Alexa learns to give useful advice to blind people

Amazon and the UK's Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) have worked together to make Alexa more useful to those suffering from visual impairment conditions. Thanks to this collaboration, the AI-powered personal assistant can offer advice on living with sight loss, obtained directly from RNIB's Sight Loss Advice Service. "Voice assistant technology is playing an ever-increasing role in transforming the lives of blind and partially sighted people," said David Clarke, director of services at RNIB. "Voice assistants can enable independence, helping to break down accessibility barriers to a more inclusive society. By using this technology to increase the reach of our own resources, we are ensuring that people can immediately get essential information about sight conditions, their rights, and the support available, simply by asking out loud." RNIB is a charity established in 1868, originally to provide better quality literature for the blind. Today, it offers information, support and advice to almost two million people in the UK, under the patronage of the Queen.