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March 04, 2015

IBM Helps Mobile App Developers Lend Hand to People With Disabilities

Mobile devices—and the ever-lengthening spectrum of unique applications—have altered the way we live. Apps help users track calorie intake, readjust their sleep cycles, comprehensively review symptoms, and even monitor blood pressure and take self-administered eye exams. The idea propagated by application developers is to reach out to as many people as possible in order to help them keep a better handle on their health. What better way to do so than with applications that go wherever a mobile device goes?

Thanks to IBM, iOS and Android™ users will be expanding upon and improving user accessibility for the one billion potential smartphone users with disabilities. We have already seen the power of M2M in the realm of professional health care, for example through remote access to monitoring systems that help keep people alive. But IBM’s new Mobile Accessibility Checker will make it possible for people with disabilities such as lack of finger mobility—from arthritis, permanent damage, etc.—poor eye sight, and other afflictions that make it too difficult to wrestle with unfriendly applications, to breeze through app usage.

There are endless avenues that the Mobile Accessibility Checker can explore in its effort to maximize user-friendliness of mobile applications before they launch, to name a few, creating options for enlarged touch keys, buttons, and fonts for the visually impaired, or creating enhanced visual cues for the hearing impaired that won’t compromise the quality of the user experience. The new tool also improves the overall quality of each application by nipping other user-interface issues in the bud.

“This makes mobile apps easier to use for people with disabilities, helps developers save on costs and satisfy compliance requirements, and drives greater inclusivity in our communities through mobile technology," Frances West, IBM Chief Accessibility Officer, said.   

Applications across all themes—not just health-directed apps—can benefit from IBM’s Mobile Accessibility Checker. More than 60 percent of the world population used a mobile device at least once a day for any number of reasons that may extend beyond trying to live healthier. Some people want to shop for shoes, establish a healthier feeding schedule for their pets, tune their musical instruments, meditate, or simply catch up on the news. Whatever the demand, everybody, including those with disabilities should have the same opportunities.

Surely, this is what developers have wanted all along. Thanks to the Mobile Accessibility Checker, they now have the means to make a vision a reality—perhaps even for those who can’t see.   


Dominick Sorrentino is an editor for TMC and its technology and communications properties.

Edited by Maurice Nagle


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