Win8 as a platform for adaptive/assitive technology

Question

I have a business partner who's interested in improving the quality of low-cost adaptive/assistive technology for persons with disabilities. The iOS and Android platforms already have some nice fledgling efforts, but we think there's a good amount that can be improved, particularly in regards to user-friendliness (which should be a primary concern for products targeted to persons with cognitive disabilities).

My question is: how suitable does everyone here think Windows 8 will be as a target platform for such software? I've been hearing mixed reviews on the Surface, but I'm not sold on the credibility of the complaints regarding user-friendliness.

Answer 1

Windows 8 is actually an excellent platform for assistive technology. In addition to emphasizing support for things like the aria- parameters for blind readers, it also defines a set of voluntary extra steps a developer can take to vet their application for things like high contrast and large scale text, and puts a mechanism in store to allow users who need such software to find things that the developer claims are vetted for that sort of thing.

They also verify that you got it right, if you claim to have done it.

Here are some links to get you started.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/apps/Hh700407

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/apps/Hh700407

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsapps/Aria-sample-f3cf5323

Answer 2

We're beginning to see some of these efforts towards making Windows 8 a viable platform for assistive/rehabilitative in our own lab here at Mizzou. Just the Metro Modern interface itself is a help, with the tiles giving users with reduced motor skills a larger surface to click/touch than your average icon.

The director of the project I'm on wants to begin using the Kinect in conjunction with Windows 8 in order to create "rehab" games for his patients; that is, take normal tests and exercises used for people with disabilities or injuries and make them into games for Windows that give the afflicted more incentive to complete their routines. There could be stats collected, achievements for patients to earn, etc. This isn't something inherent to Windows 8, but given the facts that the Kinect can be used as a medical testing tool and the Kinect SDK has been limited to Windows thus far, I think there's definite potential for the platform in making these games and diagnostic tools a reality.

As for the Surface itself, I think it would at least be as user-friendly as any other tablet out there... of course, the reviews are just now coming in, and the OS it carries is brand new, so things can change. The real advantage the Surface has over iOS and Android is the absolutely enormous driver library it implements (the same used for Windows NT; compatible with 427,000,000 different products) and the fact that it has a USB port to access most devices made today. If you need to connect the Surface to adaptive equipment, doing so should be relatively easy. Developing the drivers for said adaptive equipment shouldn't be any different than developing drivers for your standard Windows-compatible device, IIRC.

Overall, I'd say the OS itself is at least as good or better than the competition in the adaptive/rehabilitative/assistive category, but your business partner should be excited to know that there are definitely some new grounds to be explored using Kinect, Windows 8, WinRT, tablets, and other elements in concert with each other. It gives more potential than the other ecosystems you listed, at least in my humble opinion as a researcher.