On Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Google announced new accessibility features for people with disabilities, set to roll out across its products and platforms. These include AI-powered features for Android, such as Lookout, Look to Speak, and more. The new features also comprise of expanded accessibility features in Maps and new designs for Sound Notifications and Project Relate.

Lookout on Android assists people with blindness and low vision by using the phone’s camera to gather information about their surroundings. The Find mode is rolling out in beta, allowing users to locate specific objects by selecting from seven categories, such as seating or bathrooms. The app then notifies them of the item’s direction and distance. Additionally, AI-generated image captions will provide descriptions of photos taken within the app.

Look to Speak Android app lets users select customisable phrases with their eyes to be spoken aloud. It is now rolling out a text-free mode that allows selecting and personalising emojis, symbols, and photos for speech activation. This update, based on community feedback, aims to improve communication for those with cognitive differences, literacy challenges, and language barriers.

Hands-free cursor: Google released Project Gameface, an open-source, hands-free gaming mouse for PC last year. Starting this week, developers can access it for Android devices via Github. Using Accessibility Service for Android and Google MediaPipe, developers can create applications allowing users to customise facial expressions, gesture sizes, cursor speed, and more.

Google Maps is expanding features to assist people with disabilities. For those who are blind or have low vision, detailed voice guidance and screen reader capabilities for Lens in Maps are now available globally on Android and iOS. This helps users identify nearby places and navigate effectively with audio prompts.

Maps now include accessibility information for over 50 million places. The ♿ icon, indicating wheelchair-accessible entrances and amenities, is expanding to the desktop. In addition, users can also filter reviews for accessibility information on mobile.

Business owners on Google Maps can now add the Auracast attribute to their profiles. The Arucast broadcast audio allows venues to broadcast assistive audio to visitors with Auracast-enabled Bluetooth hearing aids, earbuds, and headphones, enhancing hearing assistance in places like theatres and gyms.

Google is enhancing Project Relate and Sound Notifications based on user feedback to improve accessibility features.

Project Relate: Launched in 2022, this Android app helps people with non-standard speech create personalised speech recognition models. Users can now customise phrases and import them from other apps, like Google Docs, as Custom Cards.

Sound Notifications: It alerts users to household sounds, such as doorbells or smoke alarms, with push notifications, camera light flashes, or phone vibrations. The redesigned interface claims to have improved onboarding, sound event browsing, and the ability to save custom sounds for appliances.