Presented by Dr Miriam Boyles & Holly Allison from OrangeBus at Design It; Build It 2018 Our recent research into the current use and perception of voice user interfaces (VUI), such as Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri, revealed a widespread perception of the technology as ‘lazy’. VUI was seen to encourage idleness, with people using their bodies less to carry out simple domestic tasks. Rather than enabling able-bodied users it was seen to be disabling and this perception gave the technology a certain stigma. In this talk we will share with you our journey to understand and define the way VUI technology can afford people more freedom, independence and control in later life.