Assistive and Mainstream Technologies

There are so many instances where, through minor modifications, you can make a mainstream product accessible. Nevertheless, there are also situations where your only option is assistive technology.

Here, we will take a look at situations wherein creating assistive technologies is appropriate, and situations where mainstream technologies are sufficient for persons with disabilities.

Assistive Technology

Assistive technology consists of devices and applications that bridges the gap created by disabilities. The main goal of assistive technology is to compensate for the disabilities of its users.

Using Assistive Technologies

Assistive technologies should be created and used when mainstream products are not sufficient and they cannot be made accessible. Below are a number of common assistive technologies used by people with disabilities.

Braille Displays, Navigation Tools, and Mobility Devices

A Braille display is a device used by blind people to read Braille documents in electronic format. This is such a highly specialized technology that no mainstream product can take its place.

Other examples are devices for navigation. These consist of things such as white canes and wheelchairs. These tools have very specific uses and the general public would not use them.

In addition, there are specialized tools used in acquiring and providing information. These include different types of switches utilized by people who cannot use any of their body parts.

Issues with Assistive Technologies

Given the above situations, one may still find a number of issues concerning assistive technologies.

Small Target Audience

First, the target audience for assistive technologies is very small. In average, 20% of the population lives with a disability. When a company makes something accessible, it adds this 20% to its target market.

However, if the product is highly specialized, the company would only be concentrating on a particular target market. Less people need the product, and it therefore becomes more expensive to make.

Wide Variety of Disabilities

A company cannot just create an assistive technology product for the market’s 20%. This is because people with different disabilities need different technologies. This increases the production cost. Here is a common example: You can buy a regular printer for around $49, but if you need a Braille embosser, you have to spend thousands of dollars for it.

Artificial Price Creation

Another issue concerning assistive technologies is artificial price creation. Particularly in the U.S., the government purchases many types of assistive technologies. Businesses also purchase these technologies for their disabled employees. As a result, assistive technology producers can make the prices really high, knowing that someone will buy their products. This makes it difficult for individuals to purchase these technologies.

Using Mainstream Technologies

In many cases, it is possible to add features to mainstream products to make them accessible for people with different disabilities. Companies can do this while still selling their products on the mainstream market.

Generally, it is easier to develop accessibility features and add them to a mainstream product. This is because production cost for this would be much lower. Below are a number of mainstream technologies that include a level of accessibility in them.

GPS Systems

GPS systems have a lot of features incorporated into them, mainly the functions for navigation. Nowadays, GPS systems are able to speak and they can give you directions just by talking. This is already halfway down for blind people. If GPS systems would contain a method for users to enter information and communicate with them, these devices would become accessible. This can be done via voice commands.

Mobile Phones

Mobile phones are another example. The iPhone, for instance, is a mobile phone sold in the mainstream market. What Apple did is it included a screen reader in the iPhone. This screen reader is available in the iPhone once you purchase it.

Obviously, we have to consider though that the iPhone is produced by a large company. And for a company to develop an additional feature such as a screen reader, it’s not as costly as it would be for a company specializing on screen readers on its own.

Web Pages and Web Applications

There is definitely a way to provide web pages and web applications specifically for persons with disabilities. But it would be a better idea to make mainstream web pages and web applications accessible. This enables persons with disabilities to use them through their chosen technologies.

Voice Recognition Systems

Through this mainstream technology, people can call different services on the phone. If a voice recognition system has features that enable persons with disabilities to fully use it, this mainstream product would become fully accessible.

For instance, persons who cannot use their hands should not have to deal with processes involving the keypad, and should be able to acquire services entirely through the voice recognition system.

Household Items

There are now mainstream household products which people with disabilities can use out of the box. Take the thermostat for instance. You can now purchase a thermostat which speaks everything it does. It speaks when you set the temperature, and it can also respond to voices. You can therefore voice-activate the system and tell it what you want it to do.

Entertainment Systems

These products are mostly accessible. However, entertainment systems nowadays have visual displays and complex controls. Entertainment system producers can nonetheless ensure that their products have a level of accessibility. They can make buttons easy to use and distinct from each other. Complex entertainment systems can have voice response features.

The iPod is an example of such an entertainment system. An iPod in itself is not accessible to many people with disabilities. But you can set a feature in iTunes where all the messages and track titles downloaded to the iPod would have speech. This simple screen reader created by Apple benefits many disabled users.

Combination of Assistive and Mainstream Technologies

Moving on, there are instances wherein you may need to have a combination of both assistive and mainstream technologies. For example, a Braille display in itself is useless. Similarly, a computer that cannot communicate to blind people is useless. But if you have a computer with a Braille display and a screen reader, then with some modifications provided by the assistive technology, you are able to use mainstream products.

Mobile phones are another example. Most mobile phones do not have screen readers similar to what the iPhone has. Some mobile phones have speech functions but are not satisfactory to fully take advantage of the device. One solution is to purchase a screen reader and install it on your phone. Through this, you have taken a mainstream device to be used with an assistive technology, and you do not have to create a specific phone for disabled users.

Conclusion

When you develop any kind of technology, consider if it requires a completely separate assistive technology, whether hardware or software. Alternatively, you can consider if it is possible to include different types of accessibility features into your product and make it accessible to people with disabilities.