Assistive Technology Innovations: Perceptions, Adoption, and Desires

Assistive technology (AT) innovations for people who are blind or have low vision are occurring at a rapid pace, yet we know little about what this population thinks or knows about these innovations. This paper presents the results of a survey study with 329 employed people who are blind or have low vision regarding their perceptions about, adoption of, and desires for AT innovations. We found that many people were not aware of any recent technology advancements. A very small percentage of the participants adopted novel AT, as defined in the survey, during the 2-year period of the study, and only about one-third of the participants expressed an interest in adopting a novel AT. Key barriers to adopting new or novel AT were the high cost, the time required to learn the new technology, and the lack of training or support for learning and using the new technology.