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Steve Jacobs and The IDEAL Group: Think Globally—And Be Patient!

Tags:Assistive Technology, Case Studies, Collaboration, Innovators, Marketing

According to Jacobs’ analysis, incorporating accessible IT into a range of products can enable those goods to be highly competitive in global markets. This is particularly the case within large developing nations, where these items could improve economies by increasing the flow of capital. In addition, Jacobs holds that the manufacture and marketing of accessible IT by American companies could help to reverse the United States’ trade deficit and enable it to dominate the global IT market, not by selling products that are cheaper, but products that are more accessible, usable, and useful.

His perspective has been featured in recent reports by the National Council on Disability (NCD) and the National Task Force on Technology and Disability (a blue ribbon panel funded by C.S. Mott and the NEC Foundation). (See “Design for Inclusion” and “Within Our Reach”).

Brad Fain of Georgia Tech’s Applied Research Institute, the Information Technology Technical Assistance and Training Center (ITTATC) at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the Principal Investigator on the NCD’s “Design for Inclusion” chose Jacobs to write the market definition and research for the paper. “Steve has a balanced view of accessibility,” says Fain. “Some people can get hung up on the technical side, but there’s more to it than solving technical problems. He has a broader view. For one thing, while some people think about accessible design in terms of meeting the needs of a specific disability, Steve asks instead how we can provide for specific functional limitations, whether they are caused by disability or because of environmental or other factors. Also, he understands what motivates industry. There are compelling reasons for why companies should make accessible products, and Steve talks about that clearly and in sharp detail.”

The Global Market

“In the field of disability, often it’s ‘supply-push’ market forces—things that aren’t profit motivated—that compel companies to provide accessible goods and services,” says Jacobs. “What we see when we look at the possibility of markets in the developing nations is how accessible products created by ‘supply-push’ forces can meet the needs of the ‘demand-pull’ of markets—things like market share, efficiency, net profit, sales, productivity, and competitive advantage.”

“For example,” he continues, “developing nations are trying to strengthen their economies. To do that, they need cash flowing through the government and through the economy. Accessible ATMs that can speak are very helpful in making this happen. In China, for example, ATM’s can be used to deposit cash, top-off mobile phone cards, buy insurance or government bonds and pay for goods through person-to-person cash transfers. These transactions keep cash flowing through the economy. Technologies originally developed for people with disabilities are now being applied specifically in emerging markets to help overcome many other barriers. For example, text-to-speech synthesis can help people who have never learned to read use an ATM. Where electricity is not dependable, ATMs can be powered by solar panels. Where there is a lack of wired communications infrastructures, ATMs can operate wirelessly. ATMs can accommodate high density populations with interfaces that encourage faster transactions. Plain Language, developed for people with cognitive reading disabilities or who are deaf, can economically provide translations for many different languages. Finally, ATMs are increasingly being equipped with GPS systems, so if one is stolen, you can always find it.”

The example of ATMs is just one among many. Accessible IT can be incorporated into a wide range of goods meeting the needs of immense populations: consumers who live within low-bandwidth information infrastructures; who are over the age of sixty-five; who never learned to read; who only speak, write, or understand English as a second language; or who are consumers with disabilities. Accessible IT helps everyone.

Compelling Specifics:

How IT Helps Reach Billions of Consumers in Developing Nations
Here are several examples that detail how accessible features can meet the needs of hundreds of millions of consumers internationally.

Text to speech technology can reach consumers in developing nations who do not read.
The top 20 largest developing countries have 740 million citizens who do not read.
(http://www.ideal-group.org/wb_conference.htm, see Table 8)

Accessible design can meet the needs of consumers over 65.
In the top 20 emerging markets, there are 237 million people over 65.
(http://www.ideal-group.org/wb_conference.htm, see Table 12)

“Plain Language” works well for the world’s English language learners.
One and a half billion of the world’s six billion people speak English as a second language.
(http://www.ideal-group.org/wb_conference.htm, see Footnote 2)

“Plain Language” reduces translation costs in regions with many languages by as much as 30 percent. In just 5 of the top 20 largest developing nations there are 142 languages spoken by 500,000 people.
(http://www.ideal-group.org/wb_conference.htm, see Table 9)

Speech recognition technology is effective for people with low literacy, although it was developed to accommodate people with mobility disabilities. Primary school enrollments in 12 of the top 20 developing nations is at 69.5 percent.
(http://www.ideal-group.org/wb_conference.htm, see Tables 7 and 6)

Accessible design for user interfaces reduces wait times on public access terminals in nations with high density populations. Population density in the USA is 32 people per square kilometer—in the top 10 emerging markets it is 188 people per square kilometer. (In China, 138, in India, 353.)

Accessible content works at the low bandwidth used by up to 3.6 billion consumers by enabling the automatic transcoding of these applications into formats that are accessible by wireless devices operating within low-bandwidth environments. 19 of the top 20 largest emerging markets have less bandwidth availability per 100 people than the USA. A majority of the 3.6 billion consumers in these nations have access to less than 1% of the bandwidth available in the USA.
(http://www.ideal-group.org/wb_conference.htm, see Table 11)

Fifteen of the top 20 largest emerging markets have cell phone to standard telephone ratios greater than the United States. Eight of these countries have more than twice the number of cell phones per standard telephone as that of the United States.
(http://www.ideal-group.org/wb_conference.htm, Table 10)

Creating Demand and Supply

In Jacobs’ policy pieces, the fit seems natural between accessible products and a wide range of consumers. But out in the real world, how will consumers and their middlemen understand what they’re missing? How will manufacturers understand the potential market? Jacobs also works to motivate demand and supply.

One project Jacobs is involved in to create demand is the World Bank. The World Bank invests billions of dollars annually to employ innovative information and communications technology to help reduce poverty, enhance economic growth, foster social development, raise employment, and attract sustainable private sector investment in developing countries.

IDEAL was initially brought in to the Bank in support of establishing an accessible Internet resource center for the World Bank’s International Disability Conference. Jacobs now works to raise awareness of the contribution that people with disabilities can make to ICT development efforts, including practical steps enabling them to identify gaps and provide solutions. He helps developing countries design and implement accessible technologies so that they are usable by as many individuals as technically possible and economically feasible. Each nation will solve the accessibility problem in its own way and fit solutions to its particular culture, geography, demographics, and language. The IDEAL Group works to create demand by helping foreign governments understand what accessible technologies can do and how much more effective it is to include accessibility in the design phase rather than retrofit. (For more details, see http://ideal-group.org/World_Bank/.)

Jacobs also works with industry to encourage them to incorporate accessibility into their products and services. At the Commerce Department’s STAT-USA/Internet, The IDEAL Group is partnering to update their Internet Companion to International Business.

IDEAL (in conjunction with ITTATC) offers accessible on-line consulting and collaboration tools as part of its outreach to industry. His on-line course entitled, “The Business Benefits of Accessible Design” funded in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF), is conducted through his Internet-based accessible collaboration tool.

“Educating businesses on how to gain competitive advantage is important,” he explains. The United States currently has a $85 billion trade deficit worldwide in computers and electronics (http://ideal-group.org/trade_balances_2004/), but Jacobs believes that can be turned around. “American industry may not be able to manufacture the least expensive products on the market. However, we can make products that are much more accessible, usable and useful to hundreds of millions of consumer around the globe. We’ve got the patents, the brainpower, and the expertise. There are huge markets out there and with our knowledge and design expertise, we know we can be successful.”

Barriers: Standards, Education, and the Stock Market

Despite a powerful vision, and the economic analysis to back it up, Jacobs is a patient and methodical man—because he has to be. He acknowledges barriers to implementing this logical and potentially profitable scenario.

“I guess it comes as no surprise that unharmonized standards are a problem. If the standards weren’t different all over the world, companies could easily capitalize on manufacturing economies of scale. For example, standards for ATMs vary all over the world. And ATMs are being manufactured today specifically designed to many different, and sometimes conflicting, standards.

“Education takes time. Initially at the World Bank, I had thought we could just mandate the incorporation of accessibility, but it quickly became clear that this was not going to work. Each country has its own way of doing things, its own culture, its own priorities. Even when you look at the European Union and the United States, where you can think that obviously these large groups of people would benefit from sharing standards and incorporating these features to accommodate different languages, literacy levels, and abilities, it takes time and education.

“Finally—and I don’t know if this is the biggest problem but it’s not the smallest—Wall Street has its demands. Driving quick returns on investment very often works against establishing long-term product development projects. Product lifecycles are getting shorter and shorter. For example, a company might manufacture a cell phone with new bells and whistles. The company then sells as many as it can. After six months the product is phased out and sold at clearance prices. The company then introduces another new product into the market place. Widely accessible products take time to develop. They also need to be adapted for different cultures—and while this may take a little time you can market accessible products to larger populations.

“But I am a patient individual,” Jacobs concludes, “and I know this is the right thing to do, for a lot of reasons. So I keep working at it, and I’m willing to wait.”

Examples of Implementation on Steve Jacobs’ Website

The IDEAL Group’s website has a wide range of examples and demonstrations of how manufacturers have incorporated accessible technology into their mainstream products. Cell phone, PDA, telephone access to the Internet, the Low-Vision Web Portal, Closed Captioning, and Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) are just some of the accessible products featured.

Another implementation example are accessible kiosks – some of which have been designed by the IDEAL Group:

http://www.kioskbusiness.com/NovDec01/articles/article3.html

http://www.businessweek.com/
bwdaily/dnflash/june2000/nf00628a.htm

What Is The IDEAL Group?

The IDEAL Group is a for-profit corporation with one employee—Steve Jacobs—and all other services provided by contractors, so that Jacobs selects, supervises, controls—and stands behind—each effort.

“We used the same model when we were part of NCR [the company IDEAL spun off from in 2002], except there our contractors were employees from other divisions of the organization. We paid them and they worked for us, and it’s the same now. That means we can offer the competitive advantage of finding the most talented people to work on each of our projects, and ensure the quality of the deliverable. It’s a system that’s worked well for us,” says Jacobs.

Jacobs decides what to work on in accordance with IDEAL’s mission—“to drive the design of information and communications technologies that are accessible by the greatest number of consumers as technically possible and economically feasible.” Bottom line? If a project does not help a lot of people IDEAL turns it down.

A Frequent NIDRR Reviewer

Steve Jacobs has served as a NIDRR peer reviewer annually since 2001. He keeps volunteering because of the richness of the experience.

“I get much more out of reviewing proposals than I invest in it. Of course it’s a lot of reading and a lot of time spent in behind-closed-door discussion, but it exposes me to the thoughts of amazing people. The networking that takes place at reviews—where you’re alone in a room with twelve people, each one an expert in his or her own right—is a gift in itself. Most of our contractors have had something to do with NIDRR.”

Cameo of Our Featured Collaborator

Steve Jacobs is President of IDEAL Group, Inc. IDEAL Group is a 2002 spin-off of IDEAL at NCR Corporation which, in 1996, was spun off from AT&T. IDEAL Group’s mission is, “To promote and support the use of mainstream market forces to drive the design of more accessible Information and Communications Technology.” Jacobs also manages industry outreach activities for the NIDRR-funded Information Technology Technical Assistance and Training Center (ITTATC) located at Georgia Institute of Technology.

Jacobs served as President of IDEAL at NCR until he retired in 2002, after 20 years of service. Prior to 1997, Jacobs managed NCR’s global accessibility program and a wide-range of technical support, application development, and technical education groups. He also served as Chairman of AT&T Global Information Solution’s Project Freedom which pioneered the use of interactive video technology in support of sign-language communication over the Internet. Jacobs has also been a hardware product manager; a commercial industry marketing manager, and worked in system sales.