Boon or bane? Why it’s important to make technology work for all! 

Let me make a point here: Accessibility isn’t just for people with disability; it’s for all human beings. 

What’s access technology? 

Access technology is a boon for differently abled humans today. Such technology includes accessible software, hardware, content, and architecture. Screen readers, video phones, and voice enabled commands and sip & puff are examples of such technology.

How does accessible technology aid people with disability?

Accessible infrastructure includes buildings, roads, and vehicles. Such infrastructure benefits the visually, hearing, orthopedically, neurologically/learning and the multiple-challenged.Having accessible technology and infrastructure together help the differently abled to experience the best of both worlds! 

Does such accessible technology and infrastructure benefit the common human too?

The answer is a resounding “YES!” Let us examine how accessible technology and infrastructure help the common human in greater detail…….

Age, Accidents, and Illness:

We are having an aging population in the developed world, now. This is due to increase in life expectancy. Modern medicine has played a part in increasing life expectancy. The developing world is also likely to have an aging population going forward.

Most of the senior citizens have challenges faced by differently abled youth. The aged may have visual, hearing, orthopaedic, neurological/learning, and multiple challenges. So, the aged also benefit from access technology, like the differently abled youth.

Let us look into examples of the same below:

• An “Alt. text” description helps a young blind student and an old glaucoma patient understand image content better in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) subjects.

• A video phone helps a young deaf professional and an old hearing challenged person communicate with another person in a different continent.

• Wheelchairs and ramps help the young or old orthopedically challenged alike.

• Accessible technology and infrastructure can also help people recuperating from an accident or medical illness. The ill and accident recuperators may have a temporary disability and also benefit from accessibility. Accessible technology and infrastructure can help even a fatigued person. After a hard week of computer gazing, a fatigued person may want to listen to an audio book. This is instead of gazing at a computer screen again!

Multi-Sensory Input:

Accessible technology and infrastructure can help a healthy person at the prime of his/her life too. This is apart from helping the differently abled, accident recuperators, the ill and senior citizens. Accessibility features may help a common human have better sensory perception of the technology or infrastructure. This is by better user stimulation of multiple sense organs.

Some examples of the same are as follows:

• A sound to indicate spelling correction in a word processing programme helps a visually challenged person and able-bodied people.  

• A screen output, which shows percentage of task completed in a programme, helps a hearing challenged and able-bodied people.

• A voice activated virtual assistant helps an orthopedically challenged and the able-bodied person.Clearly, the common human also benefits from a better user sensory experience of multiple sense organs, due to accessibility.

Bottomline:

There is a quality adage, “Do the right thing, the right way, the first time”. This applies to accessible technology and infrastructure too! Universal design with accessibility considerations helps the common human have a better sensory experience. It helps the aged, the accident recuperators and the medically ill too. Increasing the number of users benefiting from accessible technology & infrastructure will also lead to driving the cost down for such technology & infrastructure for the differently abled!

There is also another adage, “Better late than never”. It is better to incorporate accessibility considerations into technology and infrastructure in the design stage itself. However, if such a proponent of the technology or infrastructure has missed the bus during the design stage, there is a possibility of retrofitting or remediating accessibility. Retrofits or remediation also can ensure accessibility for the common human and the differently abled!

Let us use accessibility to benefit every human and the differently abled!

(K. Sriram is an advisor to the company Continual Engine)