Assistive technologies for people with disabilities : Part I: Regulatory, health and demographic aspects

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) constitutes a significant step, marking a paradigm shift in the way people with disabilities are seen and leading to important legislative and policy changes. This report analyses first the regulatory frameworks for assistive technologies (ATs) that have been established in four countries to further the inclusion of people with disabilities. Several years after the ratification of the UNCRPD by the EU, these four countries are representative of European diversity: Germany, Hungary, Portugal and Sweden. The report identifies a number of positive examples and good practices as well as difficulties and bottlenecks in the implementation of the UNCRPD. All four countries have successfully adopted the UNCRPD. There are already very positive examples of a favourable regulatory framework for furthering inclusion with the help of AT. However, while different laws (e.g. national anti-discrimination laws) seem to be well integrated into the existing national level legal systems, there are major gaps in everyday practice and significant variations within and between countries. Emphasis could now be placed on raising awareness of such examples, to ensure that the laws are actually put into practice and to help other countries adopt similar legislation and policies. The report, furthermore, analyses the causes, risk factors and the prevalence for three common types of disability: deafness and hearing impairments, blindness and visual impairments and autism spectrum disorder. The causes of these disabilities are manifold. In the case of autism spectrum disorder, they are currently not very well understood, but genetics are thought to play an important role. While some visual and hearing impairments are also congenital, the majority are acquired and many, especially in developed countries, occur later in life. The ageing population with a higher rate of chronic disease is therefore a key driver of an increasing demand in AT.