Assistive Technology

International News

Apple gets FDA authorization to turn the AirPods Pro into hearing aids. “The second-generation AirPods Pro will be able to serve as clinical-grade hearing aids later this fall.” (Sep, The Verge)

Assistive Products Market Report 2024 Findings include:

• “Of the billions of people who need eyeglasses, just 36 percent can access them.”
• “Hearing aids are available to just 20 percent of the hundreds of millions of people with hearing loss.”
• “Wheelchairs are available for just 5 to 35 percent of the 80 million people who need them.” (Jun, ATscale)

Guidelines for assistive technology service provision – a scoping review. (Mar, AT2030 Programme)

Navigating the AT Ecosystem as Users: Findings from IDA’s Assistive Technology Survey, which received 1040 responses from over 100 countries. (Mar, IDA)

Hearing aid service delivery approaches for low- and middle-income settings. (Feb, WHO)

Unlock the everyday a new campaign for assistive technology in low and middle-income countries. (Jan, Unlock the Everyday)

How AI is advancing assistive technology (Jan, TechTarget)

Facilitating access to assistive technology and rehabilitation. Guidance to help prioritize and plan around the provision of assistive technology and rehabilitation services in settings where UNHCHR works. (UNHCR)

In search of a prosthetic revolution: from charity to investment.

“It is not just money that is needed. A huge amount of time is involved in making prosthetic limbs, in particular because they are a feat of engineering and science. I can spend anywhere between one to four years getting a new leg made and people wonder why I have to be so careful not to gain or lose weight: if my leg does not fit, I have to spend a huge amount of time in clinics having a new one made. The process is slow, open to error, and sadly can take a lot of time to get right. All these things can really impact people’s mental health, especially if anyone has fluctuating weight and their limb simply does not fit. These are the added pressures faced by so many amputees and prosthetic limb users on a daily basis.” (2023, ATscale)

Bridging divides: The role of inclusive technology for learners with disabilities. (2023, Global Partnership on Education)

Assistive Technology Digest a quarterly publication “with the objective of increasing awareness about the possibilities offered by assistive technology as experienced by its users.” (2023, IDA)

How sovereign funds could empower the future of assistive technology and disability AI (2023, World Economic Forum)

AI Revolution: Paralyzed Woman ‘Speaks’ via Digital Avatar (2023, Neuroscience News)

Repair strategies for assistive technology in low resource settings “The results of this analysis demonstrate the paramount importance of community-based repair of devices, and how despite this importance, repair is often overlooked in the planning and design of assistive products and services.” (2023, Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology)

How the wheelchair opened up the world to millions of people Wheelchairs have existed since the invention of the wheel. But technological advances have revolutionized the way that people use them. (2023, National Geographic)

GDI Hub, Google and AT Scale launch pioneering project to test ‘Mobile at Assistive Tech’ in Kenya, Brazil and India. (2023, Global Disability Innovation Hub)

WHO releases new Wheelchair provision guidelines (2023, WHO)

What Works highlights report a summary of learnings in data, innovation, implementation, capacity and participation. (2023, AT2030)

Integrating rehab and assistive technology into health systems. How can rehabilitation and health system stakeholders agree on priorities for integrating rehabilitation and AT into health systems? Shared prioritization and planning local actions. (2023, ReLAB-HS)

‘Care bots’: a dream for carers or a dangerous fantasy? (2023, the Guardian)

Walking naturally after spinal cord injury using a brain–spine interface: “a digital bridge between the brain and spinal cord that enabled an individual with chronic tetraplegia to stand and walk naturally in community settings” (2023, Nature)

Envision Adds ChatGPT AI Sight Assistance To Its Smart Glasses For The Blind (2023, Forbes)

Sony launches point-and-shoot camera for people with vision disabilities. (2023, Disability Insider)

HearX hearing care by community health workers using digital technologies. (2023, AT2030)

AT Venture Fund Playbook “This playbook was designed to help current and future fund operators and ventures learn from the work of the Assistive Technology Impact Fund (ATIF). It aims to share lessons from launching a fund in a nascent sector and working with a small portfolio of assistive technology ventures.” (2023, AT Impact Fund)

Why Assistive Technology matters thematic briefs explore its relations to inclusive education and climate action. (2023, ATScale)

COVID-19, access and assistive technology: The need for preparedness (2022, Global Social Policy)

A new book on Prosthetics and Assistive Technology in Ancient Greece and Rome. (2022, Cambridge University Press)

The Greatest beautiful music video showing people using assistive digital technology. (2022, Apple)

Digital Planet audio feature on is disability tech delivering? (no transcript, 2022, BBC)

Making the direct to consumer model work for Assistive Technology warns about the “unintended consequences” of assitive technology relying on charity:

“AT distribution that depends on charitable and philanthropic funding are highly vulnerable to financial cuts and changes in priorities. What’s more, AT distribution cannot be a one-off event like a vaccination camp. Distributed AT must be maintained, adapted and changed as the needs of the user change. Few charitable models are able to accommodate such a model- over time, people can be left with AT that is no longer fit for purpose, and disillusioned as to its value.” (2022, AT2030)

Marketing Matters on how AT startups need to invest in marketing (2022, AT2030)

The Global Report on Assistive Technology: a new era in assistive technology (2022, Assistive Technology)

Needed by one and three and me: assistive technology in my own life and in a global context, with wheelchair cameos by the Pope and Queen of England. (2022, Disability Debrief)

Interesting discussion on Center for Inclusive Policy on Why is access to assistive technology not a global priority? (2022, CIP)

Global Report on Assistive Technology. From the press release:

“More than 2.5 billion people need one or more assistive products, such as wheelchairs, hearing aids, or apps that support communication and cognition. Yet nearly one billion of them are denied access, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, where access can be as low as 3% of the need for these life-changing products.” (2022, WHO and UNICEF)

A scoping review of Technologies Measuring Manual Wheelchair Propulsion Metrics (2022, Assistive Technology)

What do you call technology that's meant to be assistive but isn't? This essay explores the term Disability Dongle coined by Liz Jackson to refer to well intended but useless “solutions“. The essay explores experience of what happens when the authors call out these technologies and how their idea has spread. (2022, Platypus)

TIDAL N+ "Transformative Innovation in the delivery of Assisted Living Products and Services" - "building a transdisciplinary network" (2022, GDI)

For every dollar invested in assistive technology, there is a return of $9 (2022, IDA)

A systematic review of global population-based research Estimating need and coverage for five priority assistive products. “The finding of high unmet need (>60%) for each of the five APs emphasises the need to secure political prioritisation and funding to expand access to AT globally.” (2022, BMJ Global Health)

Measuring assistive technology supply and demand a scoping review (2021, Assistive Technology Journal)

UNICEF to introduce 24 new assistive products into the global Supply Catalogue. "Through global tenders, UNICEF and WHO have been able to negotiate low-cost prices which will ensure these highly technical and specialized pieces of equipment can be quickly and easily ordered by field teams, partners, and governments." (2021, UNICEF)

Introduction to the companion papers to the global report on assistive technology (2021, Assistive Technology Journal)

A new book Disability Interactions: Creating Inclusive Innovations "focuses on the interactions people have with their technologies and the interactions which result because of technology use" (2021, GDI Hub)

Evidence brief on promoting access to assistive technology for individuals with disabilities in Low- and Middle-Income Settings. "Limited access to assistive technology is exacerbated by the lack of awareness about assistive technology and what the technology can offer to people with disabilities". (2021, Disability Evidence Portal)

Back to contents.

Asia-Pacific

Meeting rising demand for disability devices. “Limited access to assistive technologies such as eyeglasses, hearing aids, mobility and communication devices, and a lack of trained workers remain significant challenges in meeting the needs of people with disabilities and the elderly in the Asia Pacific region.” (2022, Eco-Business)

Back to contents.

Africa

African Union commits to driving forward the agenda of Assistive Technology. “By committing to develop a comprehensive Assistive Technology (AT) strategy for Africa”. (Aug, ATscale)

It's a Much Harder Journey: Scaling Assistive Technology Innovations to New Markets in Africa. (Jan, AfriCHI '23)

Emerging African Ecosystems for assistive technology: “companies must not only be an expert in AT (not an easy feat), but also need to master financing, hiring, logistics and distribution, warehousing, both physical and digital advertising, customer services”. (2022, AT2030)

Assistive Technology Innovate Now launch of its 5th Cohort on Digital AT and Entrepreneurship (2022, AT Innovate Now)

Back to contents.

Kenya

Recommendations from a research study on inclusive education and assistive technology: “tax exemption on assistive technology would contribute to the development of education targeting learners with disabilities.” (2023, NewTimes)

Self-taught Kenyan cousins invent bio-robotic prosthetic limbs. (2023, Mail&Guardian)

Back to contents.

Malawi

AgriLab model is rolled out in Malawi to co-design assistive technology (2023, Spark)

Relevance of assistive technology and the sustainable development goals to stakeholder organizations. “The cross-cutting nature of the relevance of AT underscores the importance of cross-ministerial cooperation and shared leadership in provision AT.” (2022, Global Health Action)

Age related increase in impairment across the life course: the use of Zomba curves to estimate assistive technology needs. (2022)

Back to contents.

Rwanda

UNICEF supplies hundreds of children with life-changing hearing aids “UNICEF was able to significantly reduce the prices for these quality devices, providing them to the Government of Rwanda for $118. At this point in time, the same hearing aid can cost as much as $2,000 if buying it commercially within Rwanda.” (2022, UNICEF)

Back to contents.

South Africa

The effects of cognitive effort on academic performance of learners with cochlear implants. “The study highlights that cognitive effort of learners with cochlear implants influenced their capabilities to multitask and retain information”. (2022, African Journal on Disability)

Back to contents.

Azerbaijan

How WHO is supporting Azerbaijan in improving rehabilitation and assistive technology services (2022, WHO)

Back to contents.

China

Chinese robot 'guide dog' aims to improve independence for visually impaired

“Roughly the size of an English Bulldog but a bit wider, it can communicate by listening and speaking with a visually impaired operator with artificial intelligence technology incorporated into its voice recognition, route planning capabilities and traffic light identification.” (Jul, Reuters)

Prosthetic hand, Chinese Braille designers awarded Design Intelligence Awards. (2023, Shine)

Young people in Guangzhou commute in electric wheelchairs as e-bikes face tighter rules. ‘The electric wheelchair “saves effort and is flexible, and you can ‘drive’ directly to your destination without having to find a parking space”’ (2023, The Straits Times)

Back to contents.

Georgia

Nina’s story: How assistive technology is improving her quality of life (2022, WHO)

Back to contents.

India

Maiden wheelchair insurance a step towards transforming disability sector (2023, The Tribune)

Who Pays the Price When Cochlear Implants Go Obsolete? “Some cochlear implant users can’t afford to keep up with compulsory technology upgrades. After becoming dependent on the devices, they’re losing their hearing and feel abandoned by manufacturers.” (2023, Sapiens)

Food Delivery Service With A Difference: This Motorised Wheelchair “Gives Wings To People With Disabilities” (2022, NDTV)

Sensory Futures: Deafness and Cochlear Implant Infrastructures in India:

“In this book, I attend to becoming normal, specifically in relation to sensory normality. I argue that normalization leads to, and is a form of, narrowing. Becoming normal—a key promise of cochlear implant technology—constrains people’s sensory, modal, and relational engagements. Normative sensory configurations and communicative practices based on listening and spoken language are the desired outcomes after cochlear implantation. These desired outcomes are tethered to ideas and ideals about a “right way” to sense, communicate, and relate to others. The Indian state, families of deaf children, medical professionals, and educators, among other stakeholders, increasingly expect that these normative outcomes will occur. They work to foreclose other outcomes for deaf individuals, such as becoming sign language users or orienting to others through vision and touch. As cochlear implants become more ubiquitous in India, sensory, modal, and relational possibilities for deaf children and those with whom they engage diminish. Sensory normality, as a desired goal and outcome, results in a contraction rather than an expansion of ways of engaging with the world.” (2022, Manifold)

From Hoping to Expecting: Cochlear Implantation and Habilitation in India (2022, Cultural Anthropology)

Back to contents.

Indonesia

Assistive Technologies for Children with Disabilities in Inclusive and Special Schools in Indonesia (2023, World Bank)

Back to contents.

Myanmar

Integrating rehabilitation and assistive technologies into community programs: Lessons from Kayin State, Burma (Jun, USAID)

Back to contents.

Pakistan

‘Without a wheelchair my life would be useless’: Zahida Quereshi, whose organization provides thousands of custom wheelchairs. (2022, the Guardian)

Back to contents.

Turkmenistan

Speak my language: a first for digital voice communication in Turkmen. “Thanks to this project, people with screen readers will be able to download the text-to-speech voice in Turkmen.” (2023, ATScale)

Back to contents.

Türkiye

New tech glasses made in Türkiye aim to benefit persons with disability. (2023, Daily Sabah)

Back to contents.

Yemen

War leads to demand for prosthetics. (2022, Reuters)

Back to contents.

Europe

Association between the hearing aid and mental health outcomes in people with hearing impairment:

“Hearing aid use was associated with lower rates of depression and [unmet mental health needs], bases on 17,000 participants from 28 countries.” (Sep, Journal of Affective Disorders)

A scoping review of assistive technology needs, access and coverage and related barriers and facilitators. “The three key elements significantly affecting the capacity of AT systems to deliver appropriate services to potential users were the relative accessibility of the systems themselves, their financial affordability for users and the acceptability of different APs.” (2022, Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology)

Back to contents.

France

In the Paralympic Fix-It Shop, Plenty of Fractures but No Blood Repair technicians at the Paris Games fix everything from bent wheelchair frames to broken sunglasses. (Sep, New York Times)

Back to contents.

Germany

'The Malleable Body: Surgeons, Artisans, and Amputees in Early Modern Germany' A book review. (Apr, H-Disability)

Back to contents.

Ireland

‘All I want is to go outside’: Man trapped at home for years while waiting for electric wheelchair. (Jul, The Irish Times)

Back to contents.

Italy

Disability, Rehabilitation, and Assistive Technologies for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Italy: Policies and Challenges. “The lack of a standardized vulnerability assessment represents the main barrier to the organization of specific services for migrants within the community.” (2023, Societies)

Back to contents.

Norway

A Material Culture of Medieval Disability: Contextualising Norwegian Votive Offerings.

“The Norwegian votives, which include wooden body parts of hands, arms, finger, feet and legs as well as mobility aids, are here related to the lived experience of the physically impaired” (Apr, Norwegian Archaeological Review)

Back to contents.

Ukraine

List of prostheses manufacturers compiled in Ukraine. (2023, Yahoo! News)

Ukrainian soldiers benefit from U.S. prosthetics expertise but their war is different. (2023, NPR)

Back to contents.

United Kingdom

17 accessible sex toys and aids for anyone with a disability (Jul, Disability Horizons)

Getting to grips with an extra thumb “An emerging area of future technology is motor augmentation – using motorised wearable devices such as exoskeletons or extra robotic body parts to advance our motor capabilities beyond current biological limitations.” (May, University of Cambridge)

Newcastle United introduce 'sound shirts' for deaf fans (Apr, BBC)

Assistive Technology Changes Lives: an assessment of AT need and capacity in England:

“There was a notable lack of joined up thinking, and missed opportunity for holistic AT delivery that considered the whole individual, across their life-course and diverse needs. Many people were found to be waiting months - and even years - to access essential AT products, while discussions over who would fund what prevailed.” (2023, Global Disability Innovation Hub)

Back to contents.

Vatican City

Pope Francis uses wheelchair in public for the first time (2022, the Guardian)

Back to contents.

United States

The $1,000 Wheelchair. “How the YouTubers from JerryRigEverything are Making Affordable Wheelchairs Without the Red Tape” (Oct, New Mobility)

Paralyzed man unable to walk after maker of his powered exoskeleton tells him it's now obsolete. Repairs were only done after a media campaign:

“When one of its small parts malfunctioned, however, the entire device stopped working. Desperate to gain his mobility back, he reached out to the manufacturer, Lifeward, for repairs. But it turned him away, claiming his exoskeleton was too old”. (Sep, Neoscope)

After private equity firms gobbled up wheelchair makers, users pay the price in long repair times. (May, STAT)

How Disabled People Get Exploited to Build the Technology of War An essay exploring the “wheelchair-to-warfare pipeline”:

“The cutting-edge products that Big Tech and the Pentagon are developing could be rebuilding an untold number of lives. Instead, they’re being sent to the battlefield to ruin more.” (Apr, The New Republic)

How a team of scientists is helping people hear the eclipse “We mapped the bright light of the sun to a flute sound.” (Apr, CNN World)

The new norm a campaign video and photo series to change perceptions of hearing aids. (Mar)

Wearing hearing aids could reduce your risk of dying earlier. “For people with hearing loss, regular use of hearing aids could reduce the risk of dying earlier by 24 percent vs. not wearing them at all” (Jan, Washington Post)

Wheelchair Profiteering: A series, starting with How the For-Profit Industry Makes Money:

“If your goal is to sell wheelchairs to poor cash buyers without health insurance, then it makes sense to treat the wheelchair like a commodity. Since commodities are interchangeable, the seller with the lowest price gets the highest sales volume. If your goal is to sell wheelchairs to wealthy buyers or people with health insurance, then it makes sense to treat your wheelchair like a custom prosthesis and create wheelchairs with the highest profit margins.” (2023, Erik Kondo)

How deaf fans of opera can feel the music with Lyric Opera’s new shirt “A pilot program at Lyric Opera of Chicago aims to tailor the opera experience by offering wearable technology to patrons” (2023, Washington Post)

Long wheelchair repair times spur effort to get Massachusetts to act (2023, Boston Globe)

A Flexible Interface for Single-Switch Users A Usability Study of Nomon:

“Many individuals with severe motor impairments communicate via a single switch—which might be activated by a blink, facial movement, or puff of air. These switches are commonly used as input to scanning systems that allow selection from a 2D grid of options. Nomon is an alternative interface that provides a more flexible layout, not confined to a grid.” (2023, Assets Conference)

A football helmet for deaf and hard of hearing quarterbacks unveiled by AT&T and Gallaudet University. “It allows a coach to call a play on a tablet from the sideline that then shows up visually on a small display screen inside the quarterback’s helmet.” (2023, ABC News)

Hearing Aids Are Changing. “As more young people risk hearing loss, over-the-counter hearing aids are providing new options, but also confusing choices.” (2023, New York Times)

A Bride’s Prosthesis Made Not to Blend In, but to Shine. (2023, New York Times)

This researcher builds ‘cool stuff for blind people.’ He’s also trying to help transform society. (2022, PBS)

3D printing allows blind chemists to visualise scientific data. (2022, Chemistry World)

Elderly and Disabled Assistive Devices Market Size report by Acumen (2022, Global Newswire)

Disability At Home practical solutions and photographs that “document the ingenuity and creativity that caregivers and disabled people, including those with chronic illnesses, use every day to make home accessible.” (2022, Laura Mauldin)

This is old, but I liked seeing this wheelchair kitted-out to plow snow with tracks and an attached blade. (2016, WOWT 6 News)

Back to contents.

Australia

Adaptive musical instruments open up the world for people with disabilities and injuries:

“Modifying how we think about music to embrace people with disability can lead to new creative expressions, even new artforms.” (Aug, ABC News)

Smart glasses that play sounds help people who are blind find objects. (2023, New Scientist)

Impacts of new and emerging assistive technologies for ageing and disabled housing. Exploring smart home assistive technologies.. (2021)

Back to contents.

New Zealand

Five mobility aids our community are obsessed with An ice cream-grabbing walking cane and other personalised aids. (Oct, The D*List)

The everyday technologies essential for accessibility four disabled people on the tech they consider essential. (2023, The Spinoff)

Back to contents.

Uruguay

Hiking for everyone bringing people with disabilities closer to nature through a special wheelchair adapted for mountains. (In Spanish, Apr, El Pais)

Back to contents.