I have a general question for all the techies on this site, and it’s in regard to creating technology for blind and visually impaired (and/or other people) to increase the number of tasks they can perform in the home or the workplace. My question is: How hard would it be to create a system like, for instance, a “smart” water softener that could be synced with a Smart Phone or IPhone so someone who is blind or visually impaired can operate the digital controls themselves? In the workplace, does anybody know of inovations currently being carried out to make, for example, process controls more adaptable for people with various conditions?
These days you can put a REST api in just about anything and sync it with a badly coded smartphone app. The trouble with that is getting the smartphone app to be accessible. Smartphone accessibility tech is behind that of pc’s and also varies alot depending on phone manufacturer.
You don’t even need an app in most cases.
Just a properly coded web interface, and at least on Android it’s actually easier to make it accessible than a native app because the SDK required for proper accessibility in a native app is a pain in the rump to work with most of the time.