One of the UK’s leading experts on adapting IT systems for the disabled has warned that Britain’s eight million plus disabled sector is fast being left behind by the quickening pace of technology’s development. In particular mobile phones, i-pods, microwave cookers and websites – everyday appliances for the majority – are singled out as seriously failing the disabled user, especially the visually impaired.
Chris Mairs, a spokesperson for the British Computer Society’s disability specialist group and a highly successful entrepreneur in developing IT business systems for the disabled, alerted computer experts at a BCS nationwide lecture tour to commemorate computer pioneer Alan Turing, that continuing failure to adapt both current and future IT systems to a group representing over 15 per cent of the population, will critically impact on all of us.
Chris Mairs pointed out to his audiences in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester and London that the UK’s aging population means a significant proportion of us will eventually be classified as disabled, particularly with some degree of visual impairment. Added to which, this sector of society also represents an annual spend of £50 billion, a figure likely to grow annually by over ten per cent. Current failure to cater for this enormous market therefore also represents a major oversight by British business.
Whilst modern technology has bought great benefits to many visually disabled people, giving them control over their lives and access to things they might otherwise be denied, advances also threaten to alienate them by making some equipment too complex to be of use.
“Voice technology has really opened up the world to the visually impaired,” explains Chris Mairs. “We have talking newspapers, easy access to online music with speech synthesized catalogues, email reading and writing and a speech interface with GPS, but on the other hand, other inventions which are heavy on technology have disenfranchised the disabled. For example, microwave cookers, mobile phones, iPods and most web sites are all particularly difficult to use if you have a visual impairment.”
Chris Mairs, who has overcome his own disability with a severe inherited eye disease by pursuing his own business interests to create business software for the visually disabled community, as well as being an international water skiing champion and enthusiastic skier, is a constant advocate for greater consideration of accessibility issues by today’s big corporate names in IT.
David Clarke, BCS chief executive, says, “This issue is very important for our members who are often working at the forefront of technology. There is a real need to find a balance where technological advances embrace and improve life for all without reducing accessibility.”
The British Computer Society (BCS) is the industry body for IT professionals and a Chartered Engineering Institution for Information Technology.
The BCS is responsible for setting standards for the IT profession. It is also leading the change in public perception and appreciation of the economic and social importance of professionally managed IT projects and programmes. In this capacity, the Society advises, informs and persuades industry and government on successful IT implementation.