About the Natively Adaptive Interfaces approach

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The Natively Adaptive Interfaces (NAI) approach revolutionizes how people with disabilities interact with technology. Regular accessibility features are often added late in development, resulting in clunky and ineffective solutions. Furthermore, these features are sometimes hidden in obscure settings, making them difficult for users to find.

NAI takes a fundamentally different approach. Instead of treating accessibility as an afterthought, NAI integrates it directly into a multimodal agent from the very beginning. This agent serves as the primary user interface. This proactive integration promises a significant curb-cut effect.

The curb-cut effect describes how features designed for accessibility, like curb cuts for wheelchairs, benefit a much wider population. Examples include people with strollers, delivery workers, and travelers with luggage. Similarly, within NAI, disability-focused agentive features become universally beneficial as the agent proactively guides all users to them. The agent adapts its interaction style, content, and delivery based on each individual's specific needs.

Key Point: NAI prioritizes user-centric design, especially for users with disabilities. Their needs are not merely considered but form the foundation of the interface design. Through user research and co-design, NAI creates interfaces that are inherently adaptable.

What's next

• Key terms