<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><br><br><div dir="ltr">Sent from My IPhone</div><div dir="ltr"><br>Begin forwarded message:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><b>From:</b> Jan Lattuca via NFBP-Talk <nfbp-talk@nfbnet.org><br><b>Date:</b> July 19, 2021 at 9:09:39 PM EDT<br><b>To:</b> Nfbp-talk <Nfbp-talk@nfbnet.org><br><b>Cc:</b> Jan Lattuca <jrlattuca@gmail.com><br><b>Subject:</b> <b>[NFBP-Talk] Fwd: [tech-vi Announce List] Announcing Sight Tech Global 2021</b><br><b>Reply-To:</b> "NFB of Pennsylvania Talk, state list" <nfbp-talk@nfbnet.org><br><br></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><span>---------- Forwarded message ----------</span><br><span>From: David Goldfield <david.goldfield@outlook.com></span><br><span>Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2021 00:50:31 +0000</span><br><span>Subject: [tech-vi Announce List] Announcing Sight Tech Global 2021</span><br><span>To: "tech-vi@groups.iotv" <tech-vi@groups.io></span><br><span></span><br><span>Visually impaired accessible technology - BingNews - Thursday, July</span><br><span>15, 2021 at 9:51 PM</span><br><span></span><br><span>Announcing Sight Tech Global 2021</span><br><span></span><br><span>[https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image-17.png?w=711]</span><br><span></span><br><span>Shortly after the first Sight Tech</span><br><span>Global<https://sighttechglobal.com/> event, in December last year,</span><br><span>Apple and Microsoft announced remarkable new features for mobile</span><br><span>phones. Anyone could point the phone camera at a scene and request a</span><br><span>“scene description.” In a flash, a cloud-based, computer vision AI</span><br><span>determined what was in the scene and a machine-voice read the</span><br><span>information. Learning that “a room contains three chairs and a table”</span><br><span>might not seem like a big advance for the sighted, but for blind or</span><br><span>visually impaired people, the new feature was a notable milestone for</span><br><span>accessibility technology: An affordable, portable and nearly universal</span><br><span>device could now “see” on behalf of just about anyone.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Technologies like scene description will be on the agenda at the</span><br><span>second annual Sight Tech Global event, December 1-2, 2021. The free,</span><br><span>sponsor-supported, virtual and global event will convene many of the</span><br><span>world’s top technologists, researchers, advocates and founders to</span><br><span>discuss how rapid advances in technology, many centered on AI, are</span><br><span>altering — both improving and complicating — accessibility for people</span><br><span>with sight loss.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Register<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfberR7NW3F74cBNleiOVauGQ8wrSV0FcZqf1HH5X60mUrS6Q/viewform></span><br><span>today — it’s free.</span><br><span></span><br><span>At the heart of Sight Tech Global is the hard question: How do highly</span><br><span>advanced, AI-based technologies actually become compelling, affordable</span><br><span>products that folks who are blind or visually impaired readily adopt?</span><br><span>It took 40 years, for example, for the $50,000 “Kurzweil reading</span><br><span>machine,” a boxy desktop device, to evolve into what blind people take</span><br><span>for granted today, a free app available on any mobile phone that can</span><br><span>“read” just about any text. As anyone working in the field will tell</span><br><span>you, shaping technologies into truly useful, everyday, affordable</span><br><span>tools for people with vision loss is no less demanding than it was 40</span><br><span>years ago.</span><br><span></span><br><span>The agenda for last year’s Sight Tech Global</span><br><span><https://sighttechglobal.com/agenda/> convened many of the best minds</span><br><span>across the spectrum of accessibility-related</span><br><span>technologies<https://sighttechglobal.com/speakers/>, including</span><br><span>Microsoft’s Saqib Shaikh, Amazon’s Josh Miele, Apple’s Chris Fleizach,</span><br><span>Orcam’s Amnon Shashua, civil rights lawyer Haben Girma, author and</span><br><span>professor Sara Hendren and researcher and professor Danna Gurari. In</span><br><span>addition to those speakers were a dozen well attended breakout</span><br><span>sessions<https://sighttechglobal.com/agenda/?status=all&stage=breakout-session&date=all></span><br><span>led by Perkins Access, Salesforce, APH, Humanware and others.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Because the event was free, virtual and highly</span><br><span>accessible<https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/30/imagine-being-blind-and-trying-to-attend-a-virtual-event-try-that-next-time-you-stage-one/>,</span><br><span>more than 4,000 people from 70 countries attended the event last</span><br><span>December. All the sessions (video and transcript) are still available</span><br><span>on demand via the agenda<https://sighttechglobal.com/agenda/> or on</span><br><span>YouTube<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwJhe8kfyvmp8PRg9dexrOg/videos>.</span><br><span>Attendees gave the event a generous thumbs up: 4.7 out of 5 for</span><br><span>programming and 4.6 out of 5 for accessibility.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Now is the time to register so that our all-volunteer team can keep</span><br><span>you posted on agenda updates and ensure you have a chance to sign up</span><br><span>for limited-attendance breakout sessions. You can register</span><br><span>here.<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfberR7NW3F74cBNleiOVauGQ8wrSV0FcZqf1HH5X60mUrS6Q/viewform></span><br><span></span><br><span>Got programming ideas? We are happy to hear from you — especially</span><br><span>founders, inventors and researchers who have working technology</span><br><span>products! The programming committee includes Jim Fruchterman (Benetech</span><br><span>/ TechMatters), Larry Goldberg (Verizon Media), Matt King (Facebook),</span><br><span>Professor Roberto Manduchi (UC Santa Cruz) and Will Butler (Be My</span><br><span>Eyes). Contact us</span><br><span>Info@sighttechglobal.com<mailto:Info@sighttechglobal.com>.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Calling all sponsors! We’re delighted that Google, TechCrunch and</span><br><span>Verizon Media have already signed on for 2021, and nearly all last</span><br><span>year’s sponsors<https://sighttechglobal.com/2020-sponsors/> have</span><br><span>signaled that they plan to renew their support for this significant</span><br><span>event. Private donors are also welcome! To learn more, read</span><br><span>here<https://sighttechglobal.com/sponsorship-opportunities/> or</span><br><span>contact us a sponsor@sighttechglobal.com<mailto:sponsor@sighttechglobal.com>.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Sight Tech Global is a production of the Vista Center for the Blind</span><br><span>and Visually Impaired<https://www.vistacenter.org/>, a 501(c)(3), that</span><br><span>has been serving the Silicon Valley area for 75 years. Vista’s</span><br><span>executive director, Karae Lisle, is the event’s chair. Vista is the</span><br><span>beneficiary of all sponsorships and donations to Sight Tech Global. In</span><br><span>2020, 92% of the proceeds from Sight Tech Global went to support the</span><br><span>Vista Center’s work to help thousands of people with vision loss in</span><br><span>the Bay Area lead their best life.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Please join us at Sight Tech Global in December!</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=C244A9F6BDAE47059D8F1782DE7183FF&url=https%3a%2f%2ftechcrunch.com%2f2021%2f07%2f15%2fannouncing-sight-tech-global-2021%2f&c=10040796476960815064&mkt=en-us</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span> David Goldfield</span><br><span>Assistive Technology Specialist</span><br><span></span><br><span>Feel free to visit my Web site</span><br><span>WWW.DavidGoldfield.info</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-</span><br><span>Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group.</span><br><span>View/Reply Online (#976): https://groups.io/g/tech-vi/message/976</span><br><span>Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/84323224/4428732</span><br><span>Group Owner: tech-vi+owner@groups.io</span><br><span>Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/tech-vi/leave/8954990/4428732/268029546/xyzzy</span><br><span>[jrlattuca@gmail.com]</span><br><span>-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-</span><br><span></span><br><span>_______________________________________________</span><br><span>NFBP-Talk mailing list</span><br><span>NFBP-Talk@nfbnet.org</span><br><span>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbp-talk_nfbnet.org</span><br><span>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for NFBP-Talk:</span><br><span>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbp-talk_nfbnet.org/dbrown8827%40aol.com</span><br></div></blockquote></body></html>