Use Assistive Technologies

Assistive technologies are tools and devices that people with disabilities use to interact with digital and physical environments. These include screen readers, magnifiers, switch devices, Braille displays, speech recognition software, and more. When accessibility is not built into a product or service, users must rely on these tools to access information or complete tasks -- often bending them beyond their original intent.

Role in the ENABLE Model

Using Assistive Technologies is a navigator-side compensation. It represents a burden placed on users when early-stage care (like accessible design or inclusive development) is missing. Assistive technologies should enhance autonomy -- not serve as a patch for inaccessible environments. Yet, they are often treated as the primary access strategy, placing undue responsibility on users.

Why it happens

Because many digital systems are designed with a narrow view of the "average user," accessibility barriers persist. When inclusive requirements are not set, when content isn't authored accessibly, and when no one tests for compatibility with assistive technologies, the burden falls downstream. Users are forced to bring their own tools just to participate -- tools that may not work well in hostile or neglectful environments.

Examples

In the news

Be My Eyes launches Be My AI, powered by OpenAI's GPT-4 (March 2023)
-- Be My Eyes

• Be My Eyes launched Be My AI, an AI-powered visual assistant that uses GPT-4 to describe images for blind and low-vision users. Unlike human volunteer calls, Be My AI provides instant responses -- describing refrigerator contents, reading documents, or navigating unfamiliar environments. While this assistive technology reduces reliance on human help, it remains a navigator-side compensation for environments not designed accessibly from the start.

Be My Eyes partners with Meta to launch on Ray-Ban Meta Glasses (October 2024)
-- Be My Eyes

• Be My Eyes brought visual assistance to wearables, allowing blind users to access Be My AI hands-free through Ray-Ban Meta Glasses. The same month, Hilton partnered with Be My Eyes to provide live video assistance for blind guests navigating hotel rooms. These developments extend the reach of assistive technologies -- but also underscore how much builder-side design work remains undone when users need external tools to navigate hotel thermostats and amenities.

StutterGPT: Evaluating AI Speech Models with Stuttering (2024)
-- Jack McDermott, Medium

• Testing found that leading speech recognition models now achieve over 94% accuracy on stuttered speech, with ElevenLabs Scribe v1 reaching 98.7% -- even when stuttering occurred in nearly one in four words. This marks significant progress for assistive technology users who stutter, though the burden of testing speech AI with diverse voices should fall on builders, not individual users forced to evaluate which tools work for them.

• A blind user navigating websites using NVDA or VoiceOver.
• A person with low vision using ZoomText to magnify small text on poorly designed interfaces.
• A person with limited mobility using switch control devices to navigate interfaces never tested for keyboard input.
• A student with a learning disability using TextHelp Read&Write to process dense academic PDFs that lack structure.

Compensation sounds like

"I use a screen reader, but this site has unlabeled buttons everywhere."
"I rely on ZoomText, but it crashes on their online form."
"I had to install JAWS just to apply for this job."

Burden sounds like

"I never know which website will be usable today."
"My assistive tech worked, but I still couldn't check out without sighted help."
"Why should I need $1000 software to do what others can do for free?"

Real-world Scenario

Maria, a graduate student with low vision, uses the screen reader JAWS to navigate her university's learning portal. The site was built without proper semantic HTML, so many buttons are unlabeled, and form fields aren't announced correctly. Still, she spends hours figuring out ways to get the information she needs using keyboard shortcuts, screen reader workarounds, and occasionally reaching out to tech support. She shouldn't have to do any of this -- but her assistive technology is the only reason she can access her coursework at all.