The Latest from Ned Desmond
Imagine being blind and trying to attend a virtual event. Try that next time you stage one.
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 was confident that we would find the answer
Sight Tech Global day 2 is live! Hear from Apple, Waymo, Microsoft, Sara Hendren and Haben Girma
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 the field of accessibility, esp
Sight Tech Global is live! Join top AI technologists and accessibility innovators to discuss the future of assistive tech
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 are rapidly changing th
Perkins, ACB, Benetech, Salesforce and more announce breakout sessions at Sight Tech Global
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 Pacific standard time. If you have not already
Treviranus, Butler and Fruchterman to speak at Sight Tech Global
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-related technology and accessi
Apple’s Jeff Bigham, disability rights lawyer Haben Girma, author Sara Hendren and more to join Sight Tech Global
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 are revolut
Here’s the curtain raise on the Sight Tech Global agenda
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 future of accessibility
Amazon’s Josh Miele and Anne Toth talk Alexa and the future of accessibility at Sight Tech Global
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 lives. For people who are blind
Hailing a self-driving taxi when blind. Learn how Waymo answers that challenge at Sight Tech Global
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 blind, and a very busy person. She reve
JAWS architect Glen Gordon is joining Sight Tech Global, a virtual event Dec. 2-3
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. The keyboard
OrCam Technologies co-founder Amnon Shashua to speak at Sight Tech Global
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 fits on the arm of a
Microsoft researcher Dr. Cecily Morrison will discuss keeping AI ‘personal’ at Sight Tech Global
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 7-year-old son who is
Microsoft’s Seeing AI founder Saqib Shaikh is speaking at Sight Tech Global
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 change the
Announcing Sight Tech Global, an event on the future of AI and accessibility for people who are blind or visually impaired
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 launched the f
So long, TechCrunch
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 green field as it is a recognition that TechCrun
Jim Fruchterman raises $1.7M for Tech Matters, a new effort to help nonprofits do tech better
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,
Experience Disrupt SF online with the Disrupt Digital Pro Pass
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, TechCrunch fans
Hear from Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck at TechCrunch’s space show December 17 in LA
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 few space unicorns, backed by
Registration is now open for Disrupt SF 2020
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,
Five reasons you (really) don’t want to miss TechCrunch’s AI and Robotics show on March 3
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 big crowd (cheap student rates here!)