Accessibility solutions: Lack of information to consumers remains barrier

The 3rd M-Enabling Summit, which took place 9-10 June 2014 in Washington, gathered over 500 stakeholders in mobile accessibility and was the forum for many interesting discussions. Participants that had also been at the 1st and 2nd Summits, noted that the centre of discussions has shifted from explaining what accessibility is and why we need it, to concrete exchanges on how to achieve it. Indeed, this 3rd Summit seemed marked by the acceptance amongst regulators, industry and consumers that accessibility is happening.

Nonetheless, a constant theme throughout was that people still do not receive the necessary information on existing accessible and assistive solutions. According to Mike Shebanek, Yahoo, “one of the most challenging aspects is that users are still not aware of the existing accessibility features”. And Kevin Carey, RNIB, pointed out that the most important development in the next few years will be to improve consumer support in selecting the right product for a person’s individual situation.

Closing the gab for the ageing population 

One major focus was on how to close the gap for senior citizens, how to get them to open up to the possibilities provided by new technologies. The focus in this endeavour should not be on the technology as such but on what the seniors want to do and helping them to do just that. The technology has to adopt to the person and their environment, not the other way around. One good motivation for older people to use mobile technologies for example is communication with their family and friends. However, it does not suffice to just provide the technology, it is very important to also provide eduction and guidance on how to use and personalise the available solutions, especially as we are often not looking at single device solutions anymore (i.e just a mobile phone or a tablet by itself) but about connected devices that fit into a bigger technological ecosystem within the home.

Another important observation was that if companies do not catch up with accessibility they could lose market share with the ageing population. To give an impression of the market potential of this ageing population: in the US alone, over 9,000 people turn 65 everyday (1). Also, “once older users feel comfortable with the technology they take off with it”, says Matthew Gerst, CTIA. Today, 40% of households in the US have cut the cord and are relying on wireless only. Interestingly, the adoption rate of tablets amongst the 65+ range has been much higher than that of smartphones, although in general the 50-and-older population is the fastest growing market segment in mobile technology, according to Microsoft.

However there remain challenges. Aaron Smith, Pew Research Center, summarised the barriers to adoption of mobile technologies for senior citizens as follows:

• physical - difficult reading, chronic health issues etc.
• tech literacy - 77% of seniors would need help learning to use new devices 
• attitudinal - perceived relevance of having such a device is often a major barrier to use

Senior citizens are also in general more worried about safety and (data) security and they are afraid of breaking the device when using it wrongly. So again, emphasis must be on education and teaching them how to use these technologies.


(1) http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/654741.txt