Cool Tech for People With Disabilities
The tech for people with disabilities is gaining some traction. Forbes has recently reported that “Until now, disability tech has been an overlooked multi-trillion dollar global market, bigger than China…As people age and the non-communicable diseases rise, the global disability community is expected to increase from 1.5 to 3.5 billion people, that’s 130% by 2050.”
Wow.
To get you all excited about this growing space, let’s talk about some of the emerging technologies we’re already seeing.
Userway: Ethical Digital is a digital marketing agency that’s trying to make the internet a better place, and myself and my team were so pleased to partner with Userway. This is a tech that’s making websites accessible to many different people with many different disabilities. Once you add the Userway widget to your website with some code, anyone who looks at your website will see a little gold circle. When you click on the circle, you can select the disability that you are working with—whether that’s ADHD, colour blindness, epilepsy, and many others—the code then automatically changes your website so it’s easily viewable for people living with that particular issue. It’s an easy way to make your website accessible so you’re both doing the right thing and reaching a growing market of people.
Esight EyeWear: This tech dropped in 2017, with the latest version (eSight Go glasses) being released in fall 2023. Their tech claims to enhance the vision of people with central vision loss and legal blindness to 20/20 vision. They are using high-definition cameras to augment what people are already looking at. Then, the images are presented in monitors (one for each eye) in the glasses. The batteries will work for three hours and the glasses/headset can be used indoors and outdoors. It will be interesting to see how this tech can change people’s lives!
My-Own-Voice: This tech addresses a disability that perhaps gets overlooked—people losing their voices, and as a result a strong part of their identity. This technology asks people to record their voice for 10 minutes, creating a voice recording they can use in the future for social media and assistive technologies. You need to apply for this service so they can avoid people using the tech for “deep fake” purposes, but it looks like an important service for people dealing with this issue!
HAPTA from L’Oreal: I love that there’s a big corporation stepping up to address the issues that a lot of people face. They estimate that 50 million people live with fine-motor skill issues. They’ve found a way to use technology to help people put on lipstick even if they are shaking from Parkinson’s or have other motor skill issues that keep them from putting on lipstick. Basically, they are using 360 cameras and an electronic arm to line people up properly and apply their lipstick. This is the first step—they are also working towards helping people work on all of their makeup. I can see this really helping people who need an extra hand with their image. Way to go L’Oreal!
As you can see, all kinds of groups are developing some truly incredible technologies to address some of the challenges people with disabilities face in everyday life. I look forward to seeing this space grow and flourish!