Most Apple product users sing the praises of the user-friendly interfaces and design, but many forget that the product is virtually unusable for a significant portion of the population. Users with disabilities have been the ignored customer base for iphones and ipads due to the small, very precise touch screen and the dark, detailed display... until now.
Over the last year companies including Apple and AT&T have been making changes to their products and plans to expand their market to users with many different disabilities including deafness, hearing and vision impairment, and decreased mobility. After seeing this article on CNN (http://us.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2010/09/08/pkg.tx.iphone.disability.help.kfda) about how stroke victims and others are able to use new Apple iPhone applications as a voice when they otherwise can't speak, I began researching and found that AT&T has launched a new plan for the iphone available to those who have documentation of disabilities. This plan has no voice minutes included (though they can be used for an additional 40 cents/minute) but has unlimited texting and data (web), allowing hearing impaired users to only pay for the parts of the phone that they use.
Additionally new apps are being created like this fascinating one (http://www.news-mobile.eu/en/articles/view/3139/app_helps_disabled_people_in_wheelchair/) that can dock the iPhone to a user's wheelchair and not only control the movements, but also it will monitor the wheelchair itself, letting the user know if maintenance is needed.
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