Facebook’s iOS app now uses AI to help the blind ‘see’ photos

Apr05

by Sindy Cator on April 5, 2016 at 4:44 am

Posted In: Accessibility, AI, Apps, Around the Web, Automatic alternative text, deep learning, image recognition, ios, Neural networks, Visually Impaired

In an effort to improve the social networking experience for users with visual impairments, Facebook has introduced a new feature in its iOS app to help them ‘see’ photos. With the help of AI, the app automatically generates a description of each photo a user comes across. When they’re using a screen reader on iOS, they’ll be able to hear a list of items in the pictures, such as “Image may contain three people, smiling, outdoors.” The descriptions, called Automatic Alternative Text, are generated as image alt text. It’s a standard HTML attribute designed for increased accessibility that screen reading…