Captioning maker Ava received "special recognition" at this year's Microsoft Store Awards.
Late last month, Microsoft’s Alexandre Chohfi wrote a post for the Windows blog in which the Redmond-based tech titan honored a slew of winners in this year’s Microsoft Store App Awards. One particularly noteworthy honoree was the team at Ava, makers of the AI-based captioning software for Deaf and hard-of-hearing people.
Ava uses artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to provide the Deaf community real-time captions for videoconferencing and other scenarios. The company claims its tech has “99% accuracy.”
“We are thrilled to announce the winners of the 2023 Microsoft Store App Awards! This year, we’re excited to recognize apps and developers within two award groups: the Microsoft Store Community Choice Awards, with apps nominated by the community, and the Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards, recognized by Microsoft,” Chohfi said in the post’s introduction. “We were amazed by the overwhelming number of nominations for the Community Choice Awards. It is absolutely energizing for us to see our community flourishing, and that is reflected in your interest in the Microsoft Store.”
Ava, who has seen coverage in this space in the past, was specially recognized by Microsoft for its “unwavering dedication to empowering individuals who are Deaf or hard of hearing and ensuring their inclusion with its super user-friendly features and intuitive interface.” Microsoft added it was a “great pleasure” to bestow the award upon Ava.
For its part, Ava itself published a blog post of its own wherein they celebrate the recognition. The company wrote it’s “proud to stand in such good company” alongside former winners in Disney+, Spotify, and others. Looking towards the future, Ava said its commitment to its work in “revolutionizing communication” remains unwavering. As such, its development team looks forward to “enhancing the app’s features and expanding its reach, [including] refining the real-time captioning technology, exploring new platforms, and forging partnerships with organizations that share Ava’s vision of accessibility and inclusion.”
Ava is a Deaf owned-and-operated organization. Its co-founder and chief executive, Thibault Duchemin, is a CODA while chief technology officer Skinner Cheng is Deaf. For his part, Cheng recently sat down with the Deaf academic blog The Mind Hears for an interview in which he recounted first meeting Duchemin and Ava’s origin story.
