Understanding the Potential of Home-Based Digital Voice Assistants for People with Disabilities

As the numbers of people with disabilities actively using technology to support their day-to-day activities increases the benefits afforded by these technologies are ever more evident. Much of the technology used by people with disabilities is often characterised as Assistive Technology (AT) which is designed and developed to address the specific needs of people with disabilities. In contrast to AT which is focused on serving the needs of people with disabilities, consumer digital technology refers to those technologies that are developed for use by the general public. The aim of this study was to explore the assistive potential of a range of exemplar consumer digital technology, namely, digital voice assistants and internet of things. A qualitative study was conducted in the context of a field-trial of a range of digital consumer technologies which included a Digital Voice Assistant alongside voice-operated Internet of Things technologies.