Boom in innovation for overcoming disabilities: UN

Boom in innovation for overcoming disabilities: UN

GENEVA: Innovations aimed at helping people overcome mobility, sight and other disabilities have exploded in recent years, and are becoming ever more integrated in regular consumer goods, the United Nations said yesterday. More than one billion people worldwide currently need technology-based assistance to overcome a disability-a figure expected to double in the next decade as populations age, UN data shows.

Meanwhile, only one in 10 people globally currently have access to the assistive products they need. To meet the growing demand, innovations in new assistive products have shown double-digit growth in recent years, according to a fresh report from UN's World Intellectual Property Organization. "People living with impairments have long relied on new technologies for increased independence and fuller interaction with their world,“ WIPO chief Daren Tang said in the foreword to the report.

"From the invention of the crutch in ancient Egypt through the simple prosthetics of the Middle Ages to our latter-day Braille tablets, we are now on the cusp of a future where autonomous wheelchairs, mind-controlled hearing aids and wearables monitoring health and emotion alleviate the impact of human limitations.“

'Mass use'

A key finding in the report, he said, is "the evolution toward mass use of assistive tech.“ Using patent