Amazon has added a new accessibility feature to the touchscreen smart speaker Echo Show to help customers who are deaf or have speech impediments interact with Alexa.
Available starting today, the new feature called “Tap to Alexa” lets users set up their own touch-based shortcuts for popular commands such as weather, timers and traffic as well as create custom requests. The capability extends to Alexa Routines, a feature that lets users combine multiple actions into a single command.
Amazon says the new feature will improve over time, and CNET reports that the company is working on expanding Tap to Alexa for its smaller touchscreen device, the Echo Spot.
In addition to Tap to Alexa, Amazon also said it is expanding Alexa Captioning, a feature that allows users to turn on captions for touchscreen Alexa devices like the Echo Show. The feature launched in the U.S. a few months ago, and now Amazon is bringing it to the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, India, France, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
