Siri's Original Voice Wants To Make The Web More Accessible-Internet Still Not Welcoming For People with Disabilities??

RJ Pierce, Tech Times 01 October 2021, 10:10 am

Siri basically opened up the world for digital assistants. But this iconic piece of Apple technology won't be anything without the original voice behind it. And now, she's campaigning to try to make the web more accessible, specifically for disabled folks.

(Photo : May Tse/South China Morning Post via Getty Images)
This image shows a detail of iPhone 7 smartphone screen showing Siri voice control button.

Enter Susan Bennett, who served as the original voice for Siri from 2011 to 2013.

According to CNET, she is now trying to advocate to make the web a far more accessible and welcoming place, more so for not-so-tech-savvy people like her.

Now appearing in an ad for UserWay, a web accessibility company, Bennett is working to ensure that websites remain compliant with various regulations, such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Bennett herself says that she is "terrible with tech," saying that modern technology, such as the web, isn't intuitive for her at all.

She's not disabled per se, but her struggles with tech is something she shares with roughly a quarter of Americans who deal with some form of disability.

Furthermore, Bennett's voice as Siri has actually proven to be of great help for disabled tech users. After she revealed that her voice was used for the popular Apple digital assistant, she remembers receiving a lot of mail from individuals who were blind or had other disabilities, who told her that they used Siri all the time.

As a result, Bennett became proud of the fact that Siri managed to help people do things they wouldn't typically be able to do on their own.

Here is Bennett's video for UserWay, uploaded to the company's official YouTube channel:

The Web Might Be A Necessity, But It's Still Not As Accessible For Anyone

Using the internet consumes almost every waking hour of the average person, that it's now considered a human right. But still, it's not as friendly to people with disabilities even until now.

Almost all websites (98%, to be exact) still do not comply with accessibility requirements, according to data from the AccessiBe initiative via ISE Mag. That equates to over 10 million individual web pages, whose menys, images, pop-ups, forms, and even icons remain hard to navigate for disabled people.

For a site to be truly accessible, it must use a so-called multisensory and multi-interactivity approach, which enables users to consume digital content using different senses, reported CNBC.

AccessiBe Chief Vision Officer Michael Hingson, who himself is a person with a disability, did say that there's some improvements, but there's still a lot of work to do.

What About Siri?

Apple recently came under fire for various updates regarding iOS 15.

In the reports, the company allegedly removed a few features to Siri, which might make it harder for visually impaired folks to use their devices. Voice calls, voice mail messages, and even email management features were apparently included.

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Written by RJ Pierce