A road to independent living with smart homes for people with disabilities

Abstract

Nearly one billion people are suffering from various disabilities around the world. People in developed countries have resources, facilities and technologies to cope up while in developing countries, they suffer more due to lack of facilities and assistive technologies. Many technologies have been considered as cost effective solution to overcome the limitations in developing countries and Smart Home (SH) is one them. SH is a vision of home automation system that interacts with the users to provide comfort and ease of access. SH embedded with assistive technologies can provide better living facilities for disabled people. As a result they can control home appliances without movement and interact better with their surroundings. It could help improving their confidence and self-esteem thus, enhancing the quality of life. In this study, we have presented SH system for disabled people that can improve their lives, focusing on the key features, major challenges and potentials of SHs.