Microsoft's AI for Accessibility program offers grants, technology investments, and expertise to empower individuals and teams working on projects that use AI to benefit people with disabilities. The program focuses on four key areas:

1. Low-cost Assistive Technology: Designing relevant and affordable assistive technology in low- and middle-income countries to spur innovation and create better opportunities for people with disabilities.

2. Education: Advancing AI tools for transcription, translation, and language understanding capabilities to improve educational opportunities and accommodations for students with disabilities.

3. Employment: Investing in inclusive datasets and tools to improve the use of AI technology in recruiting, aiming to reduce the unemployment rate for people with disabilities.

4. Community and Home: Utilizing AI to modernize ways of maintaining mental health, communication, and overall wellbeing, making daily life more inclusive for people with disabilities.

The grant program seeks individuals or teams passionate about inclusivity and firmly rooted in the communities they aim to benefit. Applications are evaluated based on scientific merit, innovative use of AI, and scalability potential. Grantees receive funding to cover data collection, model development, or engineering work. They also receive Azure compute credits, tech consulting, mentoring, and access to a supportive community of current and past grantees.

Applications are open globally to developers, NGOs, academics, researchers, and inventors. The project proposal should address an accessibility challenge, propose a technical solution, and outline its potential impact on people with disabilities.

2023 grant submission process opens Summer 2023.  For more information visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai/ai-for-accessibility-grants