Cool, you posted this yesterday. Why are you reposting?

If anybody's interested in being your research subject, they'll contact you.

I have both Alexa and Google Home in both rooms of my apartment. I also use Windows, Mac and iOS every day with a screenreader that reads at several hundred words a minute, and consider myself to be pretty efficient on all three. I bought and use the voice assistants for the same reason sighted people use them, minus the smart lights. They're convenient when I'm not at the computer or want to do something specific like checking the weather, setting a timer or playing music. I find myself frustrated regularly because they're not good at looking up information, even on things like books and music which both Google and Amazon sell. However, I could avoid this frustration by googling it like any other person, and that's a usability problem that affects everyone. It It is nice to have popular devices that work out of the box without any adaptations; their interface is designed so you don't have to look at it, and that makes it work well for us. However, it's no better or worse for a blind person compared to a sighted person. That said, it is harder for blind people (especially older ones) to learn the interfaces of computers, as it requires an extra layer of interaction and is less intuitive compared to a sighted person's experience. I do contract technology training with blind people who need it, and I have found myself recommending these to a few people who have enjoyed using them instead of struggling with an iPhone or a computer for simple tasks.

In a perfect world, these voice assistants would let us navigate the web, compose long e-mails, and do other computing tasks with only our voice. I am certain amazon could do more to bring this to their Alexa assistant, and it would help blind people immensely—especially the ones who haven't been neck-deep in tech for their whole lives. There are things we should be able to do, like telling them to keep reading when they find a website with useful information. This is basic common sense, but it's still rarely possible. However, I honestly don't believe we have the AI to make a truly hands-free interface to the internet that is pleasant to use, much less one that is more efficient and reliable than using a computer with the current screen-readers like VoiceOver. Google and Alexa both struggle to answer simple questions very often, and don't even get me started on Siri or I'll fill up the Reddit server with my unintelligible ranting.

I guess what I'm saying is that from where I'm standing, computers are going to be the best option for a while. AI is evolving scarily quickly and I'm sure neither Amazon nor Google have us in mind when they invent new features for their assistants, but the great part about these devices is the complete lack of need for them to keep us in mind. Almost everything a blind person could want is also something that would benefit sighted people just as much. I'm certain there are older and less technological sighted people who love their echos and their google homes for exactly the same reason my clients love theirs. If a voice-only interface continues to be the focus of both companies, it will continue to benefit everyone in almost exactly the same way. I have thought about how much nicer it might be to hear faster speech, but this is a feature I don't expect to see for two reasons. First, it's something sighted people are unlikely to care about beyond a small speed increase. Second, with these modern machine learning voices, speeding them up might affect their clarity and would take away from the personality aspect, which is something both Google and Amazon will want to push for business reasons. To be honest, I like the personality almost as much as the convenience. If I want a fast weather report, I'll pull out my phone or unlock my apple watch. Being able to lazily ask a question and hear a natural-sounding response is a big appeal. That's not to say I wouldn't try something with faster speech, and I'm certain other people are more utilitarian with their assistant preferences.

Sorry for the wall!

If I somehow left something out or you just want to run thoughts by me, you can always email simon@simonj.me. I'm definitely interested to hear what you're working on, and I'm positive there are angles and factors I haven't considered.

I didn't see this the first time.

I use a screen reader at over 650 words per minute every day, but I find Alexa and Google Assistant perfectly usable. I'd not want them to read me a book, but to have my questions answered, control my lights and heating, turn on the TV etc, it's fine. I think the key is that it's conversational, and we don't expect our friends and families to behave like screen readers.

Contact me if you would like but I would say that generally the ai assistants is flawless I have had no issues with them whatsoever and I know a lot of blind people enjoy using such technology. Even if it’s slower than a regular screen reader it is still very useful and for me I don’t see a problem with the slower speeds