Assistive technology (AT) holds the potential to transform lives. With need projected to reach 3.5 billion by 2050 while access remains at only 10%, even basic AT is out-of-reach for most. Expanding access to AT is a complex systems challenge: AT markets are often small, underdeveloped and fragmented, particularly in low-income settings....
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
No actionable clinical change; this is a policy and market-access research piece relevant to advocacy and health-systems planning, not day-to-day audiology practice.
The enormous gap between global assistive technology need and actual access underscores an urgent systemic challenge that affects audiology at the population level, making market-shaping strategies increasingly relevant to the field.
- 01Projected global need for assistive technology will reach 3.5 billion people by 2050.
- 02Current access to assistive technology sits at roughly 10% of those who need it.
- 03The study uses a scoping review combined with a case study to examine market-shaping interventions.
- 04Market shaping involves deliberate efforts to improve affordability, availability, and quality of AT products.
- 05Findings have relevance for hearing aid access advocacy and low-/middle-income country policy.
Projected global need for assistive technology will reach 3.5 billion people by 2050.
studypartially supportedCurrent global access to assistive technology is approximately 10% of those who need it.
studypartially supported- PMID
- 42761381
- DOI
- 10.3389/fresc.2026.1918680.
- Journal
- Frontiers in Rehabilitation Sciences
- Publication type
- review_article
- Evidence level
- 2a
- Population
- Global assistive technology markets and access interventions; no specific patient population
- Intervention
- Market-shaping interventions for assistive technology
Primary outcomes
Characterisation of market-shaping strategies for assistive technology; Assessment of current versus projected global need and access gaps
