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The term ‘digital assistive technology' refers to the use of ICTs for the support of older people's everyday tasks. These tasks could range from online shopping to information seeking and searching the web in a variety of ways eg. by the use of desktop or ubiquitous computing. Currently, research under the New Dynamics of Ageing Programme, funded by the ESRC, EPSRC, BBSRC, MRC and AHRC, and research funded by other bodies, including SPARC, tries to improve older people's quality of life through the exploitation and exploration of new developments in computing and information technology. However, the acceptance rate of digital assistive technology by older people is still low, while the abandonment of already existing technologies increases. The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for process requirements to inform the decision‐making of designers and implementers of digital assistive technologies. These process requirements should facilitate the development of more adaptable user‐centred systems that can dynamically accommodate the changing needs of older people and decrease the rate of abandonment of digital assistive technologies.

Definitions of assistive technology are varied and sometimes contradictory and this raises particular issues for a new Journal seeking to address this area. A preference for loose and wide definitions is seen as leading to a more inclusive grasp of the field. Disability itself is a contested concept and this has affected the approach taken to technology use for groups that have been identified as having special educational needs. A key focus of the Journal of Assistive Technologies is on the practices of technology use, rather than the tools themselves, and this is discussed in the light of the social model of inclusion. The use of the term e‐Inclusion leads to a discussion of a tentative taxonomy of this area: technology to train and rehearse; technology to assist learning and technology to enable learning. Practitioners and researchers from a range of backgrounds are invited to contribute to the debates raised in this article.

The ramifications of assistive technology for both current and future service provision are wide. In recent years, policy makers have become increasingly aware of the potential of these services to maintain older and disabled people in their own homes. The purpose of this paper is to report on a literature review and provide illustrations of how the evidence can be used to underpin the development of assistive technology services for older and disabled people and disabled children. The aim is to support the development of user‐focused, accessible services.

The development of telecare services across the UK has been supported by grants from the respective governments of Scotland and Wales, and by the DH in England. New services are being established to sometimes operate alongside existing community equipment services and community alarm services. Elsewhere they are embracing a wider range of services including rehabilitation, intermediate care and health services designed to reduce the use of unscheduled care services. This paper discusses the difficulties in understanding the scope of telecare services, and the definitions of services that will need to be confirmed so that service users can choose appropriately if offered direct payments. Two different service models are offered, one of which uses telehealth as an umbrella term to cover all telecare, e‐care and m‐care, and telemedicine where the former includes all such services offered in the service user's home, including those of a medical nature. The second model views telecare alongside assistive technologies and telemedicine as one of three different technology groups designed to make people more independent or to bring care closer to home. There is significant overlap between the three groups, which justifies the introduction of a new term ‐ ARTS (assistive and remote technology services) ‐ to describe this area of support.

The term assistive technology (AT) is relatively new but its origins go back a long way. Some of the elements of assistive technology, such as aids and adaptations, have been a feature of policies for many years. Before the late 1990s it was more usual to focus on the most common types ‐ telephones, alarms, aids and adaptations. More recently telemedicine and smart houses have come to the fore in policies and research. What is confusing now is that a variety of other terms are being used. In this paper the development of these terms in recent policies and the changing terminology are traced. It is suggested that a narrow interpretation can play down the important role of AT in enabling older people to maintain their independence but that it must be seen in conjunction with other services, especially housing.

This article aims to introduce the Kellogg College Centre for Research into Assistive Learning Technologies, which is a new research centre based at the University of Oxford.

The article briefly sets the context of the centre within the current literature, and outlines the centre's current plan of work. The centre has funding for two years to look into new developments in the application of digital technologies to support the learning and educational achievement of young people in school and higher education with a range of specific learning difficulties. This will begin with a substantial research review, as well as in‐depth studies of current initiatives in secondary schools and higher education.

The findings from the research review will aim to be published and disseminated to the research community within the first two years of the centre's life.

It is hoped that this centre will be able to contribute to the existing research on the uses of a range of assistive technologies in educational settings.

There is a need for more in‐depth exploration of the e‐learning experiences of disabled learners in higher education, taking into account the complex relationship between learners (skills, knowledge and beliefs), their assistive technologies and the e‐learning contexts in which learners are required to operate. Participatory methods appear to have great potential in enabling the voice of disabled learners to be a more central focus of e‐learning studies. This paper will describe and evaluate a two‐year research project called LExDis, which aims to use participatory methods to explore the e‐learning experiences of disabled learners in one higher education institution. The experience of conducting phase one of the LExDis project will be discussed with regards to three main challenges to using participatory methods: informed participation; valued participation; and empowered participation.

This article considers research directed at conceptualising aspects of assistive technology of benefit to ineffective readers. In particular, it deals with educational practice that fosters e‐inclusion. Exploring the potential of digital technologies, this article presents results from research in a five‐year period in Denmark. Frequent and proper use of assistive technologies may promote reading fluency, but the core objective is to overcome barriers to learning and to support ineffective readers to work at age‐related expectations. Compared to learning without any assistive technology, ineffective readers develop higher intrinsic motivation and self‐esteem regarding school work. The use of digital technology helps them when translating written words into spoken words (decoding) and when getting meaning from the text. In general, they also become more self‐reliant and produce texts of higher quality. An innovative strategy, consequently, encompasses quality reading education and implementation of technology enabling age‐relevant text comprehension.

The rousing phenomenon of the ageing population is becoming a vital issue and demanding fulminant actions. Population ageing is a resultant of the enhanced health-care system, groovy antibiotics, medications and economic well-being. Old age leads to copious amounts of ailments. Aged people, owing to their reduced mobility and enervating disabilities, tend to rely upon caretakers and/or nursing personnel. With the increasing vogue of nuclear families in the society, the elderly are at the risk of being unveiled to emotional, physical and fiscal insecurities in the years to come. Caring for those seniors will be an enormous undertaking.

There is a dire need for an intelligent assistive system to meet out the requirements of continuous holistic care and monitoring. Assistive robots and systems used for elderly care are studied. The design motivation for the robots, elderly–robot interaction capabilities and technology incorporated in the systems are examined meticulously.

From the survey, it is suggested that the subsystems of an assistive robot revamped for better human–machine interactions will be a potential alternative to the human counterpart. Affirmable advancements in the robot design and interaction methodologies that would increase the holistic care and assistance for aged people are analyzed and listed.

This paper reviews the available assistive technologies and suggests a synergistic model that can be adopted for the caring of the elderly.

This research study aims to evaluate the capacity and sustainability of an accessible society as a smart society and services with the help of MOOCs and assistive technologies within the learning analytics framework.

Qualitative research was employed in this research that interview forms were conducted to get data from 60 participants. Thematic analysis was used to analyze data.

Research results revealed that MOOCs and assertive technologies are crucial for smart society and opens a map for open pedagogy. Accessible media, services and applications in smart societies are key elements for disabled people lives.

Research is limited to numbers of research participants in northern part of Cyprus.

Establishing strategies and policies for the smart and accessible society and services are intensified need for the disabled people within the framework of learning analytics.

Assistive technologies become medium of facilitating accessible and smart society and services for everyone.

Education plays a great role to enrich services of societies in order to create inclusive efforts to the life of disabled people. United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO) underline the main theme of making inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all. In this respect, accessibility, inclusiveness, equity, equality, quality for lifelong learning are main components to foster accessible and smart society for everyone. Integrating the importance of learning analytics creates a value for understanding of being smart society.