Assistive Technology Provision in Low Resource Settings: Challenges and Opportunities

Assistive Technology (AT) is a very powerful tool to enable people to live healthy, productive, independent and dignified lives; to participate in education, the labour market and civic life. AT is essential for equal opportunities and the full use of human potential in society. In many countries, however, most people with disabilities do not have easy access to AT. This has to change, but changing this situation is not an easy task, especially not in settings without a clear infrastructure, legislation and without a history of AT provision. The central question to be discussed in this paper is; What requirements need to be met when improving AT provision? The focus will be on low resource settings. Not only challenges will be addressed, but also the opportunities specific to low resource settings. The aim of this paper is to stimulate relevant stakeholders to take the necessary steps to improve AT provision and to suggest some guidelines for these steps.