Understanding how progress can unintentionally create new barriers.
Highlighting the Gaps
Why Highlight the Gaps?
Society is solving old problems with new technology, new services, and new ways of doing everyday things. These advances can improve independence, efficiency, and opportunity. But when deafblind people are not considered in the design of those solutions, progress can replace an old barrier with a new one. Many accessibility barriers are not created intentionally; they emerge when a product, policy, service, or environment is designed around assumptions about how people see, hear, communicate, navigate, or interact.
This page examines examples of this problem across technology, housing, telecommunications, transportation, communication access, travel, automation, and other areas of everyday life. The gaps presented here are illustrative, not exhaustive. They are intended to help businesses, designers, policymakers, researchers, service providers, and the public recognize a broader question: as society changes, are new solutions expanding access for everyone, or unintentionally creating new forms of exclusion?
DBCA highlights these gaps not simply to identify problems, but to encourage better solutions. Readers who want to learn more about deafblind people, communication, technology, programs and services, and relevant laws can visit our .
Organizations and individuals interested in working with DBCA to explore solutions, improve accessibility, or help shape a more inclusive future can visit
As technology and society continue to change, DBCA will continue identifying emerging gaps and highlighting practical approaches to addressing them. Accessibility must evolve along with the world around us.
Smart Housing
The Innovation
Apartments and other buildings increasingly use touchscreen thermostats, digital appliances, mobile entry systems, video intercoms, and smart-home controls.
The Gap
A control designed primarily around visual interaction may prevent a blind or deafblind resident from independently performing an ordinary household task. A building can therefore appear modern and accessible in traditional physical terms while essential features become less accessible through technology.
The Better Approach
Essential features should provide accessible methods of operation. Accessibility should be evaluated when equipment is selected and installed, not only after a resident encounters a barrier. Housing providers, developers, architects, and technology manufacturers should consider how residents with different sensory and communication needs will independently use essential building and household systems.
Telecommunications in a Rapidly Changing World
The Innovation
Telecommunications have evolved from analog telephone networks toward digital and Internet Protocol-based communications. Businesses and individuals now rely on mobile communications, messaging, video conferencing, cloud platforms, automated customer service, Internet-based relay services, real-time communications, and increasingly artificial intelligence. These advances can make communication faster and more efficient. They can also create new opportunities for people with disabilities.
The Gap
Accessibility has not always evolved at the same pace. For deafblind people, access to telecommunications may depend on a chain of technologies and services that must all work effectively together. A person may rely on Braille or other assistive technology to operate an Internet-based relay interface, a communication assistant to convey the conversation, a telecommunications network to connect the call, and an accessible method of receiving information throughout the process. A weakness anywhere in that chain can affect the entire communication.
Internet Protocol Relay illustrates this concern. Federal relay policy establishes requirements governing relay services and providers, but regulatory compliance does not necessarily answer whether the consumer-facing technology provides an efficient and functionally accessible experience for a person using Braille. A service may technically work with a Braille display while navigation, focus behavior, dynamic content, call controls, incoming-call handling, authentication, or other parts of the interface make independent telecommunications substantially more difficult.
Human performance can create another gap. Deafblind people who use text-based relay depend on communication assistants to accurately convey spoken information through text. Communication assistants can vary in typing speed, accuracy, comprehension, and ability to faithfully convey a conversation. Errors, omissions, delays, or inaccurate transcription can interfere with a user's ability to understand and respond effectively.
The Better Approach
Accessible telecommunications should be evaluated as an end-to-end experience. That includes the accessibility and reliability of consumer-facing technology, compatibility with Braille and assistive technology, efficient navigation, accessible registration and authentication, the quality and accuracy of relay communications, meaningful performance standards, service reliability, consumer choice, meaningful deafblind participation in testing, and effective oversight. As telecommunications continue moving toward IP-based and AI-assisted systems, modernization should improve accessibility rather than simply replace older technology with newer technology.
A deafblind consumer should not encounter a technological barrier in a service intended to remove a telecommunications barrier. Effective telecommunications access is essential to economic opportunity and full participation in society.
Elevators and Kiosks
The Innovation
Touchscreens, destination-dispatch systems, and digital kiosks can make buildings and public services more flexible and efficient.
The Gap
Removing tactile controls or relying on changing visual displays can make an otherwise modern system difficult or impossible for some people to operate independently. A system may satisfy its intended function while the interface used to access that function creates a new barrier.
The Better Approach
Efficiency and accessibility should be designed together. Systems should provide independently usable input, understandable feedback, predictable operation, and accessible alternatives.
Elevators and Kiosks
The Innovation
Touchscreens, destination-dispatch systems, and digital kiosks can make buildings and public services more flexible and efficient.
The Gap
Removing tactile controls or relying on changing visual displays can make an otherwise modern system difficult or impossible for some people to operate independently. A system may satisfy its intended function while the interface used to access that function creates a new barrier.
The Better Approach
Efficiency and accessibility should be designed together. Systems should provide independently usable input, understandable feedback, predictable operation, and accessible alternatives.
Communication Access and Qualified Interpreters
The Innovation
Remote interpreting, video platforms, digital scheduling systems, and other communication technologies can make interpreting services easier to arrange and deliver across many settings.
The Gap
Providing an interpreter does not automatically provide effective communication for a deafblind person. Communication methods vary widely, and effective access may depend on an interpreter's qualifications, experience with deafblind communication, tactile or close-vision skills, familiarity with the subject matter, and ability to work with the individual's preferred communication method.
The limited availability of appropriately qualified interpreters can lead organizations to rely on substitutes that may not provide effective access. Video Remote Interpreting, for example, may be useful in some circumstances but may be inappropriate or inaccessible for a person who cannot effectively receive communication through a visual screen. Other remote or technology-based channels can create similar problems when the method of delivery does not match the individual's needs. The consequences can be significant in healthcare, employment, education, legal proceedings, government services, conferences, travel, and other settings where accurate and timely communication matters.
The Better Approach
Communication access should be determined by whether communication is effective, not simply by whether an accommodation was provided. Organizations should consider the individual's communication method, the nature and complexity of the interaction, the qualifications required of the interpreter, and whether a remote or technology-based solution can actually provide effective communication. Expanding the availability of qualified interpreters and other communication professionals should also remain an important accessibility priority.
Entertainment, Travel, and Leisure
The Innovation
Entertainment, tourism, recreation, and leisure are increasingly enhanced by mobile apps, digital reservations, interactive experiences, smart staterooms and hotel rooms, electronic ticketing, multimedia content, and other technologies. These innovations can make travel and leisure more convenient and personalized.
The Gap
A deafblind person may encounter inaccessible booking systems, mobile apps, onboard or in-room controls, entertainment, excursions, activities, announcements, navigation information, or other parts of an experience. When those barriers are not addressed, a business may expect the individual to rely on a family member, friend, or personally arranged Support Service Provider (SSP) to bridge the accessibility gap. In some circumstances, the deafblind person may effectively be expected to bring uncompensated human assistance in order to obtain an experience available to other customers without such assistance. That approach can shift the practical consequences of inaccessible design back onto the individual.
Access to leisure also matters. Recreation, travel, entertainment, cultural activities, and social participation contribute to quality of life and should not be treated as less important simply because they occur outside employment or essential services.
The Better Approach
Businesses should incorporate accessibility into facilities, digital services, communications, activities, customer service, and the overall guest experience. Human assistance may be an appropriate accessibility solution when a barrier cannot reasonably be eliminated or when the nature of an activity requires it. However, an individual's family member, friend, or unpaid SSP should not become a blanket substitute for accessible design and appropriate accommodations. Accessibility should allow deafblind people to participate in travel, entertainment, recreation, and cultural life with dignity and meaningful choice.
Artificial Intelligence
The Innovation
Artificial intelligence (AI) can interpret information, automate tasks, generate content, improve transcription, summarize conversations, assist with customer service, and change how people interact with technology.
The Gap
An AI system may be highly capable while its interface, training assumptions, generated content, or interaction model fails to consider people who use Braille, tactile communication, or nonvisual workflows. AI is also becoming part of telecommunications. Businesses may increasingly use automated voice agents, AI customer service systems, transcription tools, and conversational assistants. A system that makes communication faster for most customers could create additional steps for a deafblind person if accessible text, Braille, relay, or other methods of interaction are not considered.
AI used to assist communications also raises questions about accuracy. A system intended to improve transcription or assist a communication assistant should not introduce altered meaning, omitted information, fabricated content, or other errors into a conversation.
The Better Approach
Include deafblind users in research, testing, evaluation, and product development. Accessibility should be part of both the AI system and the surrounding experience through which people interact with it.
AI should be evaluated according to whether it improves communication outcomes, independence, accuracy, and efficiency. Automation should not be treated as progress when it creates additional barriers or reduces the quality of communication.
Transportation and Public Information
The Innovation
Transportation increasingly depends on mobile apps, digital signs, automated announcements, electronic ticketing, navigation systems, and real-time information.
The Gap
Information provided only visually or audibly may exclude someone who cannot reliably access either channel. An accessible vehicle alone does not provide an accessible transportation experience if essential information about routes, delays, boarding, destinations, or emergencies cannot be obtained independently. As transportation becomes more automated, accessibility also depends on whether passengers can independently interact with the technologies that plan, manage, and communicate information about their journey.
The Better Approach
Important information should be available through accessible digital and tactile methods where appropriate, with human assistance available when independent access cannot reasonably provide the information needed. Accessibility should encompass the complete journey rather than a single component of the transportation system.
Dynamic Websites and Apps
The Innovation
Modern digital interfaces can update instantly, rearrange information, display contextual controls, and provide highly visual interactions.
The Gap
Constantly changing content, unexpected focus movement, poorly identified controls, or interfaces organized around visual position can make a technically accessible experience inefficient or unreliable with Braille and other assistive technology. Compatibility alone does not necessarily mean functional accessibility. A person may technically be able to reach controls while still facing an experience that requires excessive navigation, produces unpredictable results, or makes routine tasks unnecessarily difficult.
The Better Approach
Developers should evaluate the complete user experience, not merely whether individual controls have accessible labels. Predictability, navigation efficiency, focus management, structure, keyboard operation, and compatibility with assistive technology all matter. Testing should include people who actually use Braille and other relevant assistive technologies on a daily basis
Automation and the Future of Independence
The Innovation
Automation has the potential to expand independence in ways that were once difficult to imagine. Self-driving vehicles, smart canes, smart wheelchairs, robotic navigation, automated delivery, AI-powered environmental information, and other technologies may allow people with disabilities to perform tasks with less human assistance.
The Gap
Automation is not automatically accessible. A self-driving vehicle may be capable of transporting a deafblind passenger while its passenger interface depends on a touchscreen, visual map, spoken prompts, or other inaccessible controls. The passenger may still need an accessible way to identify the correct vehicle, confirm a destination, understand route changes, respond to an emergency, or communicate with remote support. A smart cane or other navigation technology may detect obstacles while its setup, status information, companion app or advanced features remain inaccessible through Braille. A smart wheelchair may automate movement while presenting controls or feedback in a form the user cannot independently access.
These examples illustrate a broader concern. A technology can automate a physical task without making the complete experience accessible to the person using it.
The Better Approach
Automation should be designed around both capability and control. People with disabilities should be able to understand what an automated system is doing, provide instructions, receive essential information, change or stop an action, obtain assistance, and respond when something unexpected occurs. Deafblind people should be included in the development and testing of automated technologies from the beginning.
Automation is not accessible merely because it performs a task that once required human assistance. The person must also be able to independently understand, control, and interact with the automated system.
When Technology Is Not Enough
The Innovation
Technology can provide independent access to many activities that once required assistance.
The Gap
Assuming that every accessibility problem must have a technological solution can itself become a barrier. Navigation through complex unfamiliar environments, obtaining contextual environmental information, participating in certain activities, and addressing unexpected situations may still require human assistance. Technology may supplement that assistance without fully replacing it. At the same time, human assistance should not be used simply to excuse avoidable technological, physical, or communication barriers.
The Better Approach
Use accessible technology and inclusive design to maximize independence wherever they can provide effective access. At the same time, recognize SSPs and other appropriate human supports as legitimate components of accessibility when circumstances require them.
The aim is not to choose between technology and people. It is to use the right solution for the barrier involved. Accessibility should be measured by meaningful participation, not by whether a particular solution happens to be technological.