Assistive Devices - Special Education
What is Assistive Devices?
What is Assistive Devices?
Assistive products maintain or improve an individual's functioning and independence, thereby promoting their well-being. Hearing aids, wheelchairs, communication aids, spectacles, prostheses, pill organizers and memory aids are all examples of assistive products.
With the use of assistive technology, people with disabilities can engage in civic activities, the job market, and a healthy, productive, independent existence. The use of assistive technology lessens the need for long-term care, formal health and support services, and caregiver labour. Without assistive technology, people frequently experience exclusion, isolation, and poverty, which worsens the effects of illness and disability on an individual, their family, and society as a whole.
With the use of assistive technology, people with disabilities can engage in civic activities, the job market, and a healthy, productive, independent existence. The use of assistive technology lessens the need for long-term care, formal health and support services, and caregiver labour. Without assistive technology, people frequently experience exclusion, isolation, and poverty, which worsens the effects of illness and disability on an individual, their family, and society as a whole.
Due to exorbitant expenses, a lack of awareness, availability, qualified personnel, policy, and funding, just 1 in 10 individuals in need have access to assistive technology today.
The users of assistive technology?
Those that require assistive technology the most are:
- people with disabilities
- older people
- people with noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes and stroke
- people with mental health conditions including dementia and autism
- people with gradual functional decline.
- Assistive technology within universal health coverage
Important Points to Keep in Mind
- The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development places good health and well-being at the centre of a new development vision.
- It emphasizes universal health coverage (UHC) to ensure a sustainable development for all, so that everyone everywhere can access the health services needed without facing financial hardship.
- Addressing the unmet need of assistive products is crucial to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, to provide UHC, and to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ratified by 177 countries.
