For the Disabled, More Power for Play

GPS devices and airport videophones are just some of the latest gadgets that can help people with disabilities enjoy travel and leisure

By Suzanne Robitaille

Assistive technologies are prevalent in the workplace, but when people with disabilities gear up to have some fun their options are more limited. This may seem like an oversight, but it's not: Disability protections have mostly focused on boosting jobs for this group, and employer demands for computers, mouse alternatives, and similar assistive technologies have soared over the last decade.

With the New Year, the landscape will be altered—for the better—for the nation's 56 million disabled Americans. President Bush in September signed the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act, which will go into effect Jan. 1, 2009. The act will expand on the original 1990 law to include more disabilities that affect "one or more major life activity," such as learning disorders, among many others. It will also clarify that a major life activity doesn't just include work. The act expands this definition to include communicating, reading, and other activities of central importance—such as plain old fun. The new requirements for businesses have not yet been spelled out.

Big Market

The ADA Amendments Act marks an important milestone for Americans with disabilities, and also offers new opportunities for companies to design and market more accessible products and services. Even without the law, doing so makes good business sense. One in five Americans has a disability, representing a $200 billion market of consumers eager to spend on technologies that will improve their lives.

A handful of technology providers have taken the lead in putting more pleasure into pastimes for people with disabilities. Some companies, such as Microsoft (MSFT), already have a foothold in workplace assistive technologies, and they're now expanding into new scenarios. Others came to the assistive technology market by accident—having realized their products were life-changers for the disabled at play. Either way, they've all had a hand in opening the market for technologies that are making life more playful and productive for people with disabilities.

The travel industry is at the forefront of providing accessible technologies, partly because airports and airlines are public spaces and must comply with many existing ADA rules. Chicago's O'Hare and Midway airports are exceptionally innovative. In September 2007, O'Hare began offering public videophones that let deaf and hard-of-hearing travelers place calls in sign language with the help of a 24-hour, free video relay service. At the push of a button, a human sign-language interpreter comes up on the screen to help the customer place the call and communicate their message. These multilingual, touchscreen videophones also provide tourist and transportation information and read airport announcements. Midway began offering the videophones in early 2008, and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport now provides a similar service. "If the travel industry doesn't adapt, its customers will be literally stuck at home," says Eric Lipp, founder of Open Doors, an organization that promotes accessible travel. The cost of each videophone to the airport: $8,500, but they're free to use by anyone in the airport.

As many road-trippers know, traveling in unfamiliar territory can be an exercise in frustration, one that's made easier with global positioning systems. Unfortunately, most GPS programs are designed for car travel, not pedestrian travel, which renders it useless to people who are blind. One solution: Mobile GEO from Barcelona-based Code Factory, which makes the only GPS navigation software for Microsoft Windows' Mobile-based smartphones, pocket PC phones, and PDAs. With Mobile GEO the listener, using a Bluetooth headset, hears a voice give detailed instructions on how to get from here to there, like so: "Walk 200 yards south, cross the street, and Starbucks (SBUX) will be on the northwest corner of 18th Street and Broadway." Landmarks are preprogrammed, but users can insert their own notes to help them avoid scaffolding or blockades. Mobile GEO, which was released in July in the U.S., runs on devices from AT&T Wireless (T), Sprint (S), Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Motorola (MOT), Samsung, and other manufacturers. It costs around $900 for the mobile phone, software, and headset.