Assistive technology and the SDGs

ATscale

Assistive technology and the SDGs

Assistive technology - such as wheelchairs, hearing aids, prostheses, eyeglasses or digital services - is crucial for achieving all of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

ATscale is a cross-sector global partnership with a mission to improve people’s lives through assistive technology. It catalyzes action to ensure that, by 2030, an additional 500 million people in low- and middle-income countries get the life-changing assistive technology they need.

Assistive technology is particularly relevant to the following SDGs:

Assistive technology enables people to overcome poverty through active social, political and economic participation. Access to assistive technology for a child in a low- or middle- income country can make a difference of US$100,000 in lifetime income.

Strong global partnerships, such as ATscale, are important to ensure assistive technology is available and affordable for everyone, everywhere. Assistive technology facilitates inclusive sustainable development for all.

Assistive technology can improve people’s health and reduce stark health inequities. It helps overcome barriers of access to healthcare, and has profound effects on physical and mental health and wellbeing. Assistive technology is integral across the health care spectrum and is key to achieving universal health coverage.

Assistive technology is crucial, sometimes for survival, during climate-driven disasters. Assistive technology is important to strengthen people’s resilience and adaptive capacity, and to increase knowledge for climate action. Disability- inclusive jobs are needed in low-carbon economies, and assistive technology will bolster this transition.

Assistive technology from early childhood to adulthood can ensure students have access to education, and pursue learning goals throughout life. For young children, access to products like glasses, hearing aids, wheelchairs or digital devices is transformational for learning and lifelong outcomes.

Universal access to assistive technology in low- and middle- income countries will address the gross inequality globally. Inequalities also exist within low- income countries across urban and rural areas and among wealthy and poorer populations.

Assistive technology enables women and girls to actively participate socially, politically and economically, and enjoy access to healthcare, including sexual and reproductive health services. Assistive technology also benefits caregivers, often women and girls, freeing up time for education and employment.

Assistive technology and accessible environments are necessary in all infrastructure construction, industrialization and innovation to ensure inclusion. Assistive technology is a source of innovation, especially with new technology advances, with opportunities for local innovation and production opportunities.

Assistive technology allows people to actively participate in the workforce, be more productive than before, and contribute to the economy. Digital assistive technology is a key workplace enabler, and mobility technologies like wheelchairs and prostheses help people travel to workplaces.

www.atscalepartnership.org