Catalyzing action for millions more people to access assistive technology in LMICs

Presented at the Disability Innovation Summit: Inclusive Interactions conference organised by the GDI hub on 13 Sept 2023

ATscale has a goal of reaching 500 million more people, mostly in low and middle income countries, with AT by 2030.

This short talk focusses on major fundamential issues found in the first 2 years of operations:

• Awareness - lack of awareness of AT even amongst health professionals
• Fragmentation - AT is not a sector and is fragmented in types of AT (vision, hearing, mobility etc), in ministries involved (social welfare, health, education etc), in civil society and in the private sector
• Expertise - implementation is a challenge. AT needs to be built as a discipline