About FAST

The Foundation for Assistive Technology was founded in 1998 to tackle the inadequate design of assistive technology products and services. The failure to develop a thriving market in equipment that meets the real needs of disabled and older people is a major barrier to independent living. With limited resources, FAST’s strategy for achieving maximum impact is to work at a national, strategic level to highlight the complex causes of this failed market and to bring the sector together to find innovative ways of working, in partnership with disabled and older people.

Activities

FAST achieves its objectives by:

  • Working directly with academic researchers, industry, service providers, policy makers and voluntary sector organisations to raise awareness of the crucial importance of equipment to achieve independence
  • Documenting all of the current UK activity to research and design assistive technology, to reduce duplication and to highlight innovative and relevant product development
  • Working with the sector on national level projects to focus efforts on producing commercial products that are appealing and useful to disabled and older people
  • Providing expert analysis of research and development trends and service provision challenges
  • Providing a central hub for the sector to review and provide action plans on promoting good practice and to address cross-sector barriers to delivering good services
  • Working with the research and design community to enable end users to play a full role in the design of assistive technologies