Dear Valued Readers,
We are happy to present the quarterly edition of the Continual Engine newsletter. In this issue, we have curated an array of compelling topics to ensure you stay well-informed about the latest trends and news in accessibility and learning.
In this edition, you can learn about the following:
- Continual Engine has been featured in IITM Shaastra Magazine: "Signs of the Times"
- Upcoming events that Continual Engine will be attending include the26th Annual Accessing Higher Ground Conference and the 2023 M-Enabling Summit.
- Past events that Continual Engine attended, include the “46th Annual AHEAD Conference on Equity and Excellence: Access in Higher Education” in Portland and a webinar on insights on PDF Accessibility by IAAP-certified Web Accessibility Specialist, Sarah Stricker
- Recent blogs on accessibility, include Enhancing Accessibility for - Scanned PDFs, High-Volume PDFs, and Heading Hierarchy.
- News articles include Canada's efforts to design Disability Benefit Regulations, existing accessibility gaps in transportation apps, and medical discrimination faced by children with disabilities.
- The latest advancements in accessibility include Shopify's Inclusive Accessibility Tool for Small Businesses and researchers teaching artificial intelligence (AI) to write better chart captions.
We hope that this quarterly edition of the newsletter helps you keep track of the important trends in accessibility and continues to provide valuable insights. Please reach out to us with any feedback or questions.
Warm Regards,
Continual Engine
Continual Engine
Star News Of The Quarter
1. Continual Engine Featured in IITM Shaastra Magazine: "Signs of the Times
Continual Engine has been featured in the prestigious IITM Shaastra Magazine with a special feature titled “Signs of the Times“. This feature delves into the world of assistive technologies, which are evolving in parallel with artificial intelligence (AI), computer vision, machine learning (ML), and natural language processing (NLP), and their pivotal role in enhancing learning outcomes for individuals with disabilities.
Dr. K. Sriram, an advisor of Continual Engine, shared valuable insights on our PDF and document remediation platform, PREP. He stated the importance of categorizing text into headings, body, lists, tables, diagrams, etc., to optimize the document for screen readers. And how our solution reads complex STEM(Science, Technology Engineering, and Mathematics) content, be it chemical equations, circuit diagrams, or graphs.
Our Founder & CEO, Mousumi Kapoor, stated, “Take a benzene molecule, which can appear in different structures, compounds, and pictorial variations. We train our AI to extract salient features from these images and convert them into alt-text.”
If you haven’t had a chance to read the “Signs of the Times” feature yet, Please check out the IITM Shaastra Magazine here and learn more about how Continual Engine is transforming the landscape of accessible education.
Upcoming Events
1. Join Continual Engine At The 2023 M-Enabling Summit
We are thrilled to announce that Continual Engine will be attending the M-Enabling Summit 2023! The annual conference dates are scheduled for October 10-12, 2023. The 2023 M-Enabling Summit will be hosted in Washington, DC, with the mission of promoting accessible technologies and environments for persons with disabilities and older persons.
We are looking forward to being a part of this annual event and contributing to the advancement of inclusive technology solutions.
If you are attending the 2023 M-Enabling Summit and would like to learn about our accessibility solutions, please reach out to us at contact@continualengine.com to schedule a meeting with our SVP, Growth & Strategy, Vijayshree (VJ) Vethantham. We look forward to seeing you at the event.
2. Continual Engine Is Attending The upcoming 26th Annual Accessing Higher Ground Conference 2023
Continual Engine is thrilled to attend and exhibit at the in-person 26th Annual Accessing Higher Ground: Accessible Media, Web & Technology Conference to be held from November 6 to November 10, 2023. The 26th Annual Conference will take place in Denver, Colorado at the Hilton Denver City Center. During this event, we will be providing an informative session on the topic, ‘AI for Extended Audio Descriptions and Closed Captions: Why Does It Matter?’
During this event, we will be diving deep into the rapidly evolving realm of video accessibility, which remains a challenging endeavor for many institutions and organizations. We will shed light on how the powerful combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and human involvement revolutionizes video accessibility, creating a more inclusive and enriching experience for all users, including those with disabilities.
If you are attending the AHG conference and would like to learn about our accessibility solutions, please email us at contact@continualengine.com to schedule a meeting with our SVP, Growth & Strategy, Vijayshree (VJ) Vethantham. We look forward to seeing you at the conference.
Past Events
1.Continual Engine Exhibited And Attended The AHEAD 2023 Conference In Portland, Oregon
Continual Engine has attended the 46th Annual AHEAD Conference on Equity & Excellence: Access in Higher Education. The event took place at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland in July, bringing together prominent industry leaders to explore the latest trends and advancements shaping the future of the accessibility field.
In case you couldn’t join us at the event, we have compiled the key takeaways from the conference to keep you informed:
- Higher educational institutions continue to report challenges in managing inaccessible content like PDFs, including scanned pages, videos, and presentations which include images or visuals. This highlights the significance of finding accessible, cost-effective, and scalable solutions to handle large amounts of such content effectively.
- There is growing awareness and interest to foster an inclusive learning environment that supports learners with disabilities, ensuring every learner feels welcomed and valued.
- More innovation and ideas focus on exploring approaches to resolve the common struggles of achieving a balance between scalability, fast turnaround times, limited budgets, and resource allocation challenges.
- Continual Engine’s booth was focused on presenting the new and evolving capabilities with PREP and Invicta™ with a focus on making education accessible while lowering the burden. We hosted a lucky draw, offering five winners the chance to win up to $50 in Amazon Gift Cards. Winners will be announced in a couple of weeks.
If you want to learn more about our AI-enabled accessibility solutions, PREP and Invicta™ please feel free to connect with our Senior Vice President, Growth & Strategy, Vijayshree (‘VJ’) Vethantham. Alternatively, you can reach out to us at contact@continualengine.com to schedule a meeting or request further information.
2. Continual Engine Hosted A Webinar On “Prepping PDFs For Accessibility” With Sarah Stricker
Continual Engine had hosted a webinar with IAAP-certified Web Accessibility Specialist, Sarah Stricker from ansrsource. This virtual event was held on Jun 15, 2023.
Based on the webinar, here are some of the important key takeaways:
- Accessibility requires continuous efforts and improvements
- PDFs pose a significant accessibility challenge for users
- Accessible PDFs create a more inclusive learning environment
- Automation enhances efficiency and remediation turnaround time
- Collaboration helps develop better accessibility practices
- Continuous learning and training ensures better outcomes
If you were unable to attend the event and wish to view it now, click here to gain access to the webinar recording or download an accessible version of the presentation here.
Featured Blogs
Accessibility is a fundamental aspect of creating inclusive digital content. When it comes to scanned PDF documents, addressing accessibility challenges becomes imperative. This article will explore how to make a scanned PDF accessible with strategies and techniques to enable individuals with visual impairments or other disabilities to access and engage with the content effectively.
With numerous industries, such as insurance and finance, regularly generating multiple PDF files encompassing customer statements, reports, directories, and other critical information, it is crucial to ensure digital accessibility compliance for all such documents. For organizations producing thousands, or even millions, of system-generated PDFs, achieving accessibility for each document can seem like an insurmountable task.
When creating digital content, it is essential to ensure it is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. One crucial aspect of accessibility is the proper use of heading structure within tagged documents.
News Articles On Accessibility
The ground-breaking Canada Disability Benefit Act received Royal Assent on Thursday, June 22, 2023. In the spirit of “Nothing Without Us” and as required by the Act, collaboration with and feedback from persons with disabilities will be essential in the development of the Canada Disability Benefit Regulations.
Smartphone apps have become commonplace tools for travel and navigation. As technology becomes more integrated into transport networks, apps will continue to be indispensable. But many of those apps remain inaccessible to those with various disabilities. Many people with disabilities rely on public transit as many do not have a driver’s license. Planning trips, getting to and from transit stops successfully and navigating transit systems is important.
The academic research and practice center, based at UCL East, signed a new Memorandum of Understanding with colleagues from the Assistech Lab at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) and R2D2 lab at Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras).
Medical discrimination is when any person is given a lower standard of care due to any kind of bias. While bias is often racially motivated, disability discrimination is sadly common also, which is when someone is treated worse because of their physical or mental health condition. Discrimination in health care occurs in 1 out of every 5 patients.
From speech recognition and chatbots to robotic automation and natural language generation, the application of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies by business is proliferating by the day. As the ubiquity of AI grows, however, so too do the ethical risks. Recent warnings include global labor distortions, disruptions to national security and public education, and even an “existential risk” to humankind.
The charity sector is potentially missing millions in online donations because of “poor website accessibility”, according to new research. A recent OnePoll survey of 600 neuro divergent and physically disabled adults in the UK shows that nearly half of the respondents have been put off making online donations due to their needs not being met online.
A fashion student with a chronic pain condition has crafted a clothing range to help others who have hidden disabilities. Nottingham Trent University student Tegan Cooke has fibromyalgia – a condition which can cause fatigue, insomnia and joint pain.
Latest Advancements In Accessibility
Accessibility Spark transforms web accessibility for Shopify stores by replacing a costly, manual compliance process with an automated, state-of-the-art AI technology. Accessibility Spark strives to achieve the vision of ‘Accessibility for all made accessible to all ’ by offering an affordable one-stop solution to small businesses.
A new tool helps scientists develop machine-learning models that generate richer, more detailed captions for charts, and vary the level of complexity of a caption based on the needs of users. This could help provide captions for un-captioned online charts and improve accessibility for people with visual disabilities.
