Australia: How Today’s Tech is Impacting Persons with Disabilities
August 03, 2018
Some of the technology that has become available in the last few years, in the words of Blind Citizens Australia chief Emma Bennison “really does spell liberation”.
She recounts her experience with an app called Aira, which allows a remote assistant to view a live stream from a camera fitted on her glasses.
“This morning I was staying at a hotel and I walked into the lift and lo and behold there was no braille, not even any large print on the buttons…I called them up and said I’m in this lift, and I can’t figure out where the ground button is because there’s no tactile markings,” she says.
The Aira assistant guided her towards the correct button.
“And off I went…very exciting, totally game-changing,” Bennison says, “I have found myself reduced to tears by this technology, just because it is such a freeing experience.”
While tech designed specifically for people with disabilities – collectively termed ‘assistive technology’ – is improving their everyday lives, the ubiquity of other innovations often has the opposite effect.
It’s a growing problem. Close to 40 per [...]