Smart devices have made life normal for people living with disabilities.
Any disability comes with reduced mobility and a lot of problems for doing everyday tasks. Also, it is not possible for them to participate in household chores and manage their homes.
A smart device has inbuilt connectivity, and it ranges from vehicles to watches or even household appliances. Have you heard about a smart home? In a smart home, the household items are connected via the internet, which allows a disabled person to access and control them easily.
This smart technology helps disabled people to complete various tasks around the home just like us.Let’s explore how:
The Usefulness of Smart Home Technology
Smart home devices help disabled people to live independent lives. These devices have transformed the lives of many, as it gives them more control over their activities. They are giving power to the disabled community plus also provide them an opportunity to reduce the costs. In comparison to single-purpose assistive devices, smart home devices are cheap.
The smart devices can also listen to the sound or sense motion to take commands and perform an action. This function helps people with limited mobility in many ways. For instance, opening a blind or a curtain is not possible for a person who cannot even get up from the wheelchair. Instead, it is easy to perform the task with a smart device in hand. Similarly, they can open a door, make their coffee, watch TV, and answer their phone simply using voice commands.
Similarly, with the use of a smartphone, other things can be controlled in a home. These include smoke alarms, robotic vacuum cleaner, oven, and even a coffee maker. These inventions have enabled people living with disabilities to perform tasks that otherwise, they would ask others to help them. It increases their command over things without even bringing major changes to their dwelling.
List of Key Advantages of Smart Devices for Disabled People
Below are some of the main advantages that can bring ease to the life of a disabled community.
1. Smart Heating and Cooling
A smart home thermostat maintains the temperature of your home. With smart technology, you can simply use your smartphone to turn up or turn down the thermostat. This is excellent for everyone, but for people with disabilities, it is especially useful.
A person doesn’t have to physically go to the thermostat or the boiler to turn it on or off; they can do so from anywhere in the house. Some modern technology allows you to turn your devices on and off even from afar.
Adjusting the water temperature, again and again, is not easy even for fit people. With the smart thermostat, the temperature of the water can be adjusted accordingly to your needs simply with a touch or a voice command.
2. Health Monitoring
Health is one of the top priorities for disabled people. A smart health tracker can help them to keep a check on their health on a regular basis. It monitors the pulse rate, heart rate, calories, and level of stress. It can also assess the pattern of sleeping for better health guidance.
Smart devices can call a person’s emergency contact or 911 in case of emergencies. Moreover, they send real-time data to the person’s physician, which helps them prevent, diagnose, and treat with higher accuracy.
3. Safety
Personal safety and safety of your home is the need of time. Everyone needs it; however, it becomes more important in the case of less mobile people, as they cannot do much for themselves. With smartphone technology, a disabled person can keep a check on their home, whether they are inside it or somewhere away. It informs you if someone has tried to enter your home to ensure safety.
If a disabled person is inside the home, they can only let in those whom he wants to. Also, a person can lock their door even when they are not around to prevent robberies. It is also possible to raise the alarm remotely.
4. Energy and Money Efficient
With smart home devices, people can easily regulate the level of energy spent at home. Imagine, with smart home devices, you can switch off or even lower the cold or heat level when you are not at home. For example, by using Cafe Du Chateau French Press Coffee Maker you can make your coffee without any effort. Turn it up a few minutes before coming inside.
Also, you can turn off or dim the lights when not in use. This is how smart devices help reduce electricity bills. Earning money becomes more difficult in the case of disabled people. So these devices can help them in cutting down their major expenses.
5. Assistance in Household Chores
The house chores have become easy with smart devices. A person with less mobility can use smart home devices to make the coffee in an instant, preheat the baking oven or get the carpet cleaning done with a robotic vacuum at the comfort of sitting in one place.
The story does not end here. There are some smart home devices in the market that can also help disabled people in cooking. These let you know when the food is cooked and is ready to serve. All these tasks are easily done with just pressing a single button.
6. Boost Confidence
Last but not least, smart home devices have enabled disabled people to regain their level of confidence. Today a less mobile person can do their house chores on their own. The feeling of being less dependent on others has made them happier and content.
Final Thoughts
There is no doubt that technology has blessed us in many ways, and helping disabled people live a more independent life is one of them. Smart devices are helping disabled people live their life on their own. The smart home devices have made them more confident and secure than ever.
Additional resources:
- JJS – cerebral palsy and personal injury lawyers
- How AI and big data are impacting healthcare
- Causes and risk factors of cerebral palsy
