# Assistive technology Published articles for Assistive technology. This is one page of public article previews, not the complete archive. Follow Next page to continue. Summaries are not the original full articles. ## Ila Kumar: Innovating with communities DevFeed: [Ila Kumar: Innovating with communities]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Gitana Savage | MIT News correspondent Published: 2026-09-01T04:00:00Z Content type: news Language: en Sources: [MIT AI News]() Topics: [digital](), [context]() Tags: [artificial-intelligence](), [assistive-technology](), [child-welfare](), [communities](), [digital](), [engineering-systems](), [graduate-postdoctoral](), [ila-kumar](), [lifelong-kindergarten](), [media-lab](), [mental-health](), [mit-graduate-students](), [profile](), [psychology](), [school-of-architecture-and-planning](), [students](), [tech-for-good](), [technology](), [technology-and-society]() ### AI overview MIT PhD student Ila Kumar researches community-based design, involving young people who have experienced childhood trauma in shaping digital technologies intended to support healing, connection, independence, and well-being. ### Source excerpt The PhD student works to give young people an active role in shaping digital technologies that can support their own well-being. ## Accessibility Considerations with Stacked Cards Custom Layout DevFeed: [Accessibility Considerations with Stacked Cards Custom Layout]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Eevis Panula Published: 2024-07-25T03:26:13.958000Z Content type: tutorial Language: en Sources: [Eevis Blog]() Topics: [Accessibility](), [User interface design](), [Compose](), [Android]() Tags: [accessibility](), [assistive-technology](), [component](), [compose](), [semantics](), [user]() ### AI overview This article examines accessibility issues in a stacked-cards custom layout built with Compose. It focuses on Switch Access, where deleting a card causes focus to disappear, and discusses moving the click action to the stack component as a partial fix. It also considers improving content labels for Voice Access and notes that the coverage is not exhaustive. ### Source excerpt A couple of weeks ago, I published a blog post Stacked Cards Layout With Compose - And Cats. The layout has some accessibility issues, and I aim to fix some of them in this blog post. There are a couple of issues I'm not fixing here because of the scope of this blog post; instead, I'm discussing the problems they're causing and possible solutions. This time, I will also be pointing out some things that are good about the layout. I feel like I'm often just talking about problems and trying to find them, but this time, I'll share something that's working well, too. Before we dive into the different aspects I chose for this blog post, here is a fair warning: This list is not extensive and doesn't contain all possible accessibility problems that this kind of layout might have. I didn't test with every possible assistive technology or setting. My goal was progress over perfection, and I believe that the modifications I'll list are already significant improvements to the accessibility of this layout. Switch Access The first assistive technology I'm going to talk about and improve the app for is Switch Access. It's a service that lets the user navigate their phone with one or more switches. If you want to learn more, the Android Accessibility Checklist I've created has a section about Switch Access: Test with Switch Access. When testing with Switch Access, there was one problem I could find: When removing a card from the stack, the focus didn't go anywhere. It just disappeared. The reason for that is that the component on which the focus was had been deleted, and the accessibility service lost the focus. One way to fix this issue is by moving the click event to the stack-component instead of the card itself. We can do this by adding a semantics-modifier with an onClick-lambda to the CardStack's modifier-property. Let's also move the lastItem outside the CardStack so that we can use it in the function we add: // MainScreen.kt val lastItem = catIds.value.last() CardStack( Mo ## Improving Android Accessibility with Modifiers in Jetpack Compose DevFeed: [Improving Android Accessibility with Modifiers in Jetpack Compose]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Eevis Panula Published: 2023-07-11T05:48:08.009000Z Content type: tutorial Language: en Sources: [Eevis Blog]() Topics: [Accessibility](), [Jetpack Compose](), [Android](), [User interface design](), [android-development]() Tags: [accessibility](), [android](), [assistive-technology](), [focus](), [jetpack-compose](), [modifiers](), [visibility]() ### AI overview A tutorial on using Jetpack Compose modifiers to improve Android app accessibility. It explains how modifiers can add accessibility information, adjust behavior and semantics, reduce unnecessary tab stops, provide focus indicators, improve touch feedback, and increase touch target sizes. The article also emphasizes testing with different assistive technologies. ### Source excerpt The other day, I was doing some accessibility fixes on our codebase. I came across a switch that didn't have a label associated with it, meaning screen reader users would need to do a bit of guessing to get the information on what they were toggling. I wanted to fix that and started researching. At one point, I was going through the list of modifiers for composable components and noticed that many could help make the app more accessible. I got so excited! And I wanted to share some of these modifiers with you, so here we are. I'm going to go through these modifiers: toggleable selectable clickable magnifier But first, let's talk a bit about modifiers in general and what they are. What are Modifiers? As the Android Developers site defines modifiers: Modifiers allow you to decorate or augment a composable. Modifiers let you do these sorts of things: Change the composable's size, layout, behavior, and appearance Add information, like accessibility labels Process user input Add high-level interactions, like making an element clickable, scrollable, draggable, or zoomable (Source: Android Developers: Compose modifiers) So they are a way to modify composables' looks, behavior, and semantics. They're used a lot in modern Android development with Jetpack Compose, so if you've ever tried Compose, you've probably come across them. As the modifiers can do many things, we can use them for improving accessibility as well. Let's talk about that more in the next section. Modifiers for Accessibility There are many use cases for different modifiers to improve the accessibility of our apps. For example, with modifiers, we can reduce the amount of tab stops for users that use switch devices, hardware keyboards, or screen readers, or we can add more semantic information for assistive technology users in general. We can add visual cues such as focus indicators or improve the visibility and feedback of touch interactions. A good example is what we will do later in this post by increasing