The Apple Glass, these augmented reality glasses that Apple would prepare, will undoubtedly change the way we interact with our environment. If they see the light of day, of course.
They could have major repercussions in many areas, including accessibility, and thus change the daily lives of people with disabilities.
Apple has always made a point of making its products inclusive, whether socially or practically. The firm has already been praised in the past for its progress in accessibility. And with augmented reality glasses, it is expected to go even further in this regard.
Patent © Apple
Apple Glass, the ultimate accessibility tool?
Accessibility campaigner Colin Hughes recently described how Apple Glass could make life easier for him and many others in his situation, or at least finding themselves in more or less the same physical condition. The man, a quadriplegic, first explains that Apple products are a great help on a day-to-day basis.
The iPhone and the Apple Watch are in particular a powerful duo to help him gain autonomy, by allowing him to perform several tasks that would not be possible without these two tools.
For example, with the help of the voice assistant Siri in particular, he can control his Mac or his iOS apps without problem. “Apple has clearly listened to users with disabilities, and it’s nice to see,” he says.
He is therefore following with great interest what Apple is preparing for the future, particularly in terms of connected glasses. And precisely, according to Hughes, the Apple Glass could change everything for him.
At 57, he regrets not never having been able to take a photo or video himself. And we can understand it: immortalizing precious moments is priceless! According to him, if Apple glasses integrate camera and voice control, everything would be in place to allow him to photograph the world around him, and do much more!
Towards new, ever more inclusive features?
While waiting for the realization of the Apple glasses project, Colin Hughes hopes to see everything very quickly the Californian firm deploy other accessibility improvements on its current products. In particular, he suggests the following ideas:
- Being able to respond to messages more easily depending on the app used
- Be able to unlock your iPhone by voice authentication
- Be able to send a message with voice dictation from the keyboard
- Have the “Hey Siri” option always active on the Apple Watch
- Be able to activate the automatic voice response feature
We realize with this testimony that the Cupertino company still has a good margin of progress in terms of accessibility. We therefore hope that the engineers at Apple have taken the measure of the potential of the Apple Glass project. especially for people with disabilities. The product must arrive on the market to improve the lives of all, including, and above all, those of people with disabilities.
Relive a few moments from Colin Hughes’ day and find out how accessibility features help him in his daily life with the video below:
By: Keleops AG