Cost is not the main barrier to access to assistive technologies

Contributor David Banes

Technology Published DATE 04/01/2021 15:32

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There are many myths and assumptions about the provision of assistive technology, but the biggest must be that it will always be expensive. When thinking about how to make assistive technologies (AT) available the first concern is cost, and many will be thinking — “we cant afford any of this”. To address we must think differently and understand the opportunities being created by new technologies and solutions.

If we are to meet the demands and needs of those currently denied access to assistive products we need to explore innovative approaches as ways of creating a more flexible and responsive ecosystem for AT in different countries, reducing costs where we can and creating a means to release budget for other forms of AT which require physical fabrication at a higher cost. In reality much of the anxiety around cost is unwarranted and the as we look address provision in low and medium income countries there are many opportunities for innovation to address at least some of the issues and barriers faced by people with a disability.

One of the most important approaches is to explore how provision of a mobile phone (with discounted data packages) can be used as a platform both for assistive technologies, such as access for those with learning, vision or hearing impairments, but also providing a channel by which services can be delivered to help people choose their AT, get training and support remotely.

The WHO assistive technology initiative “GATE” has created a priority assistive products list (APL) and a brief review suggested that the functionality of almost half of the devices on the list could be made available through a phone. That would be an extremely cost-effective means of providing multiple products to a user. I recently used a £68 android phone from Amazon as the basis of testing accessibility features.

Those features were documented for GSMA who represent the interests of mobile operators worldwide, and created training materials that are available at https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/connected-society/mistt/ which offer a means to train those with disabilities to use the free and integrated access features built into a phone at low cost. There are then many free and low-cost add-ons to the phones which further extend the value and impact of the phone for anyone with an impairment. Importantly these technologies are often context agnostic and apply equally to use at home, in the workplace or whilst studying. For instance, an app for magnifying text on a sheet of paper has many uses depending on the setting.
This approach has many advantages, including offering a response to provision of access technologies during the pandemic, as I have suggested previously in considering Covid as a form of stress test on traditional forms of services which is summarized at https://aaate.net/2020/08/13/understanding-and-responding-to-the-stress-and-impact-of-covid19-upon-assistive-technology-services-by-david-banes/

The idea of frugal innovation is not new and doesn’t simply mean “cheap”. Frugal innovation makes the best use of the available resources to reach the most people. Quality remains important. Such innovation can encompass other forms of AT, and I have been a great admirer of the work of therapists such as Jolene Allen at the Metropolitan Sanctuary in Kenya who been using local materials to fabricate moulded and specialist personal seating for people with physical disabilities at very low cost — there is a review of the approach at https://www.theothub.com/post/thinking-outside-the-cardboard-box. There is also a great video showing what has been achieved at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWaAzpau5Hw

Equally organisations such as ATMakers, (www.atmakers.org) have a collection of videos and instructions which could be used by both professionals and others to build simple electronic forms of AT. We now need as a priority to collect and curate these and practical ‘how to’ guides to all forms of assistive devices, to create a central resource readily available to persons with disabilities and their allies worldwide.

To make this real there is a need for partnership and cooperation, that recognizes the pervasive nature of the technologies and applies the options to specific settings. Making this a reality needs both funders and partners and we plan to work with Business Disability International to address this agenda.
We used to say that awareness was the biggest barrier to delivering AT, it may be possible that this has been supplanted by the need for creativity and imagination in overcoming the genuine cost rand marketplace related obstacles which prevent us making the difference we aspire to.

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David Banes

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David Banes is Director of David Banes Access and Inclusion Services and co-founder of Global symbols, having previously led assistive technology services in Europe and the Middle East He now works across ...

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