How European Disability Technology Startups Are Using AI | TechCrunch

Make life better for people with disabilities is a laudable goal, but accessibility technology has traditionally not been popular with VCs. In 2022, disability technology companies picked up 4 billion dollars in early-stage investments, which were only a fraction of that Fintech‘s recording, for example.

One reason is that disability technology startups are often viewed as too niche to be commercially viable—at least at the scale that venture capital requires. By definition, this is assumed to be the case Building for a minority. However, some startups in this space have also started to serve the broader population – and incorporate some AI helps always.

In both cases it is a balancing act: the broader business case must make sense without losing sight of the startup’s mission statement. Meanwhile, to pass the due diligence sniff test, AI must be used in a straightforward manner.

Some accessibility-focused startups understand these needs and their strategies are worth a look. Here are four European startups doing just that.

Visualize

Visualize uses AI to improve the lives of people with hearing loss. The Spanish startup focuses on security and autonomy – this includes a sound detection AI that detects fire alarms and the sound of a crying baby at home. “AI is critical to our business,” CEO Manel Alcaide told TechCrunch last month.

The company offers consumers an app that also serves as a complement to Visualfy Home, whose hardware suite consists of three detectors and a main unit. With Visualfy Places it also entered the public sector – the startup is no coincidence recently raised funds from the Spanish state railway company Renfe.

One reason Visualfy is gaining traction in the B2B space is that public venues need to ensure accessibility, especially when health and safety are at stake.

In an interview, Alcaide explained that the devices and PA systems Visualfy will install in places like stadiums could also monitor air quality and other metrics. In the EU, achieving these other goals could help companies receive subsidies while doing the right thing for deaf people.

The latter remains a priority for Visualfy, which was founded as a B Corp and employs both hearing and non-hearing employees. Including deaf people at every step is a moral stance – “without us there is nothing for us.” But it is also common sense for better design, Alcaide said.

Crisp

People with total hearing impairment are a smaller part of a large and growing group. By 2050, 2.5 billion people It is assumed that they have some degree of hearing loss. Many people choose not to wear hearing aids for a variety of reasons, including stigma and cost. This is the target group that the Dutch B2B startup Audus Technologies addresses with its product: Crisp.

Knisper uses AI to make speech more understandable in environments such as cinemas, museums, public transport and during work conversations. In practice this means splitting the sound up and mixing it back into a clearer track. This happens without increasing the background volume (which not every hearing aid manufacturer can say), making it comfortable for everyone to listen, even without hearing loss.

Marciano Ferrier, former otolaryngologist and founder of Audus, explained that this would not have been possible with similar results before artificial intelligence. Knisper was trained on thousands of videos in multiple languages, with variations such as background noise and distorted speech. That took work, but Audus is now moving out of the development phase and focusing on launch, CEO Joost Taverne told TechCrunch in February.

“We already work with a number of museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston,” said Taverne, a former lawmaker and diplomat who spent time in the United States. “We also do audio books with a Dutch publisher, where we have the audio book of Anne Frank’s diary, accessible to people with hearing loss. And we now have the solution for the workspace.”

Going to market in the B2B space is not an easy path, so it makes sense for Audus to focus on customers like museums. They are often loud, which can make audio guides difficult for anyone to understand. Using Knisper’s technology to make it more understandable brings benefits to the general public, not just people with hearing loss, making it easier to accept.

Whispp

Another Dutch startup Whispp also focuses on language, but from a different angle. As TechCrunch reported at CES earlier this year, its technology converts whispered speech in a natural voice Real time.

Whispp’s core target audience is “a currently underserved group of 300 million people worldwide with voice disabilities who have lost their voice but still have good articulation,” it says website explained.

For example, people with voice disorders that only allow them to whisper or use their esophageal voice; or they stutter, like CEO Joris Castermans. He knows all too well that his speech is less affected when he whispers.

For people with limited articulation due to ALS, MS, Parkinson’s or strokes, there are already solutions such as text-to-speech apps – but these have disadvantages such as high latency. For people who are still able to articulate themselves, this can be too much of a compromise.

Thanks to audio-to-audio AI, Whispp is able to provide you with a voice that can be produced in real time, is language independent and sounds real and natural. If users can provide a sample, it can even sound like their own voice.

Because there is no text in the middle, Whispp is also more secure than alternatives, Castermans told TechCrunch. This could open up use cases for non-silent patients who need to have confidential conversations, he said.

How much users without voice issues would be willing to pay for Whispp’s technology is unclear, but the company also has several ways to monetize with its core audience, such as the subscription it charges for its voice calling app.

Aca Pella

Whispp highlights the need for some to save their voice for later use. Known as Voice bankingAcapela would like to make this process easier with a service started last year.

Acapela Group, which was bought by Swedish technology accessibility company Tobii Dynavox for €9.8 million in 2022has been working in the text-to-speech sector since 2011 several decadesbut only recently has AI changed the picture for voice cloning.

The results are much better and the process is faster too. This will lower the barrier to voice banking, and while not everyone will do it yet, there may be a need for people to be aware that they are at risk of losing their voice after being diagnosed with certain medical conditions.

Acapela does not charge any fees for the initial phase of the service, which consists of recording 50 sets. Only if and when they need to install the voices on their devices will users need to purchase them, either directly through Acapela or through a third party (partner, reseller, a government health insurance program, or others).

In addition to the new potential unlocked by AI, the examples above show some ways that startups are exploring to expand beyond the core target group of users with disabilities.

Part of the consideration is that a larger addressable market can increase its projected revenue and spread costs. But it is also an opportunity for your customers and partners to stay true to it Definition of accessibility as “the quality of being able to be accessed or used by anyone, including people with a disability.”