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Presented at the Disability Innovation Summit: Inclusive Interactions conference organised by the GDI hub on 13 Sept 2023.

Outcomes of the first 5 years of the AT2030 project are summarised including: 15 AT country capacity surveys; 11 new assistive technologies; 31 AT ventures brought to sustainability and 70 journal papers. Funding thus far and for the future is also discussed.

Work to supply hearing aids to those with hearing loss in the global south, particularly in South Africa is outlined. Areas highlighted include: work with suppliers; work to ignite innovation and provide products at scale; work with UNICEF and the procurement catalogue; work with HEARX to provide screening and aid fine tuning via a phone app to enable community health AT service.

Questions from the audience highlight issues surrounding acquiring AT in the emergency/humanitarian setting  

The most important part of innovation in systems change is the lived experience.

The successful campaign to eliminate car park charges for people with disabilities at NHS hospitals in the UK is outlined. (Charges from over 200 hospitals are now dismissed).

The ongoing campaign to exempt all people with disabilities who are "Blue badge" holders from charges associated with ULEZ (ultra low emission zones) or the equivalent in cities in the UK is also described. The importance of integrating climate action and disability rights is highlighted.  

Presented at the Disability Innovation Summit: Inclusive Interactions conference organised by the GDI hub on 13 Sept 2023.

Challenges in the development and bringing to market of functional, affordable, high quality AT devices are outlined. The development of the manual standing wheelchair and the lessons learnt in taking it from prototype to market (using the GRID model) are introduced. The challenges of affordability and of awareness of AT including by professionals is highlighted. The work of the National Centre for Assistive Health Technologies (NCAHT at AIIMS, New Delhi) including experience zones of architectural barriers where people can try wheelchars on different surfaces and realise that disability is imposed by the environment is briefly described. Wheelchair skills training and community outings are part of the centre. Other topics mentioned include: the need to normalise disability; the need for collaborations; funders; scalability; fragmented markets and the need to access global markets 

Presented at the Disability Innovation Summit: Inclusive Interactions conference organised by the GDI hub on 13 Sept 2023.

Short presentations and a discussion are reported concerning the transformational change associated with para-sport in Sub Saharan Africa, highlighting Sport for Development, Para Sport against Stigma and I'mPOSSIBLE. 

Commentary of the highlights of the Tokyo Paralympic games were translated into the Malawian local language and were shown in mobile cinemas. Theatre for development produced provocative performances with communities re sports and stigma. The importance of a Paralympic sportsman visiting schools as a role model is highlighted. The journey of Malawi from having no paralympic athletes in London to today is outlined, highlighting the transformational growth in the ecosystem of educators, supporters, trainers, coaches and national technical officials. The importance of para-sport in reducing stigma is emphasised.  

Presented at the Disability Innovation Summit: Inclusive Interactions conference organised by the GDI hub on 13 Sept 2023

A short talk concerning the disability justice framework. The framework was co-created by a coalition of disabled people, mainly of colour and from the LGBT community in 2005-2006.

Topics discussed include: disability rights, institutions, ableism and the wider meaning of disability justice.  

Presented at the Disability Innovation Summit: Inclusive Interactions conference organised by the GDI hub on 13 Sept 2023.

The importance of access to financial services and the challenges and work towards solutions are briefly overviewed with particular reference to innovation in the Nationwide Building Society in the UK.

Priorities identified for long term decision making concerned with services for people with disabilities were people with learning disabilities/neurodivergence/dementia, deaf people and the customer experience. The Nationwide introduced British Sgn Language (BSL) virtual interpretation for deaf people using a third party interpreter to enable independent banking. Difficulties encountered concerning risk and governance are highlighted.  Lessons learned and other progress e.g. provision of letters in BSL are briefly mentioned.

A series of short talks concerned with local innovation and production of AT devices in Nepal given by representatives of members of the associated ecosystem. A short history of the projects is presented. The devastating earthquake in 2015 and COVID both demonstrated the necessity for local innovation, production, repair and maintenance of AT. Three workstreams are ongoing: codesigning for individual needs; manual wheelchairs; and repair and spare part production. The need to develop local OT services in Nepal, particularly of bespoke provision, codesigning with the user to ensure achievable goals with a developed therapeutic intervention plan, is highlighted. Innovative AT associated with the knee joint and a diabetic foot and also a temperature monitoring device are shown and problems with local product validation are highlighted.  Ram Chandra Thapa (founder of Zener Technologies) describes the use of 3D printing in emergency engineering situations. He briefly describes his current project concerning wheelchairs, outlining associated difficulties, the local production ecosystem and the assessment of which parts are the most important for maintenance needs. The need for training and also finance to take a product from innovation to production are mentionned.

Presented at the Disability Innovation Summit: Inclusive Interactions conference organised by the GDI hub on 13 Sept 2023.

Three short talks on future technologies and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). All three emphasise the importance of co-creation with people with disabilities. 

Topics in the first talk include: contributions of the use of AI to SDGs; problems with regulation; improved holistic understanding of non-communicable diseases; street route optimisation for peope with visual impairment; speach to text apps; storytelling for people with dementia; self care biosensors; improvements in the information seeking journey (example motor neurone disease)

The second relates to experiences in Ghana with people with cerebral palsy/speach and language issues and a speach recognition technology project carried out with Google. Issues with measurement of success are raised.

The third introduces work being carried out on mobility solutions for people with visual difficulties in Kenya and Hope Tech.

Presented at the Disability Innovation Summit: Inclusive Interactions conference organised by the GDI hub on 13 Sept 2023.

Innovate Now and innovation drivers, the role of innovators, the innovation ecosystem, and access to funders are introduced.