SUMMARY - Tech That Leaves People Behind
Tech That Leaves People Behind
A banking app redesign makes navigation faster and sleeker—and breaks screen reader compatibility. A government service moves online and closes physical offices—leaving people without reliable internet access with no way to access essential services. A company discontinues support for older operating systems—and devices that still work become unusable. Technology advances often leave people behind, not through malice but through indifference to those outside the imagined user.
How Exclusion Happens
Designed for the "Typical" User
Technology designers often work from assumptions about who their users are: people with current devices, reliable connectivity, visual and motor capabilities within normal range, familiarity with digital interfaces, and English or French literacy. When teams lack diversity, these assumptions go unchallenged.
The "typical user" is a fiction. Actual users vary enormously in capability, context, and resources. Designing for the typical user means designing for some users while excluding others.
Feature Creep and Complexity
As software evolves, it tends to accumulate features, interface complexity, and resource demands. Each update may make sense individually but cumulatively makes the software harder to use, slower to run, and incompatible with older hardware.
Users with older devices, slower connections, or cognitive challenges that make complexity difficult face growing barriers as software "improves."
Planned Obsolescence
Technology companies have business models that depend on users buying new products. Software updates that slow older devices, discontinued security support for older operating systems, and physical designs that make repair difficult or impossible all push users toward replacement.
For users who cannot afford replacement or who prefer familiar technology, planned obsolescence creates exclusion.
The Digital-First Assumption
Organizations increasingly assume that everyone can and will access services digitally. Physical locations close. Phone support shrinks. Paper options disappear. The assumption that digital access is universal ignores the millions of Canadians without reliable connectivity, current devices, or digital skills.
Examples of Exclusionary Technology
Operating System Cutoffs
When Microsoft ended support for Windows 7, millions of devices became security risks overnight. Users who could not afford replacement computers or who depended on software incompatible with newer systems faced a choice between security vulnerabilities and functional computers.
Apple's iOS updates regularly drop support for older devices, making apps unavailable and existing functions unreliable.
Accessibility Regressions
Software updates sometimes break accessibility features—removing keyboard navigation, changing color schemes to low-contrast combinations, or restructuring interfaces in ways that confuse screen readers. These regressions may go unnoticed by developers but devastate users who depend on the broken features.
Platform Dependence
When services require specific platforms—iOS apps with no Android version, desktop software with no mobile alternative, web services that require specific browsers—users without access to those platforms are excluded.
Authentication Barriers
Multi-factor authentication, while improving security, can exclude users without smartphones, reliable phone service, or the ability to use authentication apps. Security improvements that assume particular capabilities can create new access barriers.
Who Gets Left Behind
Certain groups consistently face exclusion:
Low-income users cannot afford current devices, reliable internet, or frequent upgrades. They use older technology longer and face exclusion when support ends.
Seniors may prefer familiar interfaces, struggle with rapidly changing technology, and face vision, hearing, and motor changes that create accessibility needs.
Rural and remote residents often have limited connectivity options, making bandwidth-intensive modern applications impractical.
People with disabilities may depend on specific accessibility features that updates remove or break.
People with lower literacy or education may struggle with increasingly complex interfaces and assumptions of digital fluency.
Responses and Alternatives
Right to Repair
The right to repair movement advocates for user and third-party ability to repair devices, access to parts and documentation, and design for repairability. Extending device lifespan reduces exclusion from forced obsolescence.
Long-Term Support
Some software maintains long-term support versions for users who cannot or choose not to upgrade. Enterprise software often has extended support options, though typically at premium prices.
Maintaining Alternatives
Organizations can maintain non-digital channels—phone service, physical locations, paper options—for those who cannot access digital services. This adds cost but ensures access.
Inclusive Design
Designing with diverse users from the start, rather than optimizing for typical users and accommodating others, can reduce exclusion without sacrificing functionality.
The Question
If technology advancement systematically leaves behind those with fewer resources, older devices, or capabilities outside the design target, then progress for some means exclusion for others. How should technology development balance innovation with inclusion? Should organizations be required to maintain accessibility for older technologies and non-digital channels? And what obligations do companies have to users whose devices they render obsolete?