I attended NAIDEX exhibitions in Birmingham and the last two Gadget Shows and struck by two things:
A) the limitedness of the technologies on offer and their inflexibility at NAIDEX (same products on offer as previous year no changes and still £5,000).

Contrasted with the complete

B) lack of accessibility in the technologies on display or offered at Gadget Show it was like we didn’t exist.

The assisted technologies at NADIEX were clunky, slow and very limiting in how they could be used and had not changed in years.

I welcome Vodafone’s Accessibility Awards as we need innovative forward thinking products that are portable (I was shocked by the size and Inability of the eye tracking technology to be portable, yet you could by eye tracking headsets at Gadget Show for £69 – they were flying off the shelf.

Contrasting with using an iPad with a range of accessible apps it becomes more affordable. This is something that has been raised by a number of disabled people with severe and motor impairments that products such as the iPad have improved their accessibility (touch screen, voice over activation, zoom etc.)

 I’m not trying to be so simplistic but it is something that needs to be debated – I don’t claim to know all the issues or understand the reasoning but mearly question some of the economics.

I was struck also that it is also a fixed and captured market after all where else can you go and test out and know what equipment exists but at NAIDEX?

How do you raise consumer expectations when products seem to driven by what is on offer from the companies themselves.

We tend to not have same expectations with how medical equipment looks like or its limitations – we expect it because it is a uniform one size fits all. 

For that reason I love Enabled By Design website which shows disabled assisted products can be innovative, functional and also be funky looking.

I’d like to see innovation, these companies working with the next generation of developers and most of all including disabled people in what the need and want.

The disabled market is increasing as we get an ageing population. I will be one of them one day and I’m going to be like others of my generation I will be having higher demands and expectations.

Regards, Alison

It is nothing to do with fairness; it is harsh economic reality that cost of development/production is reflected in the number of units sold. Making assistive technology available at an affordable price inevitably requires subsidy somewhere along the line. Truths like this have to be accepted then solutions can be found. During my involvement with accessibility issues I have found that blanket policies/subsidies result in wasted resource and that closer targeting would be more effective overall.