The Evolution of Assistive Technology: A Literature Review of Technology Developments and Applications
It provides a historical overview of assistive technology trends, which is incremental as it synthesizes existing research without introducing new methods or data.
This paper conducted a systematic literature review to trace the evolution of assistive technology, finding that it has shifted from focusing on functional improvements for individuals with disabilities to becoming enabling technologies that facilitate tasks for a diverse range of users based on needs, abilities, gender, age, and culture.
The term Assistive Technology has evolved over the years and identifies equipment or product systems, whether acquired, modified, or customized, that are used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities. Considering the advances that have been made, what trends can be identified to provide evidence of the evolution of AT as devices that foster accessibility and empower users with different abilities? Through a systematic literature review we identify research items that offer evidence of the evolution of the meaning, purpose, and applications of AT throughout the history. This paper provides evidence that AT evolved from products to improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities toward enabling technologies that facilitate tasks for people with different needs, abilities, gender, age, and culture. This evolution will lead to a positive demystification of the meaning and applications of AT toward broad usage acceptance among mainstream users.