Emerging Technology Issues for People with Disabilities
There are 54.4 million Americans who have disabilities, and 35 million Americans who have a severe disability. For those aged 15 and over, this includes 7.8 million who have difficulty seeing the words in ordinary newsprint; 7.8 million who have difficulty hearing a typical conversation; 2.5 million who have difficulty having their speech understood; 27.4 million who have lower body limitations; 19 million with upper body limitations; and 16.1 million with cognitive, mental and emotional functioning disabilities. People with vision disabilities still do not have access to all emergency information on video programming or audio access to text messages on the vast majority of cell phones. This book examines the emerging technology issues for people with disabilities, as well as the current challenges and new opportunities.