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Wearable Tech Is Failing People With Disabilities
From haptic accessible Apple Watches to brainwave-controlled wheelchairs, progress remains slow for 48 million disabled Americans
Fitbit just didn’t work for Keiran Kern, a marketer and wheelchair user from New Jersey. It wouldn’t record her actual steps — she thinks because she takes small steps — yet it did record “steps” when she was rolling along on her electric wheelchair. “This would be my calorie-burning dream,” she jokes, “but it’s not reality, and it’s not helpful.”
Fitbit — which was recently acquired by Google for $2.1 billion — told OneZero the company understands that “one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to health and fitness, so we provide a range of devices, motivating software, and services to help support users on their health and fitness journeys.” They pointed to the story of Sandile, a South African fitness advocate and wheelchair user who tracks his exercise with Fitbit. The company also has a forum to collect suggestions from users, although no mention is made of what happens to these.
Apple made a big fanfare about expanded accessibility features in the latest Apple Watch, claiming there was something new for everyone across all its operating systems. Spend some time with an Apple Watch and you’ll find features designed to help people with disabilities, including VoiceOver, a “gesture-based screen-reader” that explains what’s on-screen to visually-impaired users, and Taptic, which gently taps users for reminders or notifications. There are also modes for wheelchair users included in the Activity and Workout apps, a spokesperson pointed out.
But critics say these features are tokenistic and fail to serve the real and more complex needs of the estimated 48.9 million U.S. citizens with some form of disability. The wearable technology market is predicted to be worth $34 billion by 2020, yet assistive technology — which could genuinely change the lives of disabled clients — has been treated as a fringe market. Kern thinks that companies need research on different bodies; on how they move and expend energy. “Having cerebral palsy means my body burns energy at five times the rate of an able-bodied person, and my gait, posturing, and movement are different,” she…
