Accessibility Of Future Technology – Considering The Specially Abled

The main problem which the specially abled people face is of functionality and mobility. There are only a few cities in India which are fully accessible for the specially abled people. On the other hand, some cities have facilities which are not functional. After the announcement of the smart city agenda by the Indian government, the specially abled people saw a new ray of hope, which might prove beneficial for them. But this is still a long work in progress.

Till then let us discuss the gifts which the technological advancements have given the specially abled people, which are making their lives easy. Some devices are specially designed by companies while some were made by normal people who wanted to help. There are many devices which are currently not used in India, which hopefully will come to use in the country soon.

Braille Watch

Dot is the first watch that is developed for the people who are visually impaired. This device not only functions as a watch but through it, the visually impaired people can check their social media updates and even read books. It has six dots on four cells. It has Bluetooth connectivity through which it can be connected to a smartphone and then it will start translating the text into Braille.

Talkitt

It is for the people who have communicative disorders. These people are not able to speak properly, and that is why what they say is easily understood by normal people.  This application translates the improper speech into understandable speech.

UNI

It is the tool used by the deaf people. The deaf people talk through hand gestures, but not everyone can understand it. So this tool converts the hand gestures to text messages through a camera, and it converts speech into text message as well.  It works both online and offline.

Finger Reader

This is a miraculous product in itself. It is a wearable product which the visually impaired person wears on his/her hand which allows him/her to read the text. There is a small camera in the ring which scans the text which the person points at, and it translates those pictures into audio format. It vibrates as well when a line ends, and the person has to start a new line, and also it vibrates if the person’s finger is far off from the text.

Be My Eyes

Through this app, a visually impaired person can connect to a volunteer through a video call. It helps the visually impaired person to see the world in front of him/her.

Liftware

It is for the people who suffer from motion disorders, for example, the people whose hands tremble while doing day to day work like writing, eating, etc. Liftware can be attached to a spoon which stabilizes the vibrations.

Electric Car

We have seen the physically disabled people driving two-wheelers with special two extra wheels, but after the invention of the electric car, they too will be able to drive around. In this electric car, the physically disabled person can sit along with his/her wheelchair and drive it. However, this car cannot travel long distances and can be used only for the day-to-day tasks.

Stair Climbing Wheelchair

The normal wheelchairs and the motorized one perfectly work on simple and plain roads, but they cannot handle rough terrains. This stair-climbing wheelchair will help the physically challenged people not only move in rough terrains but its special ability to self-balance itself helps the person to climb stairs as well. It can lift you a little bit as well.

Eyeborg

This is for the people who are colourblind and highly beneficial for the people who can only see black and white. This device identifies different colours through audio tones and can detect up to 360 hues at a time.

Braille EDGE 40 Display

Normally the talkback options in the laptops are slow and are not very useful because they sometimes don’t work accurately and they consume a lot of time. This device reads the text on the computer screen and translates it into Braille characters. It has some built-in apps which can read the texts of many applications.