外企头条丨智能科技帮助残障人圆梦就业
如何让科技变得更加智能，从而更好地造福残障人士，帮助他们圆梦就业？
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Kim Charlson在11岁时被诊断出患有青光眼，视力也因此变得越来越差。她在一年半后接受了手术，然而视力恢复效果并不理想，还引起了并发症，并导致彻底失明。
Kim Charlson was 11 when she started losing her eyesight because of glaucoma. An operation a year and a half later not only didn’t help, it resulted in complications that hastened her blindness.
Her pragmatic parents insisted she learn Braille, a key to literacy for people who are blind or have low vision. Without that literacy, Charlson likely wouldn’t have gone on to college or a career.
在美国，只有13%的盲人学生懂盲文，另有大约70%的成年盲人或低视力患者处于失业状态。
Only 13 percent of blind students in the United States know Braille, and roughly 70 percent of adults who are blind or have low vision are unemployed.
这一数据所折射的现实十分严峻，因此当Charlson发现一款能够让她有更多时间去学习和练习盲文的应用时，她感到十分兴奋。
Those troubling statistics are one reason Charlson is excited about an app that will help increase the amount of time students can spend learning and practicing Braille.
这款名为“盲文 AI 导师”应用由新加入微软AI for Accessibility 计划的 ObjectiveEd 公司研发，该计划旨在为那些能够通过人工智能技术提升残障人士生活质量的项目提供资助。
ObjectiveEd, the company that’s developing the Braille AI Tutor app, is a new recipient of Microsoft’s AI for Accessibility grants to people using AI-powered technology to make the world a more inclusive place.
此外，包括伦敦城市大学、inABLE、iMerciv和开放大学等在内的十家受资机构，已于2019年 10 月的美国全国残疾人就业宣传月中先后加入该计划。
Ten other recipients joining the program in conjunction with National Disability Awareness Month include City University of London, inABLE, iMerciv and The Open University.
微软无障碍事业部架构负责人Mary Bellard表示：“我们有责任，并且有能力让科技变得更加智能，从而更好地造福残障人士。”
“We have a huge opportunity and a responsibility to be making technology smarter and more useful for people with disabilities,” says Mary Bellard, Microsoft senior architect lead for accessibility.
The aim of the AI for Accessibility program, which began in 2018 and now has 32 grantees, is to help people “build something really useful at the intersection of AI, accessibility and disability.”
盲文AI导师这一应用是由ObjectiveEd 总裁Marty Schultz主导的最新项目。他长期从事软件开发和志愿支教工作，五年前，他为盲人儿童开发了一款名为Blindfold Racer的iPhone游戏。
The Braille AI Tutor app is the latest project for ObjectiveEd’s president, Marty Schultz, a longtime software developer and volunteer teacher who created an iPhone game five years ago called “Blindfold Racer” for children who are blind.
盲文AI导师这款应用采用了人工智能语意识别技术以及微软Azure语意服务，帮助学生通过个性化寓教于乐的方式提高盲文认知水平。
The Braille AI Tutor app will incorporate AI-based speech recognition, using Microsoft’s Azure Speech API, to help students practice reading Braille with personalized, gamified learning plans.
该应用会将单词或句子发送至盲文显示器，这是一款方便盲人阅读的硬件设备。
The app will send a word or a sentence to a refreshable Braille display, one of the types of hardware used for reading Braille.
学生先触摸这些盲文，并将单词和句子大声念出来，之后，该应用将会识别学生的语音并提供反馈，从而使学生可以立即知道自己是否正确。
The student will feel the word in Braille, say the word or sentence out loud, and then the app will process the audio feedback and let the student know immediately if they are correct or not.
与此同时，老师可以通过线上仪表板，查看学习结果，来记录和追踪学生的学习进度。
Teachers will be able to monitor students’ progress, with results sent to a web dashboard.
Schultz指出，这种补充练习可以帮助学生“更快地完成学业，从而顺利进入大学，并在未来就业时拥有更多机会。”
Schultz says the extra practice will help students “accelerate more quickly through school, which will lead to college, and to much better employment opportunities in the future.”
Arjun Mali and Bin Liu both have had family members who experienced vision loss. Two longtime friends who watched their loved ones go through vision loss found another way to help: using technology to help people get to work or otherwise navigate their cities.
他们经常一起谈论盲人或视力低下人群所遭受的挫折和侮辱，同时也会探讨如何能够改善视力障碍者的行动能力。
They often talked about some of the frustrations and indignities faced by people who are blind or have low vision, as well as ways to improve mobility for those with vision impairment.
他们携手打造出属于他们的首款产品BuzzClip。BuzzClip是一款可穿戴设备，重量仅2盎司（约 57克），通过超声波探测行走路径上的障碍，并通过不同的振动频率向用户发出警报提醒用户。
They developed their first product together, the BuzzClip. It’s a 2-ounce, clip-on wearable device that uses ultrasound to detect obstacles in a person’s path, then alerts the user with different vibrations and frequencies.
早些时候，多伦多大学创新中心针对初创科技公司推出了加速器计划，两人也从中获得支持，并于2014年成立了公司 iMerciv, Inc。
Early on, the duo received support from the Impact Centre, the University of Toronto’s accelerator for startup tech companies, and in 2014 they formed their company, iMerciv, Inc.
如今，iMerciv公司已加入微软AI for Accessibility计划，并开发出一款名为 MapinHood 的导航应用，帮助盲人或低视力群体提供步行上班或是出行的最优路线。
Now among AI for Accessibility’s latest grantees, iMerciv is developing a navigation app called MapinHood for pedestrians who are blind or have low vision, and who want to choose the routes they take if they’re walking to work, or to any destination.
不管是建筑工地或是犯罪高发区域，该应用程序均可通过声音警报提醒用户在行进中躲避危险，同时还能告知用户所处位置周边是否存在所需物品，例如饮水机、长凳或坡道等。
The app will audibly alert a person to hazards — from construction to high-crime areas — to avoid while walking, as well as let them know about things they might need, like water fountains, benches or ramps.
这一切都是基于机器学习、众包数据以及当地执法部门的开放信息来实现的。
It’s all based on machine learning, crowdsourced data and open source information from local law enforcement.
目前导航系统一般都会经过优化，以便准确生成去往目的地的最短或最快路线。
Current navigation systems, in general, are optimized to generate routes that are the fastest or shortest for getting to a destination.
目前这款应用目前正在与加拿大国家盲人协会一起合作进行测试，而iMerciv的另一款应用BuzzClip也是与该协会合作开发的。
The app is in now in the alpha stages of being tested with help from the nonprofit Canadian National Institute for the Blind, which also worked with iMerciv on the BuzzClip.
MapinHood使用了iMerciv提供的定制路由引擎，并在AI for Accessibility 计划的资助下，使用微软Azure的机器学习、存储和虚拟机等服务。
The app uses iMerciv’s custom routing engine, and with the AI for Accessibility grant, will use Azure machine learning, storage and virtual machines.
MapinHood 在多伦多的成功也为其在其他城市的应用提供了范例。
MapinHood in Toronto will also be a template for the app in other cities.
For people with autism, sometimes the biggest hurdle to employment is the interview. That’s the focus of Nilanjan Sarkar.
Sarkar是美国田纳西州范德比尔特大学机器人与自主系统实验室的负责人，他目前正在研究一个课题，旨在通过智能系统的帮助，让自闭症患者在面试过程中拥有更为良好的表现。
Sarkar, director of the Robotics and Autonomous Systems Lab at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, is now leading a project aimed at helping people with autism perform well in job interviews using intelligent systems.
基于此理念，Sarkar与范德比尔特大学首个自闭症与创新中心合作开发了虚拟现实职业面试预演系统，该中心于去年早些时候被纳入微软AI for Accessibility计划。
Career Interview Readiness in Virtual Reality (CIRVR) is being developed in conjunction with Vanderbilt University’s Frist Center for Autism & Innovation, having joined the AI for Accessibility program earlier last year.
在美国，大约有250万成年人患有自闭症。打造该系统的目的在于帮助求职者在面试真正开始之前做好充分的准备。
In the U.S., there are approximately 2.5 million adults on the autistism spectrum, This system aims to help people be better prepared when they actually go out for an interview.
CIRVR是一个虚拟现实职业面试预演系统，使用Azure AI服务并集计算机面试官、可穿戴设备和眼动仪于一体。
CIRVR is a virtual reality job interview platform that uses Azure AI and incorporates a computer avatar that acts as the interviewer.
可穿戴设备通过机器学习技术跟踪面试者的心率、皮肤出汗程度等生理指标，从而推断出他们的焦虑程度，眼动仪则用来测定面试者的注意力。
A wearable device that tracks interviewees’ physiological measures such as heart rate and skin sweating to infer their anxiety using machine learning techniques, and an eye tracker to gauge attention.
Sarkar表示：“该系统会量化、客观地采集大量数据，包括面试者的焦虑程度、视线所在、反应如何、应当采取的行动等等。同时，我们可以创建一个反馈系统，让面试者通过反复地练习来改善面试技巧。”
“This system will quantitively, objectively gather lots of data regarding their anxiety, where they’re looking, eye contact, how they’re responding, what should they have done — and we believe we can create a feedback system so that by repeated practice, they will improve their interviewing skills,” Sarkar says.
“自闭症患者更倾向于常规化、可预测的社交互动。然而人类的反应和互动往往是不可预测的，这就会令他们感到困惑。”Sarkar说 。
“People with autism sometimes like to interact with things that respond in a routine way, in a predictable way,” Sarkar says. “Human response, human interactions are not predictable, and that can be confusing.”
Sarkar表示，CIRVR系统已经进行到测试阶段，将向求职者提供面试反馈，以便他们更有针对性地进行面试练习。
Sarkar says CIRVR testing has begun and will provide feedback to the interviewees so they can practice improving how they handle interviews.
此外，该程序还将对整体面试结果进行趋势评估，从而能够分享给对此感兴趣的公司内部招聘经理。这样一来他们能够了解如何优化面试环节，或在有需要的时候采取不同的提问方式。
Overall results will also be evaluated for trends to possibly share with hiring managers at interested companies, so they can learn how to modify their interview structure, or how to ask questions differently, if needed.
来自微软的Bellard表示：“所有 AI for Accessibility 计划的受资机构在无障碍技术领域都极具热情，并且十分专业。
All AI for Accessibility grantees “have so much passion and expertise in the area of accessible technology,” says Bellard of Microsoft.
该领域内的软件和硬件设施均具备巨大的潜力，它们将更好的满足残障人士的需求，而这也势必有助于科技进一步提升其他消费者的生活质量，这是一个不可多得的机遇。”
“The amount of potential that there is for software or hardware to better meet the needs of people with disabilities, and to raise the bar of what customers can come to expect of the role technology could play in their lives, is just an amazing opportunity.”
原标题：《外企头条丨智能科技帮助残障人圆梦就业》