Technology for All

FAST is establishing the Technology for All programme to enable more disabled and older people to participate in the development of new technology. 

Developing new assistive and mainstream technology products or services poses challenges for industry, researchers and public sector bodies, including:

• Accessing sufficient numbers of disabled and older people to establish robust findings, including assessing the market potential for products and services across impairment and age groups;
• Understanding the most appropriate user-centred design process;
• Understanding how to work positively with disabled and older people, including interpreting and validating the outcomes of collaborative work.

Aims and objectives of Technology for All (T4A)
To encourage the design and development of assistive and mainstream technology which better meets the needs of disabled and older people, through:

• Promoting user involvement in technology development
• Enabling more disabled and older people to become involved in the development of new assistive and mainstream technology products and services.
• Encouraging and assisting industry, researchers and developers to involve disabled and older people in the research, design, development and evaluation of assistive and mainstream technology.
• Enabling third sector organisations to influence the development of new products and services.

We are currently undertaking research into the most effective way of enabling increased user involvement through the establishment of a panel of older and disabled people. If you would like to contribute to this process please contact sam@fastuk.org