The pleasure and the pain of the accessible smart home

“However convenient and futuristic, one area where the smart home has enormous potential (and pitfalls) is accessibility. For people with physical motor impairments, the ability to open doors and flip switches with only your voice has the potential to make the home more accessible than ever before.“

Another aspect I think we should keep in mind is that if we want these devices and resources to be inclusive of all and to help improve many people’s lives, we should think about how to they can made more financially accessible. Many of these devices are expensive, and I wonder what the future will bring when it comes to the affordability of smart devices.

Perhaps in the future, as we become a more connected world, maybe only one device is needed (i.e. maybe the router becomes that one device that can do everything)… or maybe none at all. I can also see a future “one device” will turn into a subscription model where you can attach services as needed, but I don’t think that’s too ideal either. Anyway, just some thoughts…