What is Assistive Technology?

Assistive Technology

Assistive technology enables people to lead a healthy, productive, independent and dignified life, as well as participate in education, labor market and citizen life. Assistive technology can reduce the need for formal health and support services, long-term care, and caregiver work. Without assistive technology, people are often excluded, isolated, and trapped in poverty, thereby aggravating the impact of disease and disability on individuals, families, and society.

Today, due to the high cost and lack of awareness, availability, trained personnel, policies, and funding, only one in ten people in need can obtain assistive technology.

Important Facts about Assertive Technology

1. Assistive technology is a general term covering systems and services related to the provision of assistive devices and services.

2. Assistive devices can maintain or improve an individual's functional activity and independence, and thus promote well-being.

3. Hearing aids, wheelchairs, communication aids, glasses, prosthetic, medicine storage boxes, and memory aids are all examples of assistive devices.

4. Worldwide, more than one billion people need one or more assistive devices.

5. As the global population ages and non-communicable diseases increase, more than 2 billion people will need at least one assistive device by 2030. Many seniors will need two or more assistive devices.

6. Today, only one in ten people in need can obtain assistive devices.

Who can benefit from assistive technology?

Those most in need of assistive technology include:

• Disabled
• The elderly
• Patients with non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and stroke
• People with mental health disorders (including dementia and autism)
• Those whose body functions gradually decline.

Global unmet need for assistive technology

Around the world, many people in need cannot obtain assistive technology. Global unmet need for assistive technology includes the following examples:

• 200 million people with low vision cannot obtain amblyopia assistive products.
• 75 million people need wheelchairs, but only 5% to 15% can get wheelchairs.
• 466 million people worldwide suffer from hearing loss, and the production of hearing aids can currently only meet less than 10% of global demand.
• There is a huge manpower shortage in assistive technology: more than 75% of low-income countries do not have prosthetic and orthopedics training programs.

The countries with the highest prevalence of disability-related health problems are often the countries with the fewest health workers with skills to provide assistive technology (as few as two professionals per 10,000 population) .

The economic affordability in low-income countries is too low, which is a major reason why those in need do not have access to assistive devices .