Assistive technologies are tools that help you accomplish tasks.
Most people will use assistive technology at some point in their lives. Many people use them, even if they don’t consider themselves to have a disability. Assistive technology you may encounter every day includes:
- Glasses and contact lenses
- Canes and crutches
- Voice assistants and smart speakers
People with disabilities may use more specialized tools to help them access our digital information and services, and those tools must be considered when you create digital information and services.
Common Assistive Technologies
Screen readers: Programs that navigate the web browser’s rendering of the code of a web page or application and read aloud the content to allow a user to fully interact with the content.
Screen magnifiers: Tools that allow users to enlarge the content of a screen or application.
Speech recognition software: Programs that allow users to interact with and control the computer using their voice instead of, or in addition to, a mouse or keyboard.
Text-to-speech software: Programs that read text on the screen, commonly highlighting text as it is spoken.
Input devices: Tools, such as keyboards or mouth sticks, that allow a user to interact with digital content if they do not use a mouse.
For more information on assistive technology, visit ATiA “What is AT?”.