USA’s FCC Wheeler supports accessible tech for persons with disabilities

According to the article FCC’s Wheeler Touts Accessible Tech For Disabled in Law360, the USA’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler states that ‘technology has the power to bridge the accessibility gap for individuals with cognitive disabilities, but that innovations must also consider accessibility from the start to avoid erecting barriers’.  The FCC’s Disability Rights Office addresses disability-related matters, and supports industry participation, development of best practices, and recognition of the needs of this population, to overcome economic barriers and ‘a lack of targeted outreach’. Wheeler also wrote: ‘That means today’s innovations — like artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, the internet of things, and automated speech recognition technologies — must involve accessibility from the start.’