The dark side of accessibility

My uncle passed away yesterday. 99 years old, a good innings.

He died two days after a fall in sheltered accommodation where he wasn't found for nearly 24 hours. He'd fallen, been unable to reach his panic button, and the fall monitor simply didn't.

I work in an industry, a caring profession as we like to claim, that prizes independent living above all else. That panic button, and the fall monitor are part of that, as is the concept of sheltered accommodation. And that's a good thing. Yet, despite all that, uncle still, to all intents and purposes, died alone after hours on a cold hard floor. That's the measurable, if unintended, consequence of the reliance on the assistive technology, and the accommodation strategy employed. So why is that?

There seems to be two parts to this.

There is the equipment used and its reliability. How was the fall monitor tested? To what standard? What fail rate is considered acceptable? How often must they be retested? Any ideas? What about the panic button that works only for dexterous individuals who aren't currently lying fast on the floor? Why did we think that was ever good enough?

Then there is how we applied the technology. Back in the day, sheltered accommodation came with humans who regularly checked on vulnerable occupants of sheltered housing, offering help if needed. Those human interactions are becoming increasingly robotic, with technology used as a substitute for humanity and without looking too hard at its limitations. How limited? There's a man in a box, if you want to go look. Who knows if he would be alive today, or had at least spent less time on that cold hard floor, if there had been more humans involved, using technology to augment their work rather than replace it. However, we do know what happens when there isn't.

Quality and process, both failed.

What worries, worries me intensely, is that we are about to make the situation even worse. All this augmented reality, all this way-finding out in a big dangerous world. Who regulates it? Who tests the devices and apps? Who advises how to use it? All this AI providing help and advice. All that AI helping people create accessible content that's about to be sitting in programmers development tools. Who tests the tools? Who regulates them? Who makes sure that they don't leave some poor soul stranded in an unsafe location, or with worse?

Let me be clear. I love all of that technology, it has the potential to give people a degree of freedom and independence that is pure joy. But we have to be aware of its limitations, and of potential misapplication. It has to work reliably, and it has to improve life and not be a poor solution for a cheapskate society. My uncle, wonderful man though he was, is no-one special or famous, but he and all the people like him, deserve better than his end.