Biotech & Health
VoiceOver on the iPhone was a miracle for people who can’t see, and it keeps getting better — learn how at Sight Tech Global
9:05 am PST • December 7, 2022
Back in 2009, Apple’s Phil Schiller stood onstage and unveiled the iPhone 3GS with a brief and somewhat surprising aside: the buttonless, glass-fronted device would work even if you couldn’t…
Biotech & Health
Explore accessibility via Amazon Alexa at Sight Tech Global 2022
11:00 am PST • December 1, 2022
A little-appreciated fact about Amazon’s Alexa is where the voice service’s public debut took place before it became widely available to customers. The venue was CSUN, the longstanding conference dedicated…
The third annual Sight Tech Global conference, a virtual, free and highly accessible event on December 7 and 8 convenes some of the world’s top experts working on assistive tech,…
As we prepare for the third annual Sight Tech Global (December 7-8, free & virtual, register here), a technology event that tracks the advances in technology supporting people who live…
Final call for Sight Tech Global Dec. 1-2
8:41 am PST • November 29, 2021
The second annual Sight Tech Global happens this week, on December 1-2, and this free, virtual event is incredibly packed with insights about how rapid advances in technology are fostering an…
Sight Tech Global agenda announced
12:50 pm PST • November 10, 2021
The second annual Sight Tech Global conference, a virtual, free event on December 1-2, will convene the world’s top experts on advanced technologies, notably AI, addressing accessibility and assistive tech for…
Apple and Amazon ML/AI leads to speak on accessibility at Sight Tech Global 2021
8:45 am PDT • November 5, 2021
Sensors and data are proliferating. Whether it’s from a phone, a car or smart home devices, astonishing amounts of data fuel the work of researchers and product developers conceiving new…
Mike Shebanek and Matt King share W3C accessibility project at Sight Tech Global 2021
9:00 am PDT • October 15, 2021
Millions of people who are blind or visually impaired use a technology known as a screen reader to access the Web. However, few websites are coded to work properly with…
Microsoft’s Saqib Shaikh, lead on Seeing AI, is returning to Sight Tech Global, Dec. 1-2
8:15 am PDT • September 30, 2021
At last year’s inaugural Sight Tech Global event, a virtual event dedicated to applications of AI and related tech to accessibility for people who are blind, one of the most popular…
Featured Article
Announcing Sight Tech Global 2021
Shortly after the first Sight Tech Global event, in December last year, Apple and Microsoft announced remarkable new features for mobile phones. Anyone could point the phone camera at a scene and request a “scene description.” In a flash, a cloud-based, computer vision AI determined what was in the scene and a machine-voice read the…
8:49 am PDT • July 15, 2021
Imagine being blind and trying to attend a virtual event. Try that next time you stage one.
11:23 am PST • December 30, 2020
How do you make a virtual event accessible for people who are blind or visually impaired? When I started work on Sight Tech Global back in June this year, I…
AI
Sight Tech Global day 2 is live! Hear from Apple, Waymo, Microsoft, Sara Hendren and Haben Girma
8:03 am PST • December 3, 2020
Day 2 for the virtual event Sight Tech Global is streaming on TechCrunch from 8 a.m. PST to 12:30 p.m. The event looks at how AI-based technologies are rapidly changing…
AI
Sight Tech Global is live! Join top AI technologists and accessibility innovators to discuss the future of assistive tech
8:00 am PST • December 2, 2020
Today and tomorrow, from 8 a.m. PST to 12:30 p.m. PST the first annual, virtual event Sight Tech Global is streaming on TechCrunch. The event looks at how AI-based technologies…
Hardware
Perkins, ACB, Benetech, Salesforce and more announce breakout sessions at Sight Tech Global
3:51 pm PST • November 17, 2020
Sight Tech Global is little more than two weeks out, and today we published the detailed agenda for Dec. 2 & 3. The show runs from 8 a.m. to noonish…
Privacy
Treviranus, Butler and Fruchterman to speak at Sight Tech Global
8:58 am PST • November 10, 2020
Sight Tech Global goes live the week after Thanksgiving on December 2-3, and now’s the time to pick up a free pass! The agenda for this virtual, global event on…
AI
Apple’s Jeff Bigham, disability rights lawyer Haben Girma, author Sara Hendren and more to join Sight Tech Global
8:13 am PDT • October 28, 2020
The other day we announced the first ten sessions for Sight Tech Global, a virtual event Dec. 2-3 that is convening the world’s top technologists to discuss how AI-based technologies…
The goal of Sight Tech Global, a virtual, global event on December 2-3, 2020, is to gather the world’s top experts who are applying advanced technologies, notably AI, to the…
AI
Amazon’s Josh Miele and Anne Toth talk Alexa and the future of accessibility at Sight Tech Global
9:58 am PDT • October 6, 2020
When Alexa launched six years ago, no one imagined that by today there would be hundreds of millions of Alexa-enabled devices or that Alexa would become part of so many…
AI
Hailing a self-driving taxi when blind. Learn how Waymo answers that challenge at Sight Tech Global
11:50 am PDT • September 21, 2020
Imagine yourself unable to see well enough to drive, and how that would change your life. I witness that scenario every day at home with my wife, who is legally…
Security
JAWS architect Glen Gordon is joining Sight Tech Global, a virtual event Dec. 2-3
3:25 pm PDT • September 16, 2020
For people who are blind or visually impaired, JAWS is synonymous with freedom to operate Windows PCs with a remarkable degree of control and precision with output in speech and Braille.…
Hardware
OrCam Technologies co-founder Amnon Shashua to speak at Sight Tech Global
9:22 am PDT • September 3, 2020
If the measure of progress in technology is that devices should become ever smaller and more capable, then OrCam Technologies is on a roll. The Israeli firm’s OrCam MyEye, which…
Microsoft researcher Dr. Cecily Morrison will discuss keeping AI ‘personal’ at Sight Tech Global
10:31 am PDT • August 26, 2020
For Dr. Cecily Morrison, research into how AI can help people who are blind or visually disabled is deeply personal. It’s not only that the Microsoft Principal Researcher has a…
Enterprise
Microsoft’s Seeing AI founder Saqib Shaikh is speaking at Sight Tech Global
11:22 am PDT • August 20, 2020
When Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella introduced Saqib Shaikh on stage at BUILD in 2016, he was obviously moved by the engineer’s “passion and empathy,” which Nadella said, “is going to…
Media & Entertainment
Announcing Sight Tech Global, an event on the future of AI and accessibility for people who are blind or visually impaired
12:00 pm PDT • August 3, 2020
Few challenges have excited technologists more than building tools to help people who are blind or visually impaired. It was Silicon Valley legend Ray Kurzweil, for example, who in 1976…
So long, TechCrunch
10:21 am PDT • July 20, 2020
Let me lead with the news: After more than eight years as TechCrunch’s COO, I am leaving on August 21. My decision is as much about my appetite for a…
Startups
Jim Fruchterman raises $1.7M for Tech Matters, a new effort to help nonprofits do tech better
7:30 am PDT • April 2, 2020
Social entrepreneurship pioneer Jim Fruchterman has launched a new nonprofit, Tech Matters, with $1.7 million in backing from corporate and foundation sources, including Twilio, Okta, Working Capital, Facebook and Schmidt…
Startups
Experience Disrupt SF online with the Disrupt Digital Pro Pass
11:23 am PDT • March 30, 2020
Earlier this month we announced the launch of the Disrupt Digital Pass for TechCrunch’s flagship Disrupt SF event (September 14-16) as a way to help ensure that, no matter what,…
Space
Hear from Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck at TechCrunch’s space show December 17 in LA
8:55 am PDT • March 9, 2020
When it comes to the space launch revolution, Peter Beck’s Rocket Lab is by far the fastest emerging contender in that crowded field of startups. It’s also one of the…
Time to mark September 14-16 on your calendar for the startup extravaganza that is TechCrunch’s Disrupt San Francisco 2020. Registration for our flagship, 10,000-person event is officially open, and pass…
AI
Five reasons you (really) don’t want to miss TechCrunch’s AI and Robotics show on March 3
1:00 pm PST • January 28, 2020
TechCrunch’s fourth Robotics and AI show is coming up on March 3 at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall. If past experience is any guide, the show is sure to draw a…
