Crowdsourcing Accessibility: Human-Powered Access Technologies

People with disabilities have always engaged the people around them in order to circumvent inaccessible situations, allowing them to live more independently and get things done in their everyday lives. Increasing connectivity is allowing this approach to be extended to wherever and whenever it is needed. Technology can leverage this human work force to accomplish tasks beyond the capabilities of computers, increasing how accessible the world is for people with disabilities. This article outlines the growth of online human support, outlines a number of projects in this space, and presents a set of challenges and opportunities for this work going forward.