Level of assistive technology use and awareness among people with physical disability in the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Thousands of United Arab Emirates (UAE) citizens are living with physical challenge that render them incapable of performing routine activities the rest of us take for granted. OBJECTIVE: This paper investigated utilization of currently available and emerging assistive technologies, and examined the level of awareness of such technologies among the physically challenged population in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Knowing the level of awareness and usage of assistive technologies can phase the way for governments, and other stakeholders to develop effective policies that are capable of improving the lives of the physically challenged population. METHODS: This research conducted a survey of a total of 50 participants (30 females and 20 males) with varieties of physical disabilities. The data collected from the survey participants were tallied by counting the number of participants’ response to series of simple Yes/No questions. RESULTS: Results have shown that only 40% are currently using assistive technologies; with 61.2% being aware of existing assistive technologies. The most identified currently available assistive technologies among survey participants are the wheelchair and transportation vans, and the least identified emerging technologies are systems that respond to head nod. With regards to the newly emerging technologies, only 10% of participants are aware of them, with (70%) willing to use the newly emerging technologies if made available. Also, 60% of the participants benefit from government assistance, and 40% from both philanthropic and family support. With regards to employability, only 2% are fully employed. CONCLUSIONS: The overall low-level of awareness of (both currently available and emerging assistive technologies) observed is an indication of the need for substantial work that needs to be done towards creating an effective awareness program capable of increasing the overall utilization of assistive technologies.