When
it
comes
to
smart
home
technology,
what
many
reviewers
and
users
may
see
as
convenience,
other
people
see
as
accessibility.
In
other
words,
using
one’s
phone
or
voice
to
flip
a
light
switch
may
be
convenient
for
you
because
you
don’t
need
to
get
up.
For
me
and
other
disabled
people,
this
makes
it
accessible.
The
best
illustration
of
this
concept
involves
the
AmazonBasics
microwave.
The
Alexa-powered
device
(which,
as
far
as
can
be
determined,
has
not
been
available
for
sale
for
over
a
year)
was
admittedly
a
bit
gimmicky.
Why
would
you
want
to
talk
to
your
microwave
to
heat
your
food?
The
controls
are
right
there.
But
while
it
is
true
that
the
microwave
is
pretty
mediocre
—
my
partner
constantly
bemoans
how
small
and
underpowered
it
is
—
she’s
willing
to
tolerate
it
because
she
knows
how
accessible
the
thing
is
for
me.
Instead
of
standing
at
the
microwave
and
squinting
at
the
low-contrast
keypad
—
even
with
the
good
lighting
in
the
kitchen,
the
numbers
can
be
hard
for
my
low
vision
to
distinguish
—
I
can
be
across
the
room
and
use
my
voice
to
tell
Alexa
to
heat
up
my
leftovers.
The
Alexa-powered
AmazonBasics
microwave
created
convenience
for
some
but
accessibility
for
others.Photo
by
Amelia
Holowaty
Krales
/
The
Verge
The
implications
of
this
transcend
convenience.
In
fact,
between
the
microwave,
the
Alexa-based
Echo
Wall
Clock
(which
is
helpful
for
seeing
timers),
and
an
old
Echo
Dot
hooked
up
to
control
both
devices,
our
kitchen
is
arguably
the
most
accessible
room
in
the
house.
In
many
ways,
smart
home
tech
represents
accessibility
and
assistive
technology
at
its
very
best.
It’s
not
merely
pragmatic
—
it’s
empowering.
It
takes
ostensibly
mundane
everyday
objects
like
lamps
and
garage
doors
and
microwaves
and
turns
them
into
spectacular,
borderline
magical
marvels.
For
many
in
the
disability
community,
this
transformation
means
the
difference
between
inclusion
and
independence
or
exclusion
and
dependence.
These
are
qualities
that
many
people,
especially
those
in
tech
media,
fail
to
consider
in
their
coverage
of
the
smart
home
but
that
are
crucially
important
if
one
wishes
to
understand
technology
in
a
more
holistic
way.
Navigating
an
Apple-rich
home
Take
my
household.
My
partner
and
I
are
pretty
hardcore
Apple
users.
We
both
have
iPhones.
We
both
wear
an
Apple
Watch
and
AirPods.
There
are
multiple
iPads,
HomePods,
and
Apple
TVs
in
our
house.
As
a
result,
we
primarily
use
HomeKit
to
control
our
various
smart
home
devices,
including
those
from
Nest
(more
on
that
later).
The
fact
that
we
wade
knee-deep
in
the
Apple
ecosystem
is
convenient,
but
more
important
for
me
is
accessibility
The
fact
that
we
wade
knee-deep
in
the
Apple
ecosystem
is
convenient,
but
more
important
for
me
is
accessibility.
With
one
exception
(a
MyQ
garage
door
opener,
which
I’ll
touch
on
later),
I
can
control
all
of
my
smart
home
devices
from
the
Home
widget
in
Control
Center.
To
tell
the
truth,
this
says
as
much
about
the
accessibility
of
Apple’s
vertical
integration
as
it
does
about
smart
home
devices.
The
big
win
here
is
that
if
I
need
to
turn
off
the
lamp
in
the
living
room,
I
don’t
need
to
figure
out
what
I
need
to
do.
I
just
have
to
grab
whichever
device
is
closest
to
me:
my
iPhone,
my
Apple
Watch,
an
iPad,
the
Apple
TV,
or
the
HomePod.
Sometimes,
of
course,
you
have
to
tweak
your
tech
in
order
to
get
it
to
work
the
way
you
want
it
to
—
especially
if
you
don’t
want
to
invest
in
an
entirely
new
set
of
devices.
One
downside
to
using
HomeKit
is
that
the
Nest
products
we
have
—
a
Nest
Thermostat
E,
Nest
Protect
smoke
alarm,
Nest
x
Yale
smart
lock,
Nest
Hello
doorbell,
and
two
Nest
Cam
IQ
outdoor
cameras
— don’t
natively
support
it.
These
are
all
older
products
that
predate
the
Matter
standard
that
ostensibly
promises
interoperability
between
smart
home
platforms.
But
we
don’t
want
or
need
to
replace
it
—
however
dated
our
Nest
gear
is,
it
all
continues
to
work
great,
especially
in
the
original
Nest
app.
Still,
I
wanted
to
get
all
of
it
to
show
up
in
the
Home
app
because
we’re
mainly
HomeKit
users.
For
us,
the
solution
came
in
the
way
of
the
Starling
Home
Hub.
It’s
a
little
box
you
connect
to
your
network
and,
upon
hooking
up
your
Nest
and
HomeKit
credentials,
it
turns
your
thermostat
or
other
devices
into
“native”
HomeKit
products.
It
allows
me
to
ask
Siri
to
lock
the
front
door
and
adjust
the
thermostat
as
well
as
control
them
using
the
aforementioned
Home
widget
in
Control
Center.
Opening
the
garage
door
Arguably
the
best
smart
home
gadget
we
have
is
the
MyQ
garage
door
opener.
I
added
this
a
few
years
ago
when
MyQ
maker
Chamberlain
made
the
HomeKit
version
(sadly,
it
was
recently
discontinued).
I
call
it
the
best
because,
for
many
years,
our
garage
door
was
opened
using
a
keypad
outside,
which
was
completely
inaccessible,
with
small
washed-out
markings
that
were
hard
to
see
and
mushy
buttons
that
were
hard
to
press.
The
addition
of
the
smart
opener
means
I
can
open
and
close
the
garage
with
a
single
tap.
(Unfortunately,
as
of
this
writing,
the
HomeKit
integration
is
broken
—
it
shows
a
persistent
“no
response”
status
message
—
but
it’s
still
fully
functional
within
the
MyQ
app
on
my
phone
and
watch.)
When
a
device
like
the
MyQ
garage
door
opener
increases
accessibility,
then
breaks
its
smart
home
integration,
that
can
be
more
than
inconvenient.Photo
by
Jennifer
Pattison
Tuohy
/
The
Verge
It’s
not
all
roses,
however.
The
biggest
frustration
is
maintenance.
Especially
with
HomeKit,
there
are
occasions
when
devices
show
as
“no
response”
for
no
explicable
reason.
When
my
network
goes
down
or
is
updated,
sometimes
it
breaks
the
Starling
Home
Hub.
But
while
playing
IT
support
technician
for
my
devices
is
annoying,
it
doesn’t
erase
the
fundamental
benefits
of
what
all
of
these
smart
home
devices
add
to
my
everyday
life.
A
different
perspective
It
goes
back
to
what
I
wrote
at
the
outset
about
convenience
and
accessibility.
From
what
I’ve
read,
the
vast
majority
of
reviewers
and
analysts
see
the
smart
home
as
made
up
of
things
you
want
but
don’t
need
to
live.
This
assumes
that
everybody
uses
technology
in
(mostly)
the
same
way,
and
it’s
just
not
true.
The
emotional
gains
are
just
as
important
as
the
practical
ones
For
a
disabled
person,
myself
included,
being
able
to
control
light
switches
and
garage
doors
with
your
devices
means
one’s
home
is
more
accessible.
It
instills
greater
feelings
of
agency
and
autonomy
because
I
don’t
need
to
ask
for
help
for,
say,
turning
on
the
lights.
The
emotional
gains
are
just
as
important
as
the
practical
ones,
and
it’s
for
this
reason
that
accessibility
trumps
convenience
in
this
context.
What’s
convenient
to
you
may
be
life-changing
to
me.
All
of
this
is
not
to
say
smart
home
devices
are
perfect
—
the
salient
point
is
it’s
misguided
to
perpetually
frame
smart
products
as
mere
novelties
that,
in
the
case
of
the
Alexa
microwave,
are
tech
for
tech’s
sake.
It’s
much
more
meaningful
than
that,
but
most
people
don’t
have
the
foresight
to
consider
other
viewpoints.
Smart
home
tech
has
far
greater
resonance
than
sheer
convenience.
It
can
be
accessible
and
empower
everyone
—
profoundly
so.
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