Domain 5: Digital Accessibility
46 Accessible Hardware
There have been several innovations in computer hardware over the years to increase accessibility for people with disabilities. Following are some notable innovations:
- Alternative Input Devices: These include devices such as voice recognition software, alternative keyboards, mouth wands (that interact with keyboards), and joysticks, which allow people with disabilities to interact with computers in different ways.
- Accessible Mobile Devices: Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets have become more accessible in recent years, with features such as voice recognition, touch screens, and text-to-speech capabilities.
- Wearable Technology: Wearable technology, such as smartwatches and fitness trackers, can also be used to increase accessibility for people with disabilities. For example, some wearable devices can be used to control other devices, such as smartphones, using gestures or voice commands.
Some companies build in more accessibility features than others. Apple, for example, builds screen magnification and VoiceOver—a gesture-based screen reader – into all of their devices.[1]
- As a number of Conversation Participants noted, Microsoft makes a comparable feature for Windows operating systems, but it is an added cost to the user with vision loss - typically in the $900 range, which cancels out the benefit of more affordable Windows-based PCs. Apple’s Siri and Ipad technologies also have a range of accessibility features built in. ↵
