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“Seeing AI becomes my assistant and provides me with support that I need so that I can focus on taking care of my daughter,” says Akiko Ishii, with her daughter, Ami, in Tokyo. Photo by Microsoft.[/caption] Akiko Ishii thinks it will be the same in Japan. In Tokyo, accessibility awareness is high, she says, but “as you go outside of Tokyo, then it gets very difficult.” There is little technology being utilized in rural areas, she says, and with Seeing AI being free to use, it will be a big help. Ishii regularly uses the app’s Scene and Person channels to recognize and describe the people around her, including her 3-year-old daughter, Ami. “I use that feature to get the phone to tell me what she’s doing,” Ishii says. Or, if Ami asks Mom for chocolate, Ishii can go to the kitchen and use the app to “read the bar code of the chocolate, so I will know exactly which chocolate she wants.” It is the kind of independence that is priceless, she says. “One of the things I love about Seeing AI is that once you have this one application, with tons of features, then you can use it for anything,” Ishii says. “Seeing AI becomes my assistant and provides me with support that I need so that I can focus on taking care of my daughter.” Learn more about Seeing AI and download it with Dutch, English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish support. Lead image: Akiko Ishii with her daughter, Ami, in Tokyo. Photo by Microsoft. This story was originally published on Dec. 2, 2019.

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