App Chat: Assistive Technology

The design of your buttonless, smooth smartphone is sleek, but is it user-friendly for all? For people living with disabilities, smartphones present both unique challenges and benefits. Certain features of iPhone’s iOS, like VoiceOver and Siri, for example, make it easier for users who are blind, have low vision, or have limited mobility, to use the device. But there are also a number of developers not only seeking to design apps that are accessible to a range of users, but to address specific concerns such as hearing loss and deafness. In fact, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act, AT&T and the Ability Lab at New York University partnered for the Connect Ability Challenge, a competition that called on software developers to create apps and devices to “improve the lives of people living with disabilities.” Xian Horn, who was a judge in the competition; Steven Aquino, a tech writer and iOS accessibility expert; and Anita Perr, an occupational therapist, discuss current and upcoming types of assistive technologies.

Here are several apps, a few of which are easy to use for people living with disabilities, and the majority of which are designed specifically for people living with disabilities:

ReSound
Overcast
Unread
Marlee Signs
Keedogo keyboard
Proloquo2go
TapTapSee
EyeNote