've revamped Sound Notifications, enhancing the onboarding process, sound event browsing, and making it simpler to save custom sounds for your appliances.