Software improvements are already bringing a ‘new era of empowerment’ for those with disabilities

Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Berin Szoka notes that recent technological innovations are radically improving access for people with disabilities. For example, he says, a speech-recognition application for the iPhone now allows users to dictate email, text messages and full documents. Apple and Microsoft have built powerful accessibility features into their latest operating systems, and Google has announced it will caption all the videos on YouTube.

Szoka argues that these and other improvements were spurred by competitive forces, and will improve profits for tech companies. He opposes using regulation to force manufacturers to expand access for people with disabilities. An excerpt:

“Equal access” to the latest gadgets may sound appealing, but policymakers should recognize that regulation will only stifle the innovations that could most help the disabled.

Szoka is director of the Center for Internet Freedom at the Progress & Freedom Foundation, which is supported by Google, Microsoft and a host of other technology and media companies.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 at 10:11 am and is filed under accessibility, commentary, technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.