What are assistive technologies?

Assistive technology (AT) is a term for assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices. Assistive technology enables and promotes inclusion and participation, especially of persons with disability, aging populations, and people with non-communicable diseases. The primary purpose of assistive products is to maintain or improve an individual’s functioning and independence, thereby promoting their well-being. They enable people to live healthy, productive, independent, and dignified lives, and to participate in education, the labor market, and civic life.

Assistive technology can range from no and low-tech solutions to high-tech solutions. For example:

• using paint to help with wayfinding (“to get to the elevator follow the blue line on the floor”)
• homemade grips (wrapping duct tape around a pencil or pipe insulation around a spoon handle)
• speech-generating devices that can be activated using eye gaze

Or another list of perhaps more familiar products such as hearing aids, wheelchairs, spectacles, prostheses, and devices that support memory, among many others.