IoT Technologies Offer New Potentials for People with Disabilities

The proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and accompanying technology has opened up new perspectives for everyone, especially for persons with disabilities and elderly people who can greatly benefit from modern technologies in their everyday activities and in general, improve their quality of life. A variety of IoT applications have been designed and developed across several domains based on the type of disability the user has, including applications for people with physical, vision, and hearing impairments, mental and behavioral disorders, and other complex needs. In this paper we briefly outline each of these disabilities and investigate existing IoT applications and systems which provide a basis for identifying relevant IoT devices, as well as, open challenges that need to be addressed that IoT system can be used by people with disabilities.