Assistive technology for the 15% of us
Designers are obsessed with the style and behavior of digital products. But what if users can’t even see their creations? According to the World Health Organization, 285 million people are estimated to be visually impaired globally (view link). And what if users have difficulties to use them? About 15% of the world’s population has some form of disability (view link).
At Aperto, we help clients to create accessible products for everyone. International standards like WCAG 2.0 and DIN EN ISO 9241 are a good starting point. But I asked myself: Which assistive technologies could a blind or disabled individual use? How much innovation is going on in this field?
Status Quo: a Braille display for “just” USD 2,595
The “classic” solution for a visually impaired individual is a braille display which is connected to a computer via USB or Bluetooth. How does the technology exactly work? It involves software. It’s voltage applied to crystals. It’s crystals connected to levers which in turn raises dots. This means 256 individual crystals, levers, and dots — a costly solution. (view link)
There is a lack of well-designed innovations for the visually impaired — which works into a fair amount of the aging population. The rudimentary display techniques as mentioned above, are largely unchanged. Until now! With topics like IoT and AI starting to grow, the game changes. Let’s have a look at five solutions which try to make a difference.
1. Design-driven Smartwatch
The Dot Watch — made by a startup in South Korea — allows iPhone and Android smartphone users to receive and view notifications on the watch in Braille. The watch only displays four Braille cells, but it offers an auto-scroll feature, where the next set of characters is automatically displayed. The speed can be adjusted. (read detailed review of the Dot Watch)
According to me, it’s a truly beautiful product! One might think that someone without sight doesn’t value aesthetics, but the opposite is true. The blind and partially-sighted individuals asked frequently about its looks and design. Have a look at the reactions in this touching video below.
The Dot Watch will be released somewhen around fall 2017 — after it passed all quality standard checks. The startup has reflected global beta test feedback into improving the hardware, software and the mobile app. The standard model will be priced at around USD 450, and the lower-end fabric strapping option would start at USD 300, depending on the region.
2. Tablet with microfluidics
Blitab is the World’s first tactile tablet for blind and visually impaired people which displays one whole page Braille text without mechanical elements. The technology based on microfluidics provides an affordable tablet with 100 x better solution and offers touch navigation, text-to-speech output and a Perkins-style keyboard application for Braille/non-Braille readers. It aims to integrate all existing and future software applications for blind readers.
While the first beta version was a bit chunky, the second beta version is more portable and lighter (as seen in the video). Blitab took into account all user feedback during international sessions with 4,000 beta testers. The startup based in Vienna, Austria is currently fundraising in order to start manufacturing. The retail price will be USD 499. Furthermore, they were approached by more than 40 leading universities such as MIT, Harvard and London Business School to cooperate for further technology development.
3. App with Artificial Intelligence
Aipoly Vision is a smartphone app that helps the blind, visually impaired, and color blind understand their surroundings. By pointing the phone camera at objects, the app with integrated Artificial Intelligence will speak out loud what it sees. The speed is impressive — it’s immediate! I tested it on my workplace and it could recognize laptop, mouse, coffee mug, sandwich and even my breakfast egg! Some items were mistaken. But Aipoly Vision will introduce a new teaching function that allows users to train the app. Once users capture the same item again, the AI has learned them.
After unlocking the trial version of the subscription of USD 4.99/month I could read out whole text documents on my screen. This functionality has a huge potential, but it was still very buggy in my perception. In general, Aipoly Vision has received a lot of great feedback, both in terms of what works and what can be added. The favorite features are the object recognition, the easier color recognition and the fact that it’s in real time. More information on the position and location of objects and better and faster text reading will be integrated into future releases.
While other technologies are still not available on the market, this app is ready to go! Compared to other options this is the lowest entry point to an assistive technology. The app scanned over 2 billion images over half a million enabled devices up to this day.
4. In motion control of your computer
EyeSight’s computer vision and deep learning solutions aim to improve areas such as smart home, automotive, consumer electronics and home robotics. The company is headquartered in Israel, with global offices in Cupertino, Beijing and Hong Kong. In case of smart home, it delivers touch-free gesture control, finger tracking, universal hand signs, intelligent sensing & data and face detection.
I suppose that it could empower physically disabled individuals to interact with digital products in a more convenient way. One thing is to find the mute button on the keyboard, another thing is to do the gesture which will be recognized digitally. It remains unclear, where, when and at which price this product is available on the consumer market. Unfortunately, the company didn’t provide any details on request.
5. Voice commanding your Mac
Apple invested a lot of work and money in speech recognition technology already back in the 90ies. In Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and earlier, Apple’s speech recognition was voice-command oriented only. In OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, Apple introduced “Dictation” intended for general text.
While testing speech commands on my Mac, I was impressed by the functionality. Please check out the two tutorials which tell you how to use spoken commands — I liked them. A large set of selection, navigation, editing, formatting, and system commands are enabled by default for immediate use. Advanced spoken commands let users quit apps, open documents, search with Spotlight or create custom commands.
Conclusion
New technologies offer a great potential to assist the 15% of us. And even the other 85% will benefit from the improved user experience. A lot of innovative solutions are still in development, but the future looks very promising. Startups pave the road to new solutions, while global companies may fiddle behind closed doors or even overlook the necessity. Legal requirements demand priority on this topic, especially for digital products in the public sector. In case you came across a nice assistive technology or work on one yourself, I would be happy if you share it in the comments!
