Mainstream Tech Is Quietly Becoming Assistive Technology for Millions in India

Smartphones, smartwatches, voice assistants, AI glasses, and noise-canceling headphones are increasingly doing more than making everyday life convenient. A new report from public policy firm The Quantum Hub (TQH) finds that mainstream consumer technology is quietly becoming assistive technology for people with disabilities in India.

The report, titled “Incidental Accessibility: How Mainstream Technology Is Expanding Accessibility in India,” examines how widely available consumer products can deliver accessibility benefits even when they were not originally designed specifically for people with disabilities. The Quantum Hub (TQH) calls the phenomenon “incidental accessibility.”

The Tech People Already Own Is Changing Accessibility

TQH’s research focuses on five technology categories: smart home devices, dictation software, AI-enabled smart glasses, haptic feedback, and noise-canceling headphones.

The report argues that these products can sometimes provide functions traditionally associated with specialized assistive technology, potentially offering users greater independence without requiring a separate device category.

Smart home systems, for example, can let people with locomotor disabilities operate lights, fans, and other appliances with voice commands rather than physically reaching for switches.

Haptic feedback is another increasingly widespread example. Vibrations from smartphones and wearables can provide alerts without relying on sound. For deaf and hard-of-hearing users, distinctive vibration patterns can replace conventional alarms or notifications, while blind users can use haptic cues for navigation and action confirmation.

India shipped 114.2 million wearable devices in 2025, including 28.9 million smartwatches, according to IDC, highlighting the scale of the consumer technology ecosystem in which these accessibility uses can emerge.

AI Glasses Could Open a New Door

AI-enabled smart glasses are also emerging as potential accessibility tools.

According to TQH, such devices can help blind and low-vision users access visual information by reading menus and medicine labels, describing objects and surroundings, assisting with navigation, and providing hands-free information in workplaces and everyday environments.

Dictation and speech technologies can similarly reduce barriers for people with limited hand mobility, visual impairments or dyslexia. Voice technologies can convert speech into text, read written material aloud and, in some cases, help people who have lost their speech preserve a familiar voice through voice cloning.

Noise-canceling headphones offer another example, particularly for people with sensory sensitivities. By reducing overwhelming background sounds, they can make workplaces, public transport and other environments easier to navigate.

Policy Framework Faces a New Challenge

The growing overlap between consumer technology and assistive technology raises a policy question: Should a product be classified only by what it was designed to do, or also by what it enables people to do?

TQH Director and report co-author Nipun Malhotra said existing frameworks largely classify products according to their intended market and design rather than their practical assistive functions.

That distinction can affect affordability, procurement, taxation and workplace accommodation for persons with disabilities.

The report does not call for formally classifying every consumer device with an accessibility benefit as an assistive device. Instead, it proposes that fiscal, procurement and accommodation frameworks recognize assistive uses more systematically.

Privacy and AI Safety Are Now Part of Accessibility

The report also highlights a potential downside. Many emerging accessibility technologies depend on cameras, microphones, AI systems and personal or health-related data.

That means accessibility policy increasingly intersects with privacy, cybersecurity and AI governance.

The Quantum Hub argues that accessibility should become a standing consideration in technology policy alongside affordability, security, interoperability, safety and innovation.

The report’s central message is increasingly difficult to ignore: technology does not always need to be designed as assistive technology to become one. As mainstream devices become smarter and more adaptable, their ability to support independence could become one of the most important—and unexpected—outcomes of India’s consumer technology boom.