N1005 IBM Research: Nuance

<br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">In celebration of <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://globalaccessibilityawarenessday.org/gaad.html">Global Accessibility Awareness Day</a></span>, IBM Research hosted a full day of <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.ibm.com/able">accessibility</a></span> education, discussions, and demonstrations at the Thomas J Watson Research Center to show how accessibility is <span style="color: black;">driving business differentiation for everyone, regardless of human ability.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Accessibility is a critical foundational element of technology solutions that allow humans and machines to interact effectively and intuitively. And it’s not just people with disabilities; accessibility has become a mainstream technology that allows everyone – including the aging population and those will low or no literacy – to be <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">productive and active participants in society.</span><span style="color: black;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Reinventing the Relationship Between People and Technology</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: right;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">The event featured <span style="color: black;">Peter Mahoney, the Chief Marketing Officer of Nuance and GM of Dragon, who shared his perspectives on assistive technology in our world, the expanding definition of accessibility, and the role that cognitive computing plays in the future of accessibility. </span></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqNkuf4jfU-BkXWRx-P81B6l9Fr4jQFp9JnzzUJIkuvwyQbUTZu6-Zjb6HDMbtL9qv1Y4BV8_fP1gi5xmltN_Toqc6Pjy3UQv4YRm9qU6DxDAGgbPfdmSqvXfsRU4YGotluP6yhMURVBzD/s1600/mahoney.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqNkuf4jfU-BkXWRx-P81B6l9Fr4jQFp9JnzzUJIkuvwyQbUTZu6-Zjb6HDMbtL9qv1Y4BV8_fP1gi5xmltN_Toqc6Pjy3UQv4YRm9qU6DxDAGgbPfdmSqvXfsRU4YGotluP6yhMURVBzD/s1600/mahoney.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Peter Mahoney, CMO of Nuance and GM of Dragon</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">“There is amazing human potential that is being untapped right now through accessible technology,” said Mahoney. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Driven by government regulations, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act or the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the explosion of mobile devices and the growing demand of all users for a more personalized experience, accessibility has become a requirement for commercial and government organizations around the globe.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Mahoney stressed the importance of tapping into the incredible intellect and ideas that people of all abilities can offer in work and life. The advent of accessible technologies reduces barriers, makes information more meaningful and consumable, and optimizes communications.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Moving forward <a href="http://www.research.ibm.com/cognitive-computing/index.shtml#fbid=PYEDC30DIKY">cognitive computing</a>, along with recent advancements in natural language understanding and artificial intelligence, will play a huge role in how accessibility creates personal assistants that serve us.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">“Everyone is fundamentally flawed,” said Mahoney. “After all, we’re human. We can all benefit from being enabled and aided by technology.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Creating more intuitive technologies that improve usability on any device – anytime and anywhere – will address everyone’s needs, such as </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">shopping experiences, visits to the doctor, or navigating a new city<span style="color: black;">. The result is more effective personal interactions, increased user satisfaction, and a way for businesses to differentiate products and services.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">However, while the future presents tremendous opportunity for the ongoing development of human-centric technology, organizations are still challenged to accept that accessibility has economic value, in addition to being the right thing to do.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">“Accessibility has changed people from being slaves to technology, to technology being a service to people,” said Mahoney. “Everyone has great ideas that want to be shared and ensuring technology is fluent in how humans communicate and interact will have a great impact on society as a whole.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi65pyuI5eqgQNvv6_AtyS_eXwBrJlhDtaQA2h44GuCp9403K6rB9As-azHzUm9d1Tgx_-BRbGDOX-85zm9qqmLxOPZZIGiWBZkfOorE2zRRIdzkzSZHUbJWS-MreHi98sgkO9z9rT0iVSe/s1600/LA+Demo_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi65pyuI5eqgQNvv6_AtyS_eXwBrJlhDtaQA2h44GuCp9403K6rB9As-azHzUm9d1Tgx_-BRbGDOX-85zm9qqmLxOPZZIGiWBZkfOorE2zRRIdzkzSZHUbJWS-MreHi98sgkO9z9rT0iVSe/s1600/LA+Demo_3.jpg" title="" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Dr. John Kelly, SVP and Director of IBM Research, joins others to see the Access My Campus demo</span> <b><br /></b></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Innovations in Accessibility </span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">IBM experts from around the world also spent time demonstrating some of the human-centric technologies being created to assist people of all abilities. Some of the demonstrations included:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Access      My Campus:</span></b><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> This mobile app is designed to help university      students, faculty, and staff navigate efficiently around campus. The      app allows each user to personalize the interface to take advantage of the      accessibility features built into a mobile device. The app provides real-time      indoor navigation to people with low vision or who are blind, in addition      to anyone unfamiliar with a campus.  </span><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></b></li></ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></b></div><ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://www-03.ibm.com/able/accessibility_research_projects/captionereditor.html">IBM      Media Captioner and Editor</a></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">:</span></b><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> With the      explosion of digital multimedia content, there has never been a greater      need to make video content accessible. This automated captioning solution</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">reduces the cost and time it      takes to create accessible multimedia (videos, webcasts, etc.) by allowing      users to edit draft transcripts to ensure better accuracy of content. </span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">The resulting      transcribed and captioned multimedia is not</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">only usable for more people in a      variety of circumstances and</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">environments, but also easier for search engines to      index and</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">rank,      optimizing the online visibility of enterprise digital</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">content.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"></span></li></ul><ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://www-03.ibm.com/able/accessibility_research_projects/AWCsolution.html">IBM      Accessible Workplace Connection</a>:</span></b><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> A web-based, global      accommodation management solution that provides employees and their      managers a streamlined process of requesting reasonable accommodations –      assistive technologies or accessibility services – in order to be more      productive in their jobs.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">IBM Accessible Workplace Connection      ensures proper accommodations are delivered, changed, supported and      maintained, creating a more inclusive workplace for individuals to advance      and contribute.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"></span></li></ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Learn more about </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://www.ibm.com/able"><i>IBM’s accessibility initiatives</i></a><i>, and join the discussions with us on </i><a href="http://www.twitter.com/ibmaccess"><i>Twitter</i></a><i>,<b> </b></i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/IBMAccessibility"><i>Facebook</i></a><i>, </i><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/groups/IBM-Accessibility-2419815?trk=myg_ugrp_ovr"><i>LinkedIn</i></a><i>, and </i><a href="https://plus.google.com/105103906061137644311/posts"><i>Google+</i></a><i>.</i></span></div>

In celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Day , IBM Research hosted a full day of accessibility education, discussions, and demonstr...