Microsoft announced that its Seeing AI mobile app for those with blindness and low vision now supports five new languages.

“Seeing AI is a free iOS app that was designed to empower the millions of people around the world who are blind or have low vision by using computer vision to describe the world around them,” a Microsoft representative told me. “Developed by and with the disability community via regional nonprofit organizations, Seeing AI’s new language support reflects Microsoft’s commitment to enhancing assistive technology and dedication to weaving inclusive design into everything we create.”

In tandem with the UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Seeing AI has been updated today to support Dutch, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish. Microsoft says that the update will make the app accessible to millions of additional people.

“Now I will be able to read in Japanese,” a user named Akiko Ishii says in a Microsoft feature story about the technology. “And I can also read my mail and other communication and correspondence on paper, so that will be super exciting. [Previously,] If any communication was on paper, I would have to have somebody read it to me. But now I’ll be able to read it myself.”

You can learn more about Seeing AI from the Microsoft website. The mobile app is available for free from the Apple App Store.

Tagged with AI, Microsoft Seeing AI