Microsoft, always one to show off their willingness to stay accessible, has won an award for the level of inclusion found in their product design. The award came from the Annual U.S. Business Leadership Network (USBLN) National Conference, and celebrates another milestone in the company’s advancement in technology for the blind, deaf, and other differently abled individuals.
“This award represents work from across the company, including Narrator updates, Braille support, Accessibility Checker, which now sits right next to spell check across Office 365 products, new features like PowerPoint Translator (real time captioning!) and PowerPoint Designer which gives the ability to create beautiful slides with literally a couple of clicks,” writes Chief Accessibility Officer Jenny Lay-Flurrie. “While I’m so very proud of the work so far, and the milestone it represents on our accessibility journey, we are not done! The list is long and we look forward to launching more features and experiences in the near future.”
You can read Microsoft’s thoughts on the award through their blog post, where they talk a bit about what drives their desire to keep things accessible, and how much they’re looking forward to next year. The company seems to be focusing on accessibility and inclusive design as a pillar of their design philosophy going forward.
