BBC Click shared a video about how smart home technology helps people with special needs or disabilities live independently. Click is the BBC’s flagship technology programme that is on both TV and radio, across five BBC channels and it can be found on many social networks and iPlayer. The show welcomes debate on global technology, social media and the internet, and offers help and guidance on the latest gadgets, websites, games and computer industry news. In this particular video, viewers meet Adam, who has Down’s syndrome but lives independently in a tech-filled home that he shares with his housemates. In the video, Adam showed BBC Click’s Paul Carter how technology helps him in everyday life. The house is part of a project which uses smart devices, sensors and bespoke applications to enable people with learning disabilities to live without in-home carers.

We have long understood the benefits of smart home technology and how it offers solutions to people who would like to live independently. There are many benefits including the ability to 

to control lighting, heating and alarms remotely from outside the home or automatically by devices. Users just need a smart device to control these technologies and learning how to use them isn’t as hard as one might think. In fact, most people who are striving for independent living will learn how to manage these new technologies especially when they reap the rewards of them. Innovation hasn’t stopped at just applying smart tech to homes but it can also provide real time health monitoring with sensors worn on the body to track heart rate and blood pressure. Alerts can be sent if there is an emergency and this is hugely beneficial to chronically ill people. 

Voice activation has certainly improved the lives of people with mobility issues or disabilities as controlling things with voice is a lot easier than worrying about pressing buttons or accessing places to do so. Navigating yourself around a home becomes instantly easier with voice activated devices and smart home assistants. Critically, these devices could offer a person who wants to live independently the tools to do it and to do it safely – something that helps caregivers and loved ones with a peace of mind that wouldn’t be there otherwise. 

There is the cost to think about when investing in smart home technologies to enable people to live independently but it is something to consider if a loved one requires long-term help and care visits. As we go into 2020 and further ahead, it will be interesting to see what smart tech can do for people in the future. It seems to be giving plenty of opportunities now and this should only improve…