Assistive Technology: Enabling The Disabled

 By Abangma Greatness Gejie U17MM1110

It is without doubt that a large number of the world’s populace are disabled and the number is increasing by the day. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a disabled person is anyone who has “a problem in body function or structure, an activity limitation, has a difficulty in executing a task or action; with a participation restriction”. And these people are disabled in varying ways: from visual impairment, to hearing impairment, to intellectual and physical disability. As stated by the WHO 2022 report on disability, an estimated population of 1.3 billion people which is 16% of the global population are disabled today,with 25 to 30 million in Nigeria alone.

But with the advent of technology, hope has been restored to those with special needs in our society, through the invention and consistent innovations of ‘assistive technology’. Assistive technology has in no litte way changed lives, opening doors to education for children with impairments, as well as employment and social interaction for adults living with disabilities and an independent life of dignity for older persons.

Assistive technology refers to any light, mid-or high-tech device that gives people with disabilities greater independence. Some types of assistive technology include: 

• Wheelchairs
• Touch screens
• Light signaler alerts
• Text-to-speech synthesizers
• Magnification applications

Inspite of these innovations which have paved way in modern technology, scientists have not failed in creating other devices which will ease the lives of the physically challenged such as:

Smart Gloves

Smart Gloves help translaste sign language to digital text that can appear on a computer screen or smartphone. The hand movements are recognized by electrical variances that the gloves recognize.

Cochlear Implant

This hearing aid implant picks up more than just a sound aid; it picks up sound and transmits it to a computer, which translates the sound into a digital signal back to the hearing aid. 

DEKA Robotic Arm

Invented by Dean Karmon, the robotic arm was created for injured soldiers who lost an arm during conflict. It weighs less than 8 pounds,and is so precise, it can easily peel an orange. It also has a sensory feedback system in the form of vibrations; the stronger the vibrations, the stronger the grip. This helps the user determine the strength of grip and measure of pressure being used.

However, computers in the form of Artificial Intelligence (AI) also help people with disabilities in other ways through voice synthesizers, allowing people who are impaired in speech to communicate their thoughts and with the fast improvement of the internet, physically challenged individuals can link their household appliances to their smartphones and control them through speech recognition.

Here is a video from Anaheim, California showcasing assistive gadgets and products.