I was dying to get back to the fun stuff, and Xbox obliged. We were heading to the next event in a 60-year-old Land Rover Discovery (the other vehicle on the front of the Forza Horizon 4 box), and I would be behind the wheel. Yes! This was more like it.

It only had four gears but I barely used first: “This vehicle’s got so much torque you should be pulling away in second,” my co-driver, who worked for Goodwood House, said. A plaque on the dashboard said the Land Rover could reach 122mph, but the engine sounded like it was going to explode at 60mph. I had a hard time slowing it down at that speed, as the brakes are as “classic” as the steering, and I nearly hit the car in front a couple of times (sorry to whomever was driving that red Fiat Punto).

We soon headed off-road and took a chalk track that used to be the main route from Chichester to London for horse-drawn carriages. Keeping the Land Rover in a low gear was essential here, as was concentration, as the ride was bumpy, to say the least.

“Take your foot off the clutch and brake and let it go on its own, it won’t stall,” my co-driver said. I was used to driving a modern car with the constant fear that I would stall it. No such problems in the Land Rover – it effortlessly rolled downhill without even thinking about stalling.

By Wendy Chisholm, Principal Accessibility Architect

In May, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced AI for Accessibility to put AI tools in the hands of developers, universities, NGOs and inventors to accelerate the development of accessible and intelligent AI solutions to benefit people with disabilities around the world.

Today, we are announcing the first AI for Accessibility grantee, Zyrobotics. They are developing unique solutions for accessible science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, like ReadAble Storiez, that are adaptive to the diverse needs of students. We are thrilled to have them as part of our program and we can’t wait to see the impact they will have!

ReadAble Storiez is a reading fluency program for students with diverse learning needs, which also helps fill in the gaps for students from low-income homes who may not have access to speech-language or occupational therapists. By creating custom speech models with Microsoft Cognitive Services and Azure Machine Learning, they aim to identify when a student needs feedback, much like an occupational therapist would recognize and provide.

Zyrobotics is a team of educators and developers who have a passion for creating technology that will enhance the quality of life for children. Last week, Satya had the opportunity to meet with Zyrobotics CEO Dr. Johnetta MacCalla and CTO Dr. Ayanna Howard in Atlanta, Georgia, and learn more about their work and passion for helping all students become better readers.

As Dr. Howard shared with us, “In our experience, because every child is different, you have to let them look at technology in different ways, more than just visual and auditory. Our focus is to incorporate interaction and personalization. The usage of AI/machine learning algorithms ensures that our apps are accessible and can be adapted to the personal needs of each child. We are excited about how this grant and partnership with Microsoft will help us address significant gaps for engaging each child based on their unique strengths and abilities.”

Look out for more grant-winning projects to be announced on the Accessibility Blog, the AI for Accessibility website and our social channels in the coming months. For those getting started, here are three of the top questions we have received from applicants:

When can I apply?
Now! We are accepting submissions on a rolling basis over the next five years. Grant proposals can be submitted via the online application form. Applicants will receive a follow up email within 30-60 days.

What is Microsoft looking for in applications?
We are looking for revolutionary ideas that use AI and align with any of our three areas of focus:

• Employment. How can we positively impact the employment rate for people with disabilities through more intelligent technology?
• Daily Life. How can we increase access to technology for people with disabilities while also decreasing the cost of such technology?
• Communication & Connection. How can AI help improve the speed, accuracy, and convenience of communication for people with disabilities?

We are looking for individuals or teams who are not only passionate about making the world more inclusive, but also firmly rooted in the communities they intend to benefit. We want to see ideas that are developed by or with people with disabilities, not just for us.

What can I receive through the program?
First, check that your idea meets the following criteria:

• Relevance: AI and/or machine learning are core to the project success;
• Impact: Clearly elevates either employment, daily life, or communication & connection for someone with a disability;
• Feasible: Is deliverable in a one-year timeframe—this could be phase 1 of the project but there should be tangible deliverables completed each quarter that are wrapped up in one year;
• Capable: Your team should have the knowledge and skill to deliver the idea OR you partner with someone who can fill in the gaps;
• Sustainable: The project has room to grow beyond the first year of funding;
• Showcase-able: We want to talk about whatever you deliver!

The AI for Accessibility program provides monetary grants as well as technology and expertise depending on the potential impact and needs of each project. This can include:

• Access to Microsoft Azure AI resources and Developer Support. To estimate the Azure computing resources you need, use the Azure calculator;
• The costs of crowd-sourcing and cleaning data needed to get your project up and running;
• Guidance from a Microsoft team of AI, project management, and accessibility experts who can help guide you to scale to a wide audience and deliver the impact you envision.

If you have additional questions about the awards program or the application process, please visit the AI for Accessibility FAQ.

Remember: anyone can apply! From a tinkerer in a basement to an established corporation, from students to professionals. If you are worried you don’t have what it takes, find someone who does and partner with them on an application. So, no excuses. ?

Over the past eighteen months, Microsoft has fostered a growing $115 million AI for Good initiative that puts AI in the hands of inspired individuals developing real-world outcomes that tackle some of society’s most critical challenges. Comprised of AI for Accessibility, AI for Earth and AI for Humanitarian Action, we are hopeful the world will see what a compelling force for good AI can be.

We cannot wait to see what you create by or with people with disabilities to empower everyone to achieve more. 

Microsoft believes accessibility and inclusion are essential to delivering on our mission to empower everyone, everywhere. Technology can play a powerful role to empower people with disabilities. Across Microsoft, we are working to make technology more accessible – whether that is built-in accessibility features in Windows and Office 365, new tools and resources like Soundscape, Seeing AI and Learning Tools, or collaborating with organizations on initiatives to help make the world more inclusive.

In Chicago, we have an opportunity to further the Smart Cities for All global initiative, a partnership between G3ict and World Enabled to help cities empower people with disabilities. The City of Chicago will become the first city in the world to pilot the Smart City Digital Inclusion Maturity Model, an assessment tool created by G3ict and World Enabled with support from Microsoft.

Designed to help city leaders and urban planners better understand the needs of and empower people with disabilities, the new Maturity Model helps cities measure digital inclusion and track progress. Focused on a broad range of functions important to all cities, such as communications, procurement, training, and technology standards, it defines key performance indicators and metrics to support advancing accessibility. Five levels of digital inclusion maturity guide cities in assessing and tracking progress across multiple Smart Cities dimensions, e.g. technology, data, culture, and strategy.

We are honored to collaborate with the City of Chicago and two nonprofits with a history of leadership in inclusive and accessible design that are actively working to help cities advance how they utilize technology to build more inclusive communities. The leadership of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities Karen Tamley, and CIO and Commissioner of the Department of Innovation and Technology Danielle DuMerer, will create an important legacy of inclusion in Chicago. The new pilot demonstrates their continued focus of building inclusive practices into their planning and development process, a model that cities around the world will benefit from as we look at ways we can empower the more than 1 billion people with disabilities in the world.

Throughout October, we are celebrating National Disability Employment Awareness Month.

Initiatives like Smart Cities for All and the pilot project in the City of Chicago are great examples of how we can work together to help change the unemployment rate for people with disabilities, which is nearly double that of those without disabilities. Check out the blog, Empowering all people in the workplace, to learn more about our work to make technology more accessible.

We all have the responsibility to come together – across industries, sectors and geographies – to create a more inclusive world. Together we can support cities in using innovative technology to advance opportunities for everyone.

Patent troll Uniloc returned to form on Wednesday after a months-long hiatus from lobbing allegations against Apple, this time challenging the company’s AirDrop file sharing technology with a 2006 Philips patent.

Filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Uniloc’s latest attempt to extract damages from the tech giant leverages a single patent first filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2000.

Invented by Jonathan Griffiths, U.S. Patent No. 7,136,999 for a “Method and system for electronic device authentication” details techniques of creating a secure environment for transferring data between two devices. In particular, the IP covers methods of providing authentication over a variety of wireless protocols including Bluetooth.

According to the patent’s first claim, an initial authentication procedure is performed over a short-range wireless link. Once authenticated, the two devices are then able to connect when out of range of the first wireless link protocol. As noted in following claims, the devices can exchange initial authentication information — a key or password — via an alternative communications link.

The USPTO issued a grant for the ‘999 patent in 2006.

The IP has changed hands multiple times since its filing in 2000, first from Griffiths to Philips Electronics that same year. It was assigned to patent aggregator IPG Electronics 503 Limited in 2009, then on to Pendragon Wireless in 2012 before landing in Uniloc’s coffers in February 2018. Uniloc Luxembourg subsequently assigned the patent to Uniloc 2017 LLC in July.

Uniloc’s U.S. licensing entity, with the recently formed Uniloc 2017, is leveraging the patent-in-suit against Apple and AirDrop.

Introduced alongside OS X 10.7 Lion in 2011, AirDrop is a first-party ad hoc protocol designed to simplify the process of transferring large files from one device to another.

Initially developed to connect two Macs over Wi-Fi, the service first appeared in the OS X Finder. Running AirDrop allowed two Macs to quickly create an ad hoc connection without need for passwords or complex network configuration. Simple drag-and-drop functionality made the system a more attractive alternative to direct link, cloud storage and similar file transfer solutions in use at the time.

Apple later extended — and modified — AirDrop to accommodate its mobile operating system with iOS 7 in 2013. Unlike legacy AirDrop technology, the revamped version employs a dual-link structure that relied on Bluetooth for discovery and token setup, and Wi-Fi for file transfers. Again, users are presented with an easy-to-use interface in Share Sheets that features automatic device discovery and tap-to-send capabilities.

It is this second iteration of AirDrop that Uniloc is targeting in its latest lawsuit.

The non-practicing entity is alleging infringement of claims 13 and 17 of the ‘999 patent, which relate to establishing a secure link between two devices through exchange of authentication information over two separate communications links. Named in the suit are all devices compatible with Apple’s current implementation of AirDrop, including all iPhones from iPhone 5 to iPhone XS Max, fourth- and fifth-generation iPads, all iPad mini generations, all iPad Air models, iPad Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Pro, the fifth-generation iPod and fourth- through sixth-generation iPod touch models.

Uniloc in its suit seeks unspecified damages, reimbursement of legal fees and other relief deemed fit by the court.

The AirDrop case is the latest in a string of Uniloc lawsuits targeting Apple technologies. In the middle of 2017, the non-practicing entity went on a spree, filing suit against the iPhone maker almost once a month.

Last April, Uniloc sued over Maps, Apple ID and remote software updates, while a second batch of filings homed in on AirPlay, autodialing, battery technology in May. Device wake-up, step tracking and Apple Watch were added to the growing pile last June, AirPlay and Home in July, the Apple TV Remote app in August and Apple Watch’s GPS in October.

Uniloc is one of the most active patent trolls in the U.S., leveraging reassigned patents or vaguely worded original IP against a number of tech firms including Activision Blizzard, Aspyr, Electronic Arts, McAfee, Microsoft, Rackspace, Sega, Sony, Symantec and more.

Mobile gaming has really enjoyed a resurgence of compact, clever & pretty puzzle games. That desire for a quick break on the subway or the john has merged with clean and modern hipster design and minimalistic storytelling to create a whole new genre of precious mazes you can play with one hand. Like Monument Valley and Square’s Go series among others, Where Shadows Slumber tries to give you an experience both artistic and thoughtful, wrapped up in bite-sized chunks.

The game has a conceit almost as clever as Monument Valley‘s Escher-like pathways, but more indebted to the early iOS hit Helsing’s Fire. In Where Shadows Slumber, you have to make use of light and shadow to transform the world around you. Your character carries a brilliant yellow-green lamp that throws pitch-black shadows. When cast in darkness, portions of the scene will change. Sometimes this only changes something small, like making a door appear out of thin dark. Other times, shadows will reveal a whole other world. As the shadows sweep across the screen, you’ll see new possibilities blink in and out of view. Your job is to figure out how to walk between these worlds and make it out alive.

The controls are straightforward and familiar to anyone who has played this type of game before. You can use simple single taps move your hero through single-screen mazes (or double-tap for a run) and drag on various parts of the background (light sources, blocks, platforms, or walls) to open new paths. 

Like Monument Valley, a lot of the puzzles come down to figuring out what is possible to change in a given scene. You need to figure out what will shift when shadows pass over each section of the map, and then how you can get a light source into position to throw or remove those shadows. There are 35 stages in seven worlds, each a single screen long. No one stage is particularly brutal, and each will probably take less than ten minutes to puzzle through.

On top of the central twist, Where Shadows Slumber tosses all the usual maze-puzzler tools at you: sliding platforms, floor switches, impassable obstacles, and moving NPCs that can help or hinder. These additions can be nice, since it means each level has something new. At the same time, a lot of these are tossed in without much explanation, assuming you are familiar with them from other puzzle games, and then they are tossed out just as unceremoniously. It gives some variety to the puzzles, but it doesn’t give a strong sense of progression. The game never sets any expectations to the puzzle mechanics, so it can’t challenge those expectations in more advanced levels. Instead, the game is more about recognizing what the tools you’re given can do and how they affect the screen they’re on. That’s fun, but it could be more ambitious. 

Given the title, one would expect the story to be gloomy, but it is also surprisingly violent; this is not a low-key puzzler you can let the kids fool around with on the iPad. Instead it’s host to a silently-told tale of pursuit and lots of seemingly random murder. The hero seems to live in a world where sad bald humans are under the thumb of cruel and capricious animal-headed monsters, which is certainly a game setting I’ve never experienced before.

Animated cutscenes break up chapters, updating us on the story of Obe and his quest to escape with his magic lantern. The atmosphere is oppressive, twisted and really effective. The music and architecture emphasize the dreariness of the environment. The common people live in run-down wooden villages while the animal overlords inhabit monolithic labyrinths. It’s dark, but also imaginative, and the hero ventures through several distinctly different environments to the conclusion.

If you’re a fan of the Square Enix Go series of puzzle games and you’ve finished Monument Valley already, Where Shadows Slumber is a good pick. The puzzles are clever, but not as varied or mind-melting as the Go series. The game’s central mechanic is cool, but it isn’t quite clever or adaptable enough to push it to instant-classic status like Monument Valley. That said, it would be hard to reach the heights of those games, and as it is, Where Shadows Slumber is an atmospheric and imaginative puzzle game.

At Microsoft, we believe our technology should reflect the diversity of the people that use our products.

We are excited to share how the Windows 10 October 2018 update delivers on that mission by giving you more accessibility features than ever before to enhance your personal computing experience. These features include Ease of Access updates to make Windows 10 easier to see, Narrator improvements to make Windows 10 easier to use without a screen, and Learning Tools and text suggestions updates to make it easier to read and write.

Ease of Access Updates

You now have more ways to see Windows 10 your way, with the addition of text size customization across the platform. From the “Display” page in Ease of Access settings or by typing “larger text” in the search bar, you can adjust a single global text size slider to make text bigger across Windows, efficiently making just the words bigger without affecting the entire visual layout. You can customize text size in conjunction with DPI scaling, otherwise known as the “Make Everything Bigger” setting. As the name implies, this feature makes everything on the screen larger, which can sometimes reduce productivity for users with low vision by requiring more panning or scrolling. By complementing DPI customization with text size customization, users now have more options to tailor their Windows 10 display.

We realize many users with low vision not only prefer more levers to customize their experience, but they also prefer using multiple tools together. The custom text size works great with Magnifier, which provides new ways for you to optimize your experience. You can choose to keep your mouse centered on the screen, which can be particularly helpful at higher magnification levels, so you do not lose your mouse or focus when trying to navigate. We have also added smaller increments of 5 percent and 10 percent for adjusting zoom level, so you can have even more control of your magnifier experience.

Narrator Improvements

We have continued to make Narrator, our built-in screen reader, easier to learn and use.

We have made narrator easier to learn with two key updates.

• Narrator QuickStart: When Narrator launches, a new QuickStart tutorial experience will be available to teach you Narrator basics such as keyboarding, navigation and editing. At the end of the QuickStart there is a link to the User Guide where you can continue learning about Narrator.



• Improved and more familiar keyboard: Narrator now ships with a new keyboard layout designed to be more familiar to screen reader users. Differences in the keyboard layout are designed to improve keyboard ergonomics and usability, e.g. with improved mnemonics. Check out the Narrator user guide for more details on these changes.

We have also made narrator easier to use with improved navigation and efficiency.

• Easier navigation: With Narrator Find, you now can search for specific text, which Narrator will then move to if found. Narrator can also now present a list of objects, such as links, headings, or landmarks that you can quickly filter to find what you want. Refer to the Narrator user guide for command mapping.
• Increased efficiency: Narrator will now automatically read dialog boxes, such as the Word dialog box that appears when you try to close a document with unsaved changes. We have also made two key improvements to Scan Mode, a narrator feature that simplifies navigation by primarily using just the up and down arrow keys, to enable a more seamless experience:

o   Narrator stops on interactive elements like links so you can more easily interact with them, or you can continue reading with just a press of the down arrow.

o You have more options for selecting text while in Scan Mode including commands to copy an entire block of text without holding down the Shift key. Narrator’s selection commands will copy the format of the text being copied such as headings, lists and more. You can also now speak the selected text using a Narrator command. Refer to the Narrator user guide for additional information on Narrator selection commands or use the Show Commands List Narrator command by pressing Caps + F1.

Reading and Writing Improvements

In addition to Ease of Access and Narrator updates, the October 2018 Update also brings more ways to improve reading fluency and comprehension and author text.

Within Microsoft Edge, you now have more flexibility with web browsing and reading with new ways to customize your learning experience with Learning Tools. First rolled out in the Fall Creator’s Update a year ago, we added Learning Tools like read aloud to the web browsing experience. The April 2018 update then came with the addition of grammar tools, enabling you to break words into syllables and highlight parts of speech.

We are making Learning Tools even more powerful with the October 2018 update. With any ePub or webpage in reading view, you can customize the page theme color with Irlen colors that make it easier to decode text. You can also turn on line focus for a webpage in Reading view to help you concentrate. Additionally, you now have more ways to personalize grammar tools: you can customize the highlight color for parts of speech or turn on labels within the text if you find it difficult to disambiguate between colors. Should you run into words you are unfamiliar with, you can quickly look them up in the built-in dictionary that also works offline*.

Writing experiences are also improving. Text suggestions, which suggests the top three word candidates as you type, is now expanding to 50+ languages** since its debut in the April 2018 update.

Thanks and keep the feedback coming

Thank you to the many people who help shape the accessibility of Windows 10 experiences. Through channels like the feedback hub and the Windows Insider Program, we get your feedback that directly informs product development. That includes not only the features in this latest release but also throughout our work this past year in the Fall Creator’s Update and April 2018 Update.

Additionally, if you are a customer with a disability of any kind and need technical assistance, the Disability Answer Desk is there to assist via phone and chat. In the United States, we also have an ASL option for our customers with hearing loss: +1 503-427-1234.

Thanks again and please keep your thoughts coming! Whether you join the Windows Insider Program or activate the feedback hub by just pressing the Windows + F keys, we want to know what is top of mind so that we can continue to evolve the accessibility of Windows 10.

*Offline dictionary supported in English, Spanish, German, Italian, French

**Text suggestions languages include: Afrikaans​, Albanian​, Armenian​, Azerbaijani – Latin​, Basque​, Bulgarian​, Catalan​, Croatian, Czech​, Danish​, Dutch​, English (US, UK, AU, CA, IE, IN)​, Estonian​, Finnish​, French (CA, FR, BE, CH), Galician​, Georgian, German​, German (Switzerland)​, Greek​, Hausa (Latin), Hungarian​, Indonesian​, Italian​, Kazakh​, Latvian​, Lithuanian​, Macedonian​, Norwegian​, Polish​, Portuguese (Brazil)​, Portuguese (Portugal)​, Romanian​, Russian​, Serbian​, Serbian – Cyrillic​, Slovak​, Slovenian​, Spanish (Spain)​, Spanish (Mexico)​, Swedish​, Turkish​, Ukrainian​, Uzbek – Latin​, Filipino/Tagalog, Welsh, Icelandic, Maltese, Hawaiian, Greenlandic, Kinyarwanda, Xhosa, Zulu, Yoruba, Setswana, Maori, Turkmen (Latin), Bosnian (Latin), Mongolian (Cyrillic), Belarusian, Kyrgyz, Tajik (Cyrillic), Tatar (Cyrillic), Bashkir, Sakha