Microsoft PowerPoint is adding live captions of voice translation to millions of Office 365 subscribers. The feature launched in 2017 as an add-on. It is now standard. Microsoft partnered with the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at the Rochester Institute of Technology to pilot the automatic captioning program.  They  added 30 new accessibility features to Office 365 since launching a $25 million, five-year program to fund artificial intelligence-based tools for people with disabilities. The program began in May 2018. One of the goals for the Microsoft team was to make captioning more available for Deaf and hard of hearing members of the workforce. Technology can help make communication more accessible, but the article notes that increasing employment for Deaf and hard of hearing individuals also requires cultural change to reduce discrimination.

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