If this is okay, then what's to stop the same logic being applied to other communication-assisting devices (e.g. those speaking boards)? Wheelchairs? Prosthetics? Where does it stop? Because believe me, they will keep pushing, if it makes them money; companies with shareholders are legally obliged to.
There is no such thing. The reality is that companies that don't profit maximize are replaced by companies that do profit maximize. The effect does not have to be formalized in law.
Can we please stop with this meme? No, they are not "legally responsible" to keep pushing. Saying this removes the moral responsibility from the people making these terrible decisions.
The system is broken; our job is to work around it, establish a de-facto “shadow system” and then (if necessary) usurp the original system.
My grandparents had a phone which only allowed incoming calls (which my older cousins did a type of phone phreaking on to call out, or at least pretended to!)
That doesn't necessarily mean it's a trivial purchase—far too much of the country (never mind the world) lives in poverty—but it's not something anyone in the US would pay in installments.
The government can give phones away if they want to (and they do), no need to ban other arrangements.
No cost benefit analysis neede? By this logic we would still have endentured servitude and child labour, after all they are just "other arrangements"
A smartphone is required for thousands of essential services, up to the point where EU citizens need one to claim their right to reside in UK after brexit.
I needed it to open a bank account.
During covid you have to leave details in every restaraunt using a smartphone for contact tracing.