These Tech Innovations Are Empowering People With Disabilities
Over the past years, technology has proven to be highly useful for people with disabilities as it helps to empower them, and it enables them to be independent. From tech that helps visually impaired people to read text, to devices that aid those with mobility impairments to get around, it’s easy to see that technology has advanced by leaps and bounds to help disabled people to have a better quality of life. It is estimated that the global disabled assistive tech market will reach $31 billion by 2027, and one can only imagine what new developments will be available to make billions of lives so much better. By taking a look at the latest tech innovations that are currently helping people with disabilities, we can expect great things in assistive tech within the next few years.
Apps for Non Verbal children and Adults
Various conditions can lead to being nonverbal or having speech disorders, such as cerebral palsy, autism, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. This is why the availability of a wide range of nonverbal communication apps has been a welcome development since they allow nonverbal children and adults to express themselves to their loved ones. Apps like Gabby Tab, which is an augmentative communication app, encourage nonverbal kids to communicate in school and at home. Meanwhile, the Tap To Talk app allows nonverbal people to communicate by tapping a word on their device, then the word plays on their gadget’s speakers. For children who are on the spectrum, there’s the AutismXpress app which can help them recognize and understand facial expressions and emotions.
Stabilizing utensils for people with motion disorders
Having movement disorders such as Parkinson’s Disease, Lewy body dementia, and essential tremors can cause hand tremors and make eating difficult. However, some devices can help to counteract tremors, such as the Steady spoon, which has sensors and a microchip that enables the device to move in the opposite direction of a hand tremor. There’s also the Liftware Level spoon, which has features that counteract shaking and keep the spoon level as it’s being raised to the mouth. Meanwhile, the Gyenno Steady spoon is a smart utensil that has the same features as the Steady spoon, but it also can adapt to the user’s tremor, and it can be converted into a fork.
A Seeing Artificial Intelligence app
The creation of AI apps has enabled visually impaired people to know more about their surroundings and the people around them. Microsoft’s Seeing AI and the Envision AI app use a smartphone’s camera to scan one’s surroundings and then use audio to describe everything that the camera sees. These apps can also recognize people that a visually impaired person regularly interacts with, and the apps can describe their appearance, as well as their emotions. Moreover, these seeing apps can be highly useful while shopping or running errands as they can scan bar codes and describe products, read documents, and describe images on a TV or computer screen.
The latest innovations in assistive tech are helping people with disabilities to have some independence and a better quality of life. Fortunately, while most of these display hefty price tags, government insurance usually covers these reasonable expenses. You’ll understand more about these programs when you check the resources available, like the NDIS provider portal. Empowering people with disabilities is the key to encouraging billions of people around the world to discover what’s out there, and help them realize their full potential.
