Reflections on Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2022: The State of Accessibility
With Global Accessibility Awareness Day passing in May, we wanted to use this month’s blog to look at what improving accessibility means in real terms… What are the challenges facing innovators? And how is technology developing to assist visually impaired people?
The purpose of Global Accessibility Awareness Day is to ‘disrupt the culture of technology and digital product development to include accessibility as a core requirement’, and ‘to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital access and inclusion.’ So, it’s only fitting that we continue the conversation using our online space…
We can all see how important digital accessibility is to independence. Today, so much of our lives are lived online. The digital space should be a liberating one for visually impaired people to explore. Internet access is considered by some to be so essential for a meaningful life that many believe it should be a human right.
Whilst accessibility has come a long way, there’s still a lot of work to do. Visually impaired people, and people with other disabilities, cannot continue to be an afterthought. As technology develops so quickly, by the time accessibility measures are applied to innovations, often there are new branches of digital culture opening up and replacing the old. Accessibility needs to be built in from the word go.
The lag in accessibility is partly because visually impaired people are not considered the primary target demographic of technology companies. But to really improve accessibility, people with visual impairments need to be incorporated into every stage of the design process. Companies are becoming increasingly conscious of this need and there have been some interesting recent innovations.
Smartphone Apps
Smartphone apps are empowering visually impaired people to live independent lives. There are too many to mention them all but some great examples include the iPhone app TalkingTag LV. When using TalkingTag LV users place scannable, coded stickers around their environment - when scanned, the stickers play a custom audio message recorded by the user enabling them to navigate their environment. Other apps like Aira and Be My Eyes connect visually impaired people with sighted people who offer visual assistance with everyday tasks.
Smart Technology
Smart canes are a big step forward and we expect to see them becoming more and more prevalent in the near future. WeWALK has developed a smart cane which overcomes many of the difficulties associated with standard canes. The smart cane pairs with a mobile app and makes navigating the world simpler through object detection above chest level, audible alerts, voice commands and public transport information. Further innovations for navigating the world can be expected very soon… Intel’s developer Jagadish Mahendran is developing an AI-powered backpack which can help visually impaired people perceive the world. The voice-activated backpack reportedly gives users more detailed information than smart canes, particularly about hanging obstacles, moving obstacles, and changing elevations. Smart glasses and smart cameras, such as the OrCam range available from Optelec, have also seen leaps forward in the last few years.
Technology designed specifically for visually impaired people (like the examples above) has long been a shining light in making the word more accessible. Optelec’s range of electronic magnifiers is testament to that - offering an ever-growing range of capabilities. We welcome signs that mainstream technology is catching up, and hope that rather than developing separately, the digital world can be one inclusive space for all.
There is a long way still to go, however. Some of the most basic accessibility measures are still not widely observed. Unfortunately, it’s still the case that many websites do not accommodate visually impaired people with their colour design, text size and alt text for images.