Five assistive technologies you should be aware of

What is assistive technology?

Before delving into the specifics in the article, it’s useful to provide a definition.

Assistive technology is a term often used to describe products or services that assist people with disabilities in completing tasks and achieving goals that they would otherwise find difficult or impossible. Its main purpose is to improve inclusion and participation and enable people to continue their lives with independence.

Mouth or head wands

These wands can be held between the teeth or positioned in the middle of the forehead and held in place by a headband. They are used to activate keys on a keyboard and in some cases a track-ball mouse.

People who use these devices will have a physical disability, for example quadriplegia (full body paralysis), cerebral palsy or limb differences.

Designing web pages with good internal navigation (for example, skip links), clean and simple content and minimal links, will help people using mouth and head wands.

Screen magnifiers

This software works with the computer operating system to enlarge a selected portion of the screen. The magnified area works like a standard magnifying glass but with much improved capability. The magnified portion can be tracked around the screen to support fluid reading of on-screen content.

People with mild to medium visual impairments will use screen magnification, including those with tunnel vision or age-related macular degeneration.

If you design a website with clear indicators for different content areas, sufficient colour contrast (between background and foreground) and well-structured pages, this will help people using screen magnification.

Voice recognition software

This type of software allows people to control their computer through voice commands, without the need for a keyboard or mouse. Voice recognition is a mainstream technology, but one which has specific assistive use cases.

People using voice recognition software may have a physical impairment which prevents them from using a keyboard or mouse, including people with muscular dystrophy and Parkinson’s Disease. In addition, people experiencing temporary conditions – such as repetitive strain injury (RSI) might use the technology for a specified time.

Designing a website with unique, concise link text, which makes sense on its own, and a good structure of information will help people using voice recognition navigate pages more easily.

The web browser

All web browsers have in-built features which allow colours to be customised and font sizes to be changed. Many have additional features that allow custom stylesheets to be used or pages to be self-voiced. While not a conventional assistive technology, they are undoubtedly the one application that almost everyone will use to improve their browsing experience.

People will make use of these features if they have mild eye conditions such as short or long sight, if they have colour blindness or more persistent sight conditions such as early onset diabetic retinopathy. People with motor control difficulties may enlarge text size to provide a larger clickable area on text links and interactive controls, people with photo sensitive epilepsy may turn off images to prevent animated visual content from being displayed. Browsers often also offer live captioning services which may benefit people who are hard of hearing or d/Deaf. The list is extensive and ongoing.

Designing fluid pages so that the user can make their own choices about the way they view a web page is key to allowing people to make the most of their browser. Using CSS to control presentation, relative units of measurement (such as %) to control font size and page widths and ensuring that information conveyed with graphics is also available when images are switched off will help people make the most of their browser.

Artificial intelligence and natural language processing

Artificial intelligence (Ai) is likely to be a new category of assistive technology which helps people to simplify their digital lives. Conversational services like chat bots and natural language processing tools allow a user to enter prompts into the service and produce insights, automate tasks and generate new content in a variety of ways. While there are several legitimate concerns around Ai – including that technology can be biased, can produce misleading information and negatively impact the environment, it is likely to continue to become a more central part of our lives.

For people with communication impairment or a mental impairment – such as ADHD – natural language processing tools can help to organise information and communicate ideas more effectively and efficiently. A simple prompt can be used to generate new passages of text making the process of writing simpler. The opposite is also true, existing text can be entered into a tool which then produces a simplified summary of information for people with low literacy, for example.

For people with dyslexia or people who are not communicating in their first language, there are similar tools –such as browser-based plug-ins which monitor writing in real time and automatically suggest improvements to writing – including help with: grammar, syntax suggestions for improvements around clarity and simplicity. The potential uses for Ai are only beginning to be discovered.

How we can help you

Unlock a world of inclusivity and enhance your digital presence! Dive into our Accessibility Services for a seamless user experience that speaks to everyone.

Explore our case study to witness how we’ve played a pivotal role as Royal Mail’s long-term accessibility partner, driving progress towards WCAG 2.0 Level AA and shaping a robust digital accessibility framework.