{"id":2637,"date":"2022-12-07T11:01:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-07T16:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/articles\/?p=2637"},"modified":"2024-04-25T23:18:11","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T03:18:11","slug":"inclusivity-matters-making-real-estate-accessible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/articles\/inclusivity-matters-making-real-estate-accessible\/","title":{"rendered":"Inclusivity Matters: Making Real Estate Accessible"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The internet and the smartphone help with all kinds of tasks. But can technology support accessibility at home?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Property-related technology, or proptech<\/em>, can indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To start, tech innovations can make housing safer. They can monitor and improve indoor air quality. They can warn us about potential outages of basic systems in our homes. Smart tech can help people with audio or visual disabilities do more \u2014 or do it more easily \u2014 at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s so much innovation happening. We\u2019ll take a look at just a few examples here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Real Estate Professionals Make Their Websites Accessible  <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For people with sight or hearing challenges, real estate professionals are adopting accessibility standards. A leading example is the WCAG \u2014 the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. WCAG is really a set of best practices for internet design. The guidelines include placing transcripts with videos and online tours, and enabling closed captioning for audio-visual content. (People now expect to find video tours of real estate for sale. If a video tour is there, it\u2019ll pay off, according to a Hubspot survey.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Real estate exemplifies the way our modern life is becoming tech-enabled. Certainly the pandemic boosted the real estate and title sector\u2019s adoption of proptech<\/a>. In 2020, agents learned how properties could be shown, leased, and even purchased online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now, many new technologies are practically taken for granted. Nuveen, a money management firm for nonprofit institutions, sums it up this way:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New technologies that are in various stages of adoption \u2013 think blockchain, the metaverse and autonomous vehicles \u2013 will significantly impact the (not so distant) future of real estate. While these technologies may be years away from going mainstream, real estate practitioners should understand their future significance\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An interesting forecast. But relevant to accessibility? It is. The tech Nuveen mentions will offer people new forms of mobility, and new ways of enjoying optimized experiences at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, here are some of the smart tech offerings that are already making home life easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smart Homes Become More Accessible<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Everyday tasks can present hassles for people living with disabilities. Depending on the challenges a person faces, tech like Apple\u2019s HomeKit and other smart-home systems can be game-changers. Smart-home devices running on a good Wi-Fi network can support independent living at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turn on lights without having to touch a switch; talk with someone at door without approaching it; turn on the fan with a simple voice command or by touching an iPad. An app known as VoiceITT can support voice commands from people with nonstandard speech patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The New York Times<\/em> product test column \u201cWirecutter\u201d also points to these smart-home innovations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n