An overview of the Internet of Things for people with disabilities

Currently, over a billion people including children (or about 15% of the world's population) are estimated to be living with disability. The lack of support services can make handicapped people overly dependent on their families, which prevents them from being economically active and socially included. The Internet of Things can offer people with disabilities the assistance and support they need to achieve a good quality of life and allows them to participate in the social and economic life. In this paper, an overview of the Internet of Things for people with disabilities is provided. For this purpose, the proposed architecture of the Internet of Things is introduced. Different application scenarios are considered in order to illustrate the interaction of the components of the Internet of Things. Critical challenges have been identified and addressed. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.