Technology is mostly used by people who either are familiar with it or have natural interest when it comes to new technologies. However, technology is not strictly for people who want to use it. There are users in the society who actually need it to lead a better life, in other words, a normal life. Every human being is not born with and does not grow up with the same kind of capabilities. As a result, different people have different needs in life. People who do not really need any assistance to lead a normal life might use technology for pleasure or convenience. It can also become a choice for them whether they want to use the technology or not. However, people with disabilities and accessibility issues do not have this novelty of choosing to use technology or not. In these situations, technology becomes the modality that they need to adapt in order to make their life more streamlined or normal.
Users’ perspective: In typical contexts, accessibility issues are generally caused by physical disabilities. For instance, you have to make a system accessible to those who are blind, so you can implement the system to work with voice input and output systems. For a person with a hearing and speaking problem, sound will never work, so you need to use gestures and haptic feedback to make it work. However, accessibility issues do not restrict to physical disabilities only. Lack of opportunity and lack of education can also result in an accessibility problem. As example, people who do not have knowledge of the English language, might find it difficult to operate machines or technologies like smartphones, ATMs etc. if their own language is not available for them. In this context, making the system user friendly for that group of people is an accessibility problem to solve.
A real life example: In recent times, many systems have been developed to make accessibility better for individuals with disabilities. There are numerous examples of products that provide accessibility. Robots designed for walking assistance for elderly and people with disabilities are one of them. On such example is LEA which is a walking assistance robot for elderly people. When walking, it gives you support and stability, it helps with the daily exercises and is even an energetic dance partner. In addition, it encourages contact with family and friends. This kind of assistive technologies are making our life more and more convenient.
Technology has taken itself to such a level that we have become quite dependent on it. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, making the proper use of the right technology is always going to be tricky.