Witnessing 25 years of innovation at AbilityNet

In March 2001 a slightly geeky-looking man turned up at the IBM offices in Warwick. 

Wearing a jacket and a tie, I sat down and started my 22-year association with AbilityNet...

Now, in 2025, as I prepare to move to another organisation, here I reflect on the digital accessibility improvements I've witnessed for disabled people over that quarter of a century!

How things have changed

It was a much different time in 2001.

We take using the web for granted now, but in 2001, fewer than 40% of houses in the UK had internet access. Now, 93% of the population has internet access. 

AbilityNet used to have at least four Advice and Information Officers, armed with files full of printed factsheets that we would send out via the post on a daily basis.

Everyone who worked in an office would be in the office for every day of the week. Neither Facebook or YouTube were around. 

When I moved into my first home I had dial-up internet. In fact, I remember having a dedicated phone line for my internet use. That's weird to think about now.

Windows XP

This makes me feel old.... Back in 2001, we were all working on that workhorse of Windows, XP.

Strangely, as of 2025, 0.23% of computers worldwide are still running XP!

Back in 2001, if you wanted to change the way that the keyboard or the screen looked, you could do this via the Accessibility Wizard. If you didn't have any sight at all, you could use the Narrator to read text out to you.

Now, if you have Seeing AI installed you can have documents read out to you by just pointing your camera at a piece of text. Seeing AI will even tell you how old it thinks a person is. (It's not that reliable because it thinks I'm 59, when I'm much younger!!)

AbilityNet can support you!

Smartphones

There were no smartphones to speak of in 2001.

The first iPhone was released in 2007 and the first Android smartphone was released in 2008. 

I remember having one of those old classic Nokia phones, and the most exciting thing you could do on the LCD screen was to play games. Web access was possible, but, oh my, was it slow!

Talking about speed, the 3G network was rolled out in 2001. Major news for mobile phone historians was that the first smartphone with Bluetooth was introduced and the first phone to contain a calendar and a FM radio. 

Technology now

Now, most people have smartphones, although there is an ever-increasing gap between those people who have smartphones and tablets and those who still have "non smart phones" like the old Nokia phones.

People can do online banking, and browse the web on their phone. We're on Windows 11 now and accessibility both on computers and phones is so much better than two decades ago.

For instance, back in 2001 you had to buy a voice recognition package - now, with improvements in digital accessibility, you can use the built-in tech.  Now, although people still work in offices, the Covid pandemic convinced managers that people were just as productive when they worked at home as they were at the office. 

The future

I can't tell you what is going to happen in the future. I do think though that as technology changes there are always going to be people who are left behind by this "tech evolution". They are going to need support. Friends and family often can't provide this support. So, that's where AbilityNet can step in to help bridge the digital divide.

Free webinar: Tips to make your smartphone easier to use