THE USE AND ADVANCEMENTS OF ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY IN AUTOMATION FOR THE VISUALLY-IMPAIRED WORKFORCE

Abstract

With the advancements in the world of technology reaching greater heights, the developments in accessibility features for the visually impaired workforce have grown manifold. Resources such as navigational assistance modules, text-to-speech applications, virtual audio displays, etc. have been in the works. There is a lot of enhancement in how technology is being used in the field of automation too. Studies suggest that more than 70% of process-oriented jobs would be automated within the next decade. But there is merely a bridge between the two! Technology has been helping reduce costs, efforts, and time by automating most of the processes.

But there isn’t a coalesce in how the visually-impaired workforce can be uplifted with the use of assistive technology for automation tools and services. The world talks about making the workforce of today future-ready, but holistic growth is only suggestive in a scenario where every stratum of society grows.

A look into what the present state of the uses of technology for the visually impaired employees is, how and what can be done today in making this stratum of society future-work ready, and an implementation of one such prospect: An Integration Tool- Development of a Text-to-Speech screen reading tool for Selenium Test Automation for the visually impaired.