Accessibility and Product Ecosystems

Abstract

Products, including assistive and accessible technologies, do not exist in isolation. They are all part of rich product ecosystems; they inhabit specific niches of economics, functionality, and technology, and they interact with other products. The concept of product ecosystem goes beyond technological interoperability. For accessibility to advance, we must understand more about the interactions among products. This article sketches an explanatory approach that may be useful in understanding how accessible technologies thrive, survive, or fail within their ecosystems.

Keywords:

• assistive technologies
• design for all
• economics
• ecosystem
• interoperability
• universal design

Notes

NOTES

¹An ecosystem is the dynamic and interrelating complex of plant and animal communities and their associated non-living environment.” (Biology Online, 2006).

²Although there are some current references to this term, there is no fundamental definition available, and little theoretical work appears to have been done to clarify its meaning. In some cases it is used to refer to a single company's line of related products rather than a set of relationships. Where it is used to refer to relationships, it almost always refers to comarketing of products or relationships between major manufacturers and smaller entities.

³“Accessibility” is defined as the “usability of a product, service, environment or facility by people with the widest range of capabilities” (International Standards Organization, ISO/TC 16027, 2001).

⁴“Universal design” (“UD”) or “design for all” is defined as “the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design” (Center for Universal Design, 1994).

⁵“Assistive technology” has been defined as “technology used by individuals with disabilities in order to perform functions that might otherwise be difficult or impossible” (National Center on Accessible Information Technology in Education, 2006), or, more formally in the Technology-Related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities Act, as “any item, piece of equipment or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities.” The term is used here to refer to products that interoperate with mainstream, “nonassistive” products to permit disabled users to perform the functions of the mainstream products.

⁶Less relevant for this discussion is the “product's-eye view” of the ecosystem, but it is important nevertheless. Cable-ready televisions “migrate” into markets when cable service is available; universal remote controls “prey” upon single-device controllers. The product view of the ecosystem principally influences the availability of products and features; users can only adopt available products, no matter what their needs and preferences are.

⁷Of course, from the disabled user's view, the AT product provides essential value! Without it, there is no accessibility.

⁸The indexing functionality later returned to the market, and many new recorders have it. But it was unavailable for more than 10 years.

⁹These are implemented in the United States for the benefit, it is said, of blind taxicab riders who do not want to share their PINs with the driver.