If you live in a wealthy country and need glasses to read, a wheelchair to move, or a hearing aid to listen well, odds are you’ll have access to a doctor to get what you need, and insurance to help pay for it.
But while about 90% of people in wealthy countries can do this, as little as 3% living in vulnerable countries reported they were able to do the same. For a child who can’t see the board from the back of a classroom, a simple pair of glasses can mean the difference between struggling to learn and graduating.
This massive gap is a sign of global systems failing to reach people most in need. Today, more than 2.5 billion people need at least one assistive product, such as a wheelchair, hearing aid, or eye glasses. By 2050, that number will likely rise to 3.5 billion due to aging populations and rising chronic illnesses. But still today, an estimated 1 billion people lack access to the assistive tech they need.
This is where ATscale, the Global Partnership for Assistive Technology, comes in. ATscale is on a mission to ensure that everyone, everywhere can access and afford the assistive technology they need, with a benchmark of reaching 500 million people worldwide by 2030, a mission fueled by donations from anyone across the world.
ATscale isn’t on a mission just to hand out equipment; they are transforming and strengthening entire systems so that someone’s birthplace no longer determines whether someone is able to live a healthier, more dignified, and independent life.
What Exactly Is AT?
Assistive technology (AT) refers to all the products, systems, and services that help people live productive, independent lives. That includes everything from eyeglasses, hearing aids, wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs, or assistive digital devices and software. These tools support people with impaired vision and hearing, disabilities, older adults, and anyone living with chronic or acute health conditions. AT has largely been overlooked and underresourced, resulting in an enormous imbalance in accessing these life-changing tools based on age, disability, gender, socio-economic status, and more.
The impact of these devices can be felt across a lifetime. Without access, people can end up excluded from education, employment opportunities, healthcare, and being able to engage with their community. But with AT? A person’s life can change. A child who receives a pair of glasses can read and learn with greater ease, an adult with a prosthesis can return to work, or an older person with a hearing aid can remain socially connected. A wheelchair can make the journey to school possible, a hearing aid makes a conversation meaningful, and digital tools, like text-to-speech, open up new avenues for communication and learning for all.
The Economic Case: $1 In, $9 Out
Research from ATscale shows that for every $1 invested in assistive technology, there is an estimated $9 return to the broader economy.
Why? Because assistive technology isn’t a “nice to have.” It often provides the backbone for human potential to soar and economies to develop, while giving people the dignity they deserve. That’s because AT:
- Increases workforce participation and leads to better jobs and incomes.
- Enables children to learn and thrive.
- Reduces long-term healthcare costs.
- Maintains independence and strengthens productivity.
Early access to these tools is especially powerful. When a child receives the assistive technology they need early in life, it can increase their lifetime earnings by up to $100,000.
Why the Gap Exists
Despite its clear impact, assistive technology remains chronically under-prioritized — pushing it further out of reach from those in lower-income countries or those living in poverty.
Barriers to bridging the gap include weak or non-existent national policies, little political attention, fragmented and expensive markets, stigma and discrimination, limited data, and peoples’ exclusion from public health benefit schemes.
Access rates tell the story clearly: while coverage in high-income countries can reach 90%, it’s only around 10% in low-income countries. The result is a predictable result of disability and poverty acting as twin forces reinforcing one another.
Without urgent action, this divide will widen, especially as populations age and escalating global conflict and climate crises increase demand.
What ATscale Does Differently
ATscale’s work doesn’t revolve around just distributing products. It works to strengthen entire systems through shaping markets, training teachers and healthcare providers, and addressing policy reform head-on to leave a lasting impact.
As a cross-sector partnership bringing together governments, donors, multilateral organizations, the private sector, and organizations of persons with disabilities, ATscale works to make assistive technology affordable, available, and sustainable everywhere.
While there’s a ton of assistive tech available, ATscale focuses on five high-priority products right now: hearing aids, wheelchairs, eyeglasses, prostheses, and assistive digital devices and software.
They’ve partnered with governments in over 20 countries to build lasting infrastructure. Their strategy rests on three core pillars:
- Supporting Country Plans. ATscale works with more than 20 countries to strengthen national policies, financing, workforce training, and supply chains. Some receive short-term foundational help to build up the policies to make AT a national priority, while they work with others to expand resources and access over years — building up systems strong enough to last for generations.
- Strengthening Global Markets. Markets for assistive products are often fragmented and expensive. ATscale is helping reshape global and regional markets to attract more buyers and suppliers of affordable, high-quality assistive products, especially those closer to users.
- Advocating for Change. ATscale also builds and convenes partnerships worldwide to advance specific policy goals.Through its global advocacy campaign Unlock the Everyday, ATscale is raising political awareness to make assistive technology a development priority.
What Is ATscale’s Impact So Far?
ATscale’s results show what a system-level approach looks like in practice. So far, the partnership has reached more than 1.8 million people through service delivery and improved access to products, delivered over 272,000 assistive devices, and trained more than 12,800 professionals.
It also provides humanitarian support in crisis settings such as Ukraine, Palestine, and Myanmar, ensuring AT is included in emergency responses and available where it’s needed most.
The 2030 Vision — And How You Can Help
ATscale’s ambitions are big. By 2030, it aims to reach 500 million people with assistive technology. Before then, by 2027 ATscale plans to reach 50 million people, mobilize $190 million, support at least 35 countries in strengthening national AT systems, and expand political will and action from donor countries.
These milestones are ambitious because they have to be. Access to AT too often determines who gets to participate in society, and who is left on the sidelines. It can be the deciding factor between who gets to learn, who gets to work, who gets to move freely, who can live full, independent lives no matter where.
But what’s powerful to know is that closing the AT access divide is one of the most solvable inequalities of our time — and you can help.
Here’s how you can help right now:
- Explore more of ATscale’s work.
- Expand their life-changing work by donating here.
- Learn about ATscale’s “Unlock the Everyday” advocacy campaign and sign this petition calling on governments to fund AT and make education systems more inclusive for all, which will be submitted on June 4.
- Read their policy briefs to learn more about AT’s impact on education, employment, gender equity, and climate change to understand how it breaks cycles of poverty.