How Tech for the Disabled Is Going Mainstream

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That permits hands-free use of the smartphone and makes the device functional for people with visual and other physical handicaps, as well as for motorists. "Some customers need assistive technologies, and other people want convenience," says Joswiak. "We try to solve problems for the disabled community, then we drive the solutions into the mainstream, to let everyone take advantage of them."

The rising demand for devices that can speak and be spoken to has been a boon for Nuance Communications. The Burlington (Mass.) company supplies voice control software for a growing number of products, from its Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition software for PCs to hands-free voice dialing for phones from Nokia (NOK), Samsung, LG Electronics, and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIMM). Through a joint Ford-Microsoft (MSFT) venture called Sync, Nuance also provides voice command capabilities in top-selling GPS navigation devices, such as Garmin and TomTom, as well as in Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury vehicles.

"While the disabled aren't a significant percentage of our users today, they are our biggest power users," says Peter Mahoney, general manager of Nuance's Dragon unit. "They help us push the envelope" when it comes to improving products for mass-market customers.

Other companies are borrowing technology that aids the deaf. At Google (GOOG), a deaf software engineer, Ken Harrenstein, spearheaded the creation of a captioning tool for videos posted on Google's YouTube site. His original intention was to help deaf users. But the company soon figured out the software could also help translate languages. That idea led in late 2008 to an auto-translation tool that allows people to add captions in 50 languages instantly to YouTube videos they upload, increasing the number of people who can watch and understand the clips.

Mind Control

Mattel is taking mainstreaming into the toy market. In October it plans to release Mindflex, an $80�game that borrows from technology used by severely disabled people to control electronic devices by channeling brainwaves via sensors. Mattel has licensed the toy's brainwave-harvesting technology from a San Jose company called NeuroSky. To play, users put on a headband with sensors. By focusing their thoughts on motion, they can cause a motor to propel small plastic balls through a tabletop obstacle course. When they relax, the objects stop moving.

Mattel is betting that the technology will become the basis for a line of mind-controlled physical games like Mindflex, opening up a new category for the toy industry, says Geoff Walker, a senior marketing vice-president at the El Segundo (Calif.) company.

As pioneers boost sales by incorporating technology once confined to products for the handicapped, other companies are sure to follow. They could come out ahead, says Tim Bajarin, president of technology consultancy Creative Strategies in Campbell, Calif. "It's smart, because there is an aging population that will need easier-to-use tech. It's even smarter to follow Apple's lead—and then call these features out and get people's attention. Then it becomes a competitive advantage."

Jana is the Innovation Dept. editor for BusinessWeek.

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