We will not reach the SDGs without assistive technology
Ahead of the Global Disability Summit taking place on 15–17 February 2022, most of us working in disability are hurriedly putting together preparations to ensure the voices of more than one billion people with disabilities reach the ears of policy and decision-makers.
For GDI Hub, and for others that work in disability innovation, the challenge goes deeper. GDI Hub, an academic research centre and community interest company, based out of UCL, is driving disability innovation for a fairer world.
There are more than 1.2 billion people with disabilities globally. The World Health Organisation (WHO) predicts that this could reach a staggering 2.5 billion by 2050. This means that today, one in seven people has a disability – and this number is likely to be a vast underestimate due to non-disclosure and the age of the data, which is taken from the WHO World Report on Disability 2011.
Disability innovation, the process of truly inclusive, progressive, technological, and systemic change, can only happen with people with disabilities at the core – and it benefits everyone. Do you like predictive text? Or your phone’s dictation feature? That’s disability innovation, originally intended to serve the needs of people with visual impairments.
This fact is rarely heard, likely because the challenges associated with AT are commonly misperceived to only apply to SDG 10 (Reducing Inequalities) – yet the global need is astounding.
According to our AT2030* Product Narrative on Eyeglasses, authored by UCL and the Clinton Health Access Initiative, there are currently 826 million people who require glasses and don’t have access, and this unmet need will only grow if nothing is done. Bear in mind that this is only one kind of AT, often people need as many as three to achieve full independence and participation.
Without disability innovation, and more specifically, AT, the SDGs will not be achieved.
Starting with SDG1 (No Poverty), 80% of disabled people are located in the Global South, meaning that not only is disability is a product of poverty, it’s also a cause. For people with disabilities to lift themselves out of poverty, AT is crucial. It enables people with disabilities to participate in school, in work, in culture, in community and family life.
Through AT2030, we’ve conducted research with the UCL Development Planning Unit in Sierra Leone, working with local people with disabilities that live in informal settlements. We discovered that the rates of disability are high in these areas, with women more likely to live with a disability, have less access to AT and a perceived higher need for it. Women and girls with disabilities are far more likely to not go to school and to be involved in domestic and sexual violence, particularly those with intellectual disabilities.
AT’s role in this context not only allows for greater independence but creates a potentially life-saving bridge to the wider community. It also increases empowerment and confidence. Just one way that AT can help to achieve towards SDG3 (Good Health and Wellbeing), SDG4 (Quality Education) and SDG5 (Gender Equality).
On SDG9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), SDG11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and 13 (Climate Action), AT also plays a crucial role.
As countries move to prepare for our warming climate, crisis resilience strategies risk excluding disabled people – meaning that whatever progress we make on AT could be reduced or eliminated if an inaccessible built environment prevents their use.
Through our Inclusive Infrastructure project – part of the UK Aid funded, AT2030 programme – we have found evidence that this is already happening. To cope with heavy rains, larger, wider storm drains are being constructed and building entrances are being raised, eliminating the possibility of level access. In Varanasi, India, (see image, below) we saw one case where a plank of wood had been placed across one of these drains as a way of crossing. For people with disabilities, this is not only difficult to navigate but also a hazard and creates barriers to essential services such as – in this case – a doctor’s office.
This isn’t just a moral argument, it’s an economic one too – pointing to SDG8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth). Research from ATscale has recently found that for every US $1 spent on AT, US $9 are returned to the economy. GDI Hub looked further into this and found that depending on the device, there is sometimes a return of a ratio of 150:1.
Add to this that 90% – a minimum of 900 million people – do not have access to the AT they need to thrive, such as glasses, wheelchairs, pressure mattresses, incontinence products, hearing aids and communication devices; and what we have before us is an astounding market opportunity.
Our AT Impact Fund has supported five of the most promising ventures in Africa with catalytic capital and crucial, bespoke, technical advice so that entrepreneurs can overcome the ‘valley of death’ and reach scale.
They include Wazi Vision, which designs glasses with local artists inspired by the African context (see image, below). Wazi’s glasses are created and with a variety of faces in mind – most glasses are designed to fit a European face shape, with the nose setting being too slim. Wazi, being local to their customers, unlocks sustainable practices such as repair and material recovery, and will likely reduce abandonment.
Wazi Vision illustrates exactly the reason the AT Impact Fund is so necessary – because local innovations are core to ensuring increased access to, and successful adoption of, AT.
So, the question we must ask ourselves, – and the international community – is: can we really afford to not consider AT as part of the solution to a fairer, more just, more sustainable, healthier, and greener future?
So far, AT has been largely forgotten in the pursuit of the SDGs, but that’s something that we can all change. Enabling access to life-changing AT doesn’t mean seeing a small impact over 10 years. Access to available, affordable and appropriate AT is almost always life-changing immediately, for individuals and for communities.
But as we learn, we must share.
