Connection and Communication 

Assistive technology can help people living with disability communicate and connect with others. There are different types of assistive technology available to enhance connection and communication for people living with disability. 

Computers 

People living with disability can use assistive technology to use digital devices such as computers. There are assistive technologies to support people living with vision impairment to use computer devices. These include keyboards with large, bold letters. Other assistive technology available for computers is screen magnifying devices software, an example of this is ZoomText. 

There are mainstream technologies that support people living with vision impairment use computers. An example of this is Microsoft’s Ease of Access Centre. Screen readers are another assistive technology that supports people living with vision impairment access technology. Examples of these are JAWS software and Apple’s Voiceover. 

Mobile Devices 

Did you know that mobile devices are great forms of assistive technology? Many mobile devices contain features that increase the independence of people living with disability! It is important to note that accessibility features change depending on what device you have for example an apple iphone has different features to an Android phone. 

These include: 

• Text to speech. This feature allows the user to select speech to be read out loud
• Speech to text: This feature allows the user to speak text they want written down 
• Magnification: zoom in on mobile phone

To find out more about accessibility features on IOs devices follow this website: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/iphone/iph3e2e4367/ios

Android accessibility features: https://support.google.com/accessibility/android/answer/6006564?hl=en&ref_topic=6007234

Apps on the mobile phone

In addition to the inbuilt accessibility features on the iphone. There are many different apps available that support people to increase their independence. These include seeing AI, Be my Eyes and Evernote. There are many different services available to support you to use Apps on your phone for accessibility.