Assistive Technology

What is assistive technology?

Assistive technology (AT) is any item, piece of equipment, software program, or product system that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of persons with disabilities. It can be a piece of hardware or it can be software, it can be built in to the operating system of a device or can be a third-party product.

Types of Assistive Technology

The following outlines several types of AT and the populations which commonly utilize them.

User Population	Assistive Technology Commonly Used
Without vision	Screen readers, braille output
With limited vision	Screen readers, screen magnifiers, color and contrast modification
Without perception of color	Color and contrast modification
Without hearing	Captions (including live/CART)
With limited hearing	Captions (including live/CART)
With limited manipulation	Alternative pointing devices, adaptive keyboards, switch devices, voice control
With language, cognitive, and learning disabilities	Text to speech software, reading and study aids

Assistive Technology Built into Operating Systems

Windows

Accessibility Support for Windows: Information about the Windows Ease of Access Center options including Magnifier, Narrator, High Contrast, Speech Recognition, etc.

Mac

Mac Accessibility Support: Information about VoiceOver, Zoom, Color and Contrast settings, Sticky Keys, etc.

iOS/Android

Third-party Assistive Technology

Screen readers: JAWS, NVDA
Screen magnifiers: ZoomText
Reading and study aids: Read&Write, Microsoft Learning Tools

Resources

An exhaustive, categorized list of current assistive technologies is maintained on the Accessible Technology Software Trello board by Joshua Hori at UC Davis.