News

A new resource has been published on the Trace website to provide guidance for consumers and others concerned with making mass market cell phones more usable by people with disabilities and elders. Essentials for Cross-Disability Accessible Cell Phones suggests a minimum set of capabilities that mainstream phones could and should have, given today’s technology, to enable a higher degree of accessibility.

This resource is a distillation of the Trace Center’s research and development related to cell phone access, and is a product of the Telecommunications Access RERC. Included with this publication is a quick reference list that can be printed and used as a worksheet when assessing the accessibility of a cell phone. Also included is a list of some features that have appeared on mainstream phones and how they improve accessibility and usefulness for people with disabilities.