Apple Home Kit and Disabilities
Introduction
The Apple HomeKit is a disabled focused software system with accompanying products developed by Apple to help those with disabilities to be regain some independence and control in their life again. This is done by using voice control to change things such as lights, central heating/air conditioning, entertainment, garage doors and security systems. Most of Apple's information releases for the HomeKit came in around May 2017 and seemed to gain positive feed back from Todd Stabelfeldt and Chris Lenart and hopefully will get the same response from others of the disabled community too.
Uses for the disabled
The primary and seemingly most vital part of Apple's HomeKit is its Voice Control and Siri. Voice control gives power to users with physical disabilities when dealing with light switches, or to visually impaired users while trying to unlock a door. Such simple things as these are a vital things Apple helps with by introducing scenario setups. Scenario setups can be set as a trigger word or phrase such as, "Hi Siri, I'm Home" which would start a chain of activate such as disabling the alarm, opening the garage door, turn on the hall and kitchen light, and ending with the music entertainment system starting on a music playlist called Home. This results in the user only needing to focus on getting themselves inside rather than trying to do all stated tasks as they enter. This also doesn't require them asking for help with these tasks too. In the case of mental issues, voice control is also useful in cases of Siri reminding the user about certain things. An example, a user with memory loss issues constantly asking Siri to remind them where a moved object is, followed by Siri using sensors in the house to recall the users last location to guide the user to the object.
Best uses for each disability
The list of applicable use cases for the Apple Home Kit is currently limited to two:
-> Todd uses Apple HomeKit with features like Apple's "Home" app to allow him to control a variety of smart accessories in his house — from door locks and window shades, to lights and his garage door. Stabelfeldt's favorite part is that he can command Apple's intelligent digital assistant Siri to work it all
-> Chris said "I don’t have this home kit yet, but I am seriously thinking about it. The thing that interests me is the kit allows you to set up different scenarios that you might have. The one scenario that they talk about is movie night. When you have a movie night, you would have lights off and the temperature turned down and the TV on. For me, I might have one scenario that is for bedtime. I want all the lights off and the temperature turned up. I sometimes kick the covers off and can not get the covers back over me."
These seem to currently be the only use cases of the Apple HomeKit currently published
Concussion
Despite the limited amount of information available about the Apple HomeKit and Use Cases, the talks and interviews that Todd Stabelfeldt gives says many good things about the HomeKit and it's system. Its varied 50 devices along with Siri for almost everything makes it such an important product making everyday life and tasks just that bit more easy.