Transcript:

To half a billion people with hearing disabilities, this is what popular videos sound like. Most people think tha t the solution for this is obvious: captions.

But consider this: only 2% of deaf children have access to formal education. So the majority of the world’s profoundly deaf CANNOT read these captions.

Hi, I'm Roland, cofounder of a11y media, or “ally” for short.

A11y lets people with hearing and/or visual disabilities access educational videos, and entertainment too.
Our app IDENTIFIES what the viewer is watching; then lets the user choose—sign language for the Deaf, captions for the Hard of Hearing, or audio description for the blind and visually impaired.

Upon selection, the app delivers the content—SYNCHRONIZED to what the viewer is watching. With this, the millions who cannot read, or prefer to communicate in sign language, can have access to education and entertainment.

 We also developed this augmented reality wearable, which OVERLAYS captions and/or sign language over this translucent screen. Perfect for private viewing in cinemas, at home, conferences, or even live concerts.

Last but not the least, we developed this set-top box. Plug in a video, and it will output the same video, but overlaid with captions and/or sign language—great for placing the sign language interpreter anywhere on the screen, increasing the caption size, and personalizing other settings.

So we have these assistive technologies, but you’re probably wondering, “where do they get the content?” Partly, from partnerships with content companies. But we expect accessibility to come from this:

We built this platform that lets anyone UPLOAD THEIR OWN sign language videos, captions, or audio description—this is how we intend to democratize accessibility. And reward CONTRIBUTORS with a REVENUE SHARE too. You can think of this as the YouTube for ASSISTIVE content, except these cannot be viewed on their own. They are viewed using our enabling products, in conjunction with movies, TV shows, or videos. Although someday, we hope to deliver accessibility to Netflix, Disney+ and others, using our APIs.

This is Sam, our first test user. Sam was born profoundly Deaf; his first language is sign language. So when we demoed to him, his eyes lit up. Because for the first time in forever, he watched a Disney movie in his mother tongue—sign language. The unbridled joy that Sam experienced—we want millions to experience that too.

If you would like to learn more, how you can contribute, and what the revenue sharing structure is, please visit our website at a11y.media, sign up to our mailing list, so we can send you updates. And feel free to email us your feedback, collaboration ideas, or partnership suggestions.

Thank you.