Sponsored by: Amazon

Overview

Amazon obsesses about customer delight, and that includes customers with disabilities. In this session, Amazon accessibility experts will discuss the latest accessibility features for Fire TV, Fire tablet, Echo Show, Echo Buds, Echo Frames, and more. We will also review the suite of award-winning Fire OS accessibility features that have been delighting Amazon’s customers with disabilities for years.

Content Disclosure: This presentation will focus exclusively on Amazon products and services and will not include information on other similar or related products.

Learning Objectives

1. Identify three or more accessibility features available on Amazon devices useful for people with vision, hearing, speech, mobility, and/or learning disabilities.
2. Identify three ways in which Amazon devices and services accessibility features can be useful in one’s daily life or work.
3. Identify where and how to find more about Amazon devices.

Strand(s)

Mainstream Accessible Technologies; Assistive Technology for Physical Access and Participation

Target Audience

Accessibility Professional; AT Specialists; Caregivers; Consumers/Individuals with Disabilities; Consultants/Trainers; Disability Services; Educators; Faculty/Instructors - Higher Education; Family Members; Occupational Therapists; Special Education Educators; Teachers of the Visually Impaired; Teachers of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing; Transition Coordinator; Visual Impairment Specialists; Vocational Rehabilitation

Experience Level

Introductory

Primary Life Cycle Addressed

Elementary - Secondary (K-12); Higher Education; Adult/Senior

Session Delivery Format

Recorded session

Course Schedule

This course was recorded for the ATIA 2024 Conference

Continuing Education Credits

For Satisfactory Completion and Continuing Education information, please visit: ATIA Online Education CEUs

This course is offered for the following CE Provider Credits:
IACET
For: 0.10 CEU Units or 1.0 CEU Hours

Speaker/s:

Peter Korn

Amazon, Director of Accessibility for Amazon’s Devices & Services

Biography

Peter Korn is the Director of Accessibility for Amazon’s Devices & Services. He led development of the VoiceView screen reader for Fire TV, Fire tablets, and Kindle devices; magnification, the innovative Text Banner assistive technology, and hearing aid connectivity for Fire TV; and extra-large fonts and adjustable Display Size on, as well as Switch Access for people with motor impairments. He initiated the first access features for voice interfaces: Alexa Captioning and Tap to Alexa, as well as Show and Tell for Alexa. He facilitated key improvements to React Native accessibility, technology used by hundreds of applications that can all now be far more accessible. He collaborated with Prime Video, helping bring over 4,000 audio described titles and over 160,000 closed captioned titles to the Prime Video catalog. He helped develop the accessibility features of Amazon Hub Locker – the first delivery and return kiosk that is self-voicing, and accessible to people who are blind or low vision, as well as for people who need an accessible locker height (within ADA reach ranges). Taken all together, many millions of people today use the accessibility features built into hundreds of millions of Amazon devices.

Relevant Financial Relationship: Yes
Salary from employment.

Relevant Non-Financial Relationship: No

Joshua Miele, PhD

Amazon, Principal Accessibility Researcher

Biography

Dr. Joshua Miele is a blind scientist, community leader, and inventor with a history of developing innovative information-accessibility solutions for blind people. In 2021, Miele was named a MacArthur Fellow for developing devices to enable blind and visually impaired people access to everyday technologies and digital information. Currently, Miele is a principal accessibility researcher at Amazon, where he helps guide the non-visual customer experience for device accessibility, and advises widely across Amazon on inclusive design and research methods. His work integrates disability-inclusive design, accessibility engineering, disability studies, and other disciplines, applying emerging technologies and trends to a range of information accessibility challenges. Prior to Amazon, Miele worked at the Smith-Kettlewell Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Blindness and Low Vision, leading a team of engineers and scientists dedicated to addressing accessible information challenges in education, employment, and entertainment. He is the former President of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Light House for the Blind and Visually Impaired, where he cofounded Light House Labs, a Bay Area think tank committed to tightening ties between technology innovators and the blind community. Miele holds a bachelor’s degree in physics and a PhD in psychoacoustics from the University of California at Berkeley.

Relevant Financial Relationship: Yes
Salary from employment.

Relevant Non-Financial Relationship: No