Collaborative consensus on assistive technology impacts and outcomes: The GAATO Grand Challenges

Area of Science:

• Rehabilitation Engineering
• Health Services Research
• Global Health

Background:

• Effective assistive technology (AT) provision requires understanding outcomes and impact.
• Global efforts to meet AT needs face challenges due to inconsistent data and lack of coordinated systems.
• Limited global priorities hinder data utility for policy and resource allocation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To outline the methods of a global "Grand Challenge" project by the Global Alliance of Assistive Technology Organizations.
• To identify and describe the key challenges in AT outcomes and impact from a multi-stakeholder, multi-country perspective.

Main Methods:

• A multiphase, mixed-method approach utilizing participatory principles.
• Collaborative consensus methods to gather, refine, and distill AT challenge data globally.
• Inclusion of multi-country and multi-stakeholder perspectives collected "from the ground up."

Main Results:

• Six "Grand Challenges in Outcomes and Impact" for assistive technology were identified for 2022.
• These challenges include: 1) measuring need, 2) documenting inputs, 3) measuring outcomes, 4) measuring impacts, 5) sharing data, and 6) informing policy.
• A shortlist of critical AT challenges was published based on global data distillation.

Conclusions:

• The identified Grand Challenges represent significant barriers to improving AT access and effectiveness.
• Collaborative action is required to address these challenges and advance the field of assistive technology.
• Resolving these challenges is essential for better policymaking and resource allocation in AT.