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Report

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Assistive & Accessible Technology
Repair of Assistive Products in the UK: Wheelchairs. Outcomes of a 1-day workshop exploring this topic from user, community and provision system perspectives

Ben M. Oldfrey a, Vikranth H. Nagaraja b, Arhym Hoonchamlong a, Laurence P.J. Kenney

Our recent one-day workshop brought together a diverse group of stakeholders to examine the challenges and opportunities in wheelchair repair services. By engaging multiple perspectives, we gained valuable insights into how improved repair processes can enhance service delivery, empower users, and support sustainability efforts.

Key discussions focused on the urgent need to address data gaps in repair practices, promote user involvement, and shift towards systems that prioritise repair and maintenance. Innovative ideas, such as creating digital profiles for wheelchairs and using AI to predict breakdowns, were explored as ways to streamline repair services and improve user autonomy.

Going forward, collaboration between manufacturers, healthcare providers, and users will be essential to building a more sustainable, user-centred approach to wheelchair repairs.

Read the full report to learn more about the ideas and strategies shared during the workshop.

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Repair of Assistive Products in the UK: Wheelchairs. Outcomes of a 1-day workshop exploring this topic from user, community and provision system perspectives

Type

Report

Themes

Assistive & Accessible Technology
Repair of Assistive Products in the UK: Prosthetics & Orthotics. Outcomes of a 1-day workshop exploring this topic from user, community and provision system perspectives

Ben M. Oldfrey a, Vikranth H. Nagaraja b, Arhym Hoonchamlong a, Laurence P.J. Kenney

Our recent one-day workshop brought together a diverse group of stakeholders to explore the critical role of repair in the assistive technology sector. Through a range of perspectives, we uncovered valuable insights into how repair can drive sustainability, improve service delivery, and empower users.

Key discussions centered on the urgent need for a systemic shift toward more repairable and modular designs alongside regulatory changes and innovative frameworks that support efficient repair services. We also highlighted the importance of better data on repair practices and the need for transparency and user engagement.

As we look ahead, the conversation must include all stakeholders, particularly the users themselves. This collaborative approach will be vital to building a more sustainable and repairable future for assistive technology.

Read the full report to learn more about the insights and strategies shared during the workshop.

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Repair of Assistive Products in the UK: Prosthetics & Orthotics. Outcomes of a 1-day workshop exploring this topic from user, community and provision system perspectives

Type

Report

Themes

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

This report was prepared by Global Disability Innovation (GDI) Hub for the Disability Unit in the Cabinet Office His Majesty’s Government (HMG). The report presents findings from a Country Capacity Assessment (CCA) of AT access in England. Findings illustrate a complex state of AT in England. While delivery systems tend to provide quality products that have a strong, positive impact on people’s lives, processes are often slow and stressful for users and providers alike. Startlingly, there is also an AT access gap of 31% of disabled people not having the assistive products they need to flourish, thrive, or even participate in daily life.

The Cabinet Office; 2023

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Abstract

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

The aim of this research was to undertake a Country Capacity Assessment (CCA) to inform a more integrated approach to Assistive Technology (AT) provision in England. The results aim to support policymakers in identifying actions to strengthen service delivery to better meet disabled people’s needs, improving outcomes for AT users and reducing inefficiencies in the current approach.

The research was undertaken from November 2022 to March 2023 and led by the Global Disability Innovation (GDI) Hub, which is the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Collaborating Centre on AT access, using WHO tools in the Assistive Technology Assessment (ATA) suite.

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

Suggested Citation: Austin, V, Patel, D, Danemayer, J, Mattick, K, Landre, A, Smitova, M, Bandukda, M, Healy, A, Chockalingam, N, Bell D, and Holloway, C; Assistive Technology Changes Lives: an assessment of AT need and capacity in England; Cabinet Office, HMG; 2023

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

A young child holds a ball and looks up to an older child who is using a wheelchair. They are smiling at each other playfully

Type

Editorial

Themes

Culture and Participation
COVID-19 as social disability: the opportunity of social empathy for empowerment

Ikenna D Ebueny, Emma M Smith, Catherine Holloway, Rune Jensen, Lucía D'Arino, Malcolm MacLachlan

Social empathy is ‘the ability to more deeply understand people by perceiving or experiencing their life situations and as a result gain insight into structural inequalities and disparities’. Social empathy comprises three elements: individual empathy, contextual understanding and social responsibility. COVID-19 has created a population-wide experience of exclusion that is only usually experienced by subgroups of the general population. Notably, persons with disability, in their everyday lives, commonly experience many of the phenomena that have only recently been experienced by members of the general population. COVID-19 has conferred new experiential knowledge
on all of us. We have a rare opportunity to understand and better the lives of persons with disabilities for whom some aspects of the COVID- 19 experience are enduring. This allows us greater understanding of the importance of implementing in full a social and human rights model of disability, as outlined in the UNCRPD.

BMJ Global Health; 2020

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Abstract

COVID-19 as social disability: the opportunity of social empathy for empowerment

  • COVID-19 has conferred new experiential knowledge on society and a rare opportunity to better understand the social model of disability and to improve the lives of persons with disabilities.
  • The COVID-19 experience may offer contextual knowledge of the prepandemic lives of persons with disabilities and foster greater social awareness, responsibility and opportunities for change towards a more inclusive society.
  • Information, family and social relationships, health protection and healthcare, education, transport and employment should be accessible for all groups of the population. The means must be developed and deployed to ensure equity – the deployment of resources so that people with different types of needs have the same opportunities for living good lives in inclusive communities.
  • We have learnt from COVID-19 that inclusive healthcare and universal access should be the new normal, that its provision as a social good is both unifying and empowering for society as a whole.

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COVID-19 as social disability: the opportunity of social empathy for empowerment

Ebuenyi ID, Smith EM, Holloway C, et alCOVID-19 as social disability: the opportunity of social empathy for empowermentBMJ Global Health 2020;5:e003039.

COVID-19 as social disability: the opportunity of social empathy for empowerment

A woman wearing a mask, testing her hearing using an app and headphones

Type

Editorial

Themes

Assistive & Accessible Technology

Research Group

Social Justice
Developing inclusive and resilient systems: COVID-19 and assistive technology

Emma M. Smith, Malcolm MacLachlan, Ikenna D. Ebuenyi, Catherine Holloway & Victoria Austin

While the inadequacies of our existing assistive technology systems, policies, and services have been highlighted by the acute and rapidly changing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, these failures are also present and important during non-crisis times. Each of these actions, taken together, will not only address needs for more robust and resilient systems for future crises, but also the day-to-day needs of all assistive technology users. We have a responsibility as a global community, and within our respective countries, to address these inadequacies now to ensure an inclusive future.

Disability & Society; 2020

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Abstract

Developing inclusive and resilient systems: COVID-19 and assistive technology

Assistive technology is a critical component of maintaining health, wellbeing, and the realization of rights for persons with disabilities. Assistive technologies, and their associated services, are also paramount to ensuring individuals with functional limitations have access to important health and social service information, particularly during a pandemic where they may be at higher risk than the general population. Social isolation and physical distancing have further marginalized many within this population. We have an opportunity to learn from the COVID-19response to develop more inclusive and resilient systems that will serve people with disabilities more effectively in the future. In this Current Issues piece, we present a starting point for discussion, based on our experiences working to promote access to assistive technologies through inclusive and sustainable systems and policies.

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Developing inclusive and resilient systems: COVID-19 and assistive technology

Emma M. Smith, Malcolm MacLachlan, Ikenna D. Ebuenyi, Catherine Holloway & Victoria Austin (2021) Developing inclusive and resilient systems: COVID-19 and assistive technology, Disability & Society, 36:1, 151-154, DOI: 10.1080/09687599.2020.1829558

Developing inclusive and resilient systems: COVID-19 and assistive technology

Type

Editorial

Research Group

Social Justice
Assistive Technology (AT), for What?

This year (2022) has seen the publication of the World’s first Global Report on Assistive Technology (GReAT) [1]. This completes almost a decade of work to ensure assistive technology (AT) access is a core development issue. The lack of access to assistive products (APs), such as wheelchairs, hearing aids, and eyeglasses, as well as less well-referenced products such as incontinence pads, mobile phone applications, or walking sticks, affects as many as 2.5 billion people globally. Furthermore, the provision of APs would reap a 1:9 return on investment [2]. This could result in a family in need netting (or living without) over GBP 100,000 in their lifetime [2] or more, if we count dynamic overspills in the economy such as employment of assistive technology services and manufacturing of devices [3].

Societies; 2021

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Abstract

Assistive Technology (AT), for What?

Amartya Sen’s seminal Tanner lecture: Equality of What? began a contestation on social justice and human wellbeing that saw a new human development paradigm emerge—the capability approach (CA)—which has been influential ever since. Following interviews with leading global assistive technology (AT) stakeholders, and users, this paper takes inspiration from Sen’s core question and posits, AT for what? arguing that AT should be understood as a mechanism to achieve the things that AT users’ value. Significantly, our research found no commonly agreed operational global framework for (disability) justice within which leading AT stakeholders were operating. Instead, actors were loosely aligned through funding priorities and the CRPD. We suggest that this raises the possibility for (welcome and needed) incoming actors to diverge from efficiently designed collective action, due to perverse incentives enabled by unanchored interventions. The Global Report on Assistive Technology (GReAT) helps, greatly! However, we find there are still vital gaps in coordination; as technology advances, and AT proliferates, no longer can the device-plus-service approach suffice. Rather, those of us interested in human flourishing might explore locating AT access within an operational global framework for disability justice, which recognizes AT as a mechanism to achieve broader aims, linked to people’s capabilities to choose what they can do and be.

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Assistive Technology (AT), for What?

Austin, V.; Holloway, C. Assistive Technology (AT), for What? Societies 2022, 12, 169. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc120...

Assistive Technology (AT), for What?