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Chapter 10 • Assistive Technology Integration and Accessibility 297

out by Vanderheiden et al. (2013) as part of the Raising The Floor and then Global Public
Inclusive Infrastructure (2017) projects.

Looking Ahead

Looking ahead, a number of technological developments have potential to both challenge
and develop the existing models of accessibility and integration (Atkin, 2017; Domingo,
2012). The most significant of these is likely the Internet of Things (IoT). In summary, this
allows all objects in a built environment to be addressable so that all objects can provide
information about their state or allow remote control of their functions. This initiative
is arguably an evolution of the home automation and environmental control fields that
have existed since the 1960s. If done correctly though, IoT offers significant potential
to improve accessibility of the environment to people with disabilities. If accessibility
is built into the IoT then devices and objects that previously would have required the
assistance of a person to control them will become controllable by an individual with a
disability.
A simple example is a lift where an IoT lift will allow a user to see where it is and also to
‘hail’ it using their smartphone. There are parallels in the service economy where the basic
functions of services have moved to be controllable over Internet Protocol (IP), such as
getting an Uber instead of physically hailing a taxi.
As the IoT continues to be developed, how accessibility is approached in this new com-
puting architecture is not entirely clear, nor is the likely impact it will have on the lives of
those individuals with disabilities.

Reasons for Integration

The advantages of integrated controls are that an individual with limited motor control
can access several devices with one access site and without assistance, and the user does
not need to learn a different operating mechanism for each device (Ding et al., 2003). There
are more specific advantages and disadvantages to each different model of integration and
these should be considered before putting an integrated system in place. These trade-offs
are described in the following section.
Integrated access may be useful for the following reasons (Guerette and Sumi, 1994):

• The user has one single reliable control site.
• The optimal control interface for each assistive device is the same.
• Speed, accuracy, ease of use or endurance increases with the use of a single interface.
• The user or the family prefers integrated controls for aesthetic, performance or other
subjective reasons.

As technology continues to become more pervasive in society, the peers of individuals may
also be increasingly interacting and controlling their environment through smartphones.
Thus another reason for integration may simply be that individuals desire greater indepen-
dence and control. Chris’s case study provides examples of potential reasons for integration.