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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.

By developing a conceptual model, the purpose of this paper is to improve the understanding of the role of social assistive technologies in facilitating the process of service innovation in care providing organisations to adopt the principles of the consumer-directed care strategy and reduce perceived consumer vulnerability.

Using a cross-sectional survey method, the authors collected data through a survey questionnaire distributed among 335 aged caregivers and specialists. The conceptual model and its 11 research hypotheses were examined using confirmatory factor analysis in structural equation modelling. The rival and mediation models were also estimated.

The conceptual model was validated and eight of eleven hypotheses were supported. It was found that dynamic capabilities are crucial to developing service innovation concept in care providing organisations. In this way, social assistive technologies play a facilitating role to promote the consumer-directed care strategy throughout care providing organisations and allow care providers to enhance wellbeing of vulnerable older people based on their socio-economic status. From the lens of aged care providers, it was also found that the consumer-directed care strategy implemented in aged care facilities may help reduce consumer vulnerability among older people especially when they use social assistive technologies in their service settings.

This study suggests aged care service providers should boost dynamic service innovation capabilities to improve the need for social assistive technologies in aged care facilities with respect to the importance of the consumer-directed care strategy.

This study contributes to the development and validation of a conceptual model for the use of social assistive technologies to sustain service innovation in aged care business models and enhance the consumer-directed care strategy’s performance to better understand consumer vulnerability among older people.

One may categorize assistive technologies for aged care into two types, namely, supportive (helping the elderly with their everyday activities) and empowering (obtaining physical or educational training to help seniors to maintain their capabilities). This paper looks at the impact of this perspective in the adoption of technologies that are used to aid already declined functions in comparison with technologies that are used to empower an elderly person’s capabilities. The purpose of this paper is to extract the factors that influence adoption of assistive technologies among seniors and the theories used in this context.

A systematic literature review was conducted on relevant peer reviewed papers. A preliminary exploratory search was conducted to identify keywords and online databases for the search. A total of 104 papers published since 2000 were analyzed after title, abstract and full text filtering.

The study summarizes and categorizes the factors impacting the adoption of assistive technologies among seniors. The paper analyses the theoretical support utilized by literature and maps the empirical evidence for supportive and empowering technologies.

This research like any other literature review is limited to the search keys. However, the keys have brought to this work from a preliminary search.

The work informs nursing professionals on the process to adopt technologies among seniors. The paper also helps technology developers to design technological products that are easier to adopt for older adults.

It was found that existing adoption theories are able to handle supportive technology adoption mainly because of the direct link between usage and improved functionalities. However due to the indirect effect of empowering technologies, elderlies lag in benefit realization for empowering technologies. This opens avenues of research and requires future work and utilization of new theoretical approaches in this area. The paper indicates propositions, claims and suggested questions for future research in both supportive and empowering technologies.

The importance and weighting given to certain factors by occupational therapists, during the assessment process for assistive technology (AT), may have an affect on the eventual outcome for the client. Factors examined included risks around the user, carer and their environments, training and knowledge of AT, policy issues on provision and actual practice, choice of AT and whether AT has an impact on care provision. Out of 50 anonymous questionnaires sent out to collect information, 36 were returned direct to the researcher by stamped addressed envelope. 19 respondents from health and 17 from social services provided a good balance and allowed an opportunity for cross comparison. Areas of practice around multidisciplinary team working and client follow‐up were found to be weak. Frequency of social alarm referrals where no lifeline existed was low. Thematic analysis from feedback also identified concerns over knowledge and awareness of assistive technology. Differences between health and social services were detected. The research identified that many of the factors were being considered by occupational therapists, however, some of these factors were not permeating through to actual practice and application, which highlighted inconsistency in OT practice and the effect of local practice conditions on AT prescription.

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.

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 study aims to provide an explorative perspective on how workarounds – defined as practices that deviate from an official pathway to a target – delineate a decisive element for users with visual impairment to enable assistive technologies in the context of office work.

An ethnographic study with in situ observation at participants’ work locations together with interviews was conducted to cater for the explorative nature of this study.

The study outlines three types of workarounds that can be distinguished into: (1) own investment into invisible work, (2) engaging support from colleagues and (3) the complete circumvention of technology use. It is furthermore discussed that workarounds remain largely unnoticed but yield the potential as an enabling factor for insights into the use of assistive technology (AT).

The layered model of workarounds that locates them at the individual, social and organisational level can guide the design and analysis of enabling technologies in complex office work contexts. Technology designers can incorporate enquiries on workarounds into participatory or co-creative design processes. Information technology (IT) professionals and leaders of IT support teams can use this model to gain insights from workarounds into improvement opportunities for the effective integration of assistive technologies.

This study connects the concept of workarounds, which is deeply rooted in the tradition of workplace studies and computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW), with the practices of handling technology employed by knowledge workers with visual impairments to retain workability. This approach offers a novel perspective on the embeddedness of enabling technologies in the context of knowledge work. It highlights the intricate ways in which technology is integrated into daily work practices, thereby providing valuable insights into the intersection of AT and knowledge work.

A wide gap exists between the innovation and development of self-monitoring, analysis and reporting technology (SMART) technologies and the actual adoption by older adults or those caring for them. This paper aims to increase awareness of available technologies and describes their suitability for older adults with different needs. SMART technologies are intelligent devices and systems that enable autonomous monitoring of their status, data analysis or direct feedback provision.

This is a scoping review of SMART technologies used and marketed to older adults or for providing care.

Five categories of SMART technologies were identified: (1) wearable technologies and smart tools of daily living; (2) noninvasive/unobtrusive technology (i.e. passive technologies monitoring the environment, health and behavior); (3) complex SMART systems; (4) interactive technologies; (5) assistive and rehabilitation devices. Technologies were then linked with needs related to everyday practical tasks (mainly applications supporting autonomous, independent living), social and emotional support, health monitoring/managing and compensatory assistance rehabilitation.

When developing, testing or implementing technologies for older adults, researchers should clearly identify concrete needs these technologies help meet to underscore their usefulness.

Older adults and caregivers should weigh the pros and cons of different technologies and consider the key needs of older adults before investing in any tech solution.

SMART technologies meeting older adult needs help support both independent, autonomous life for as long as possible as well as aiding in the transition to assisted or institutionalized care.

This is the first review to explicitly link existing SMART technologies with the concrete needs of older adults, serving as a useful guide for both older adults and caregivers in terms of available technology solutions.

The purpose of this paper is to look at the implications of the increasing use of Assisted Living Technology in the social care sector and to assess the implications for the workforce in terms of job roles, skills, knowledge, training, and support.

A mixed methods approach was used, through a quantitative electronic survey of staff working in social care (as well as some health care) organisations in England, and three qualitative case studies of local authorities.

The research shows that the organisations involved in delivering Assisted Living Technology, the types of Assisted Living Technology being introduced, and the way in which it is being delivered, have implications for job roles and the skills and knowledge needed by staff. The associated training and workforce development similarly varies across the social care sector; it is ad hoc, disparate, and provided primarily by individual employers or by suppliers and manufacturers.

There is a need for a standardised Assisted Living Technology workforce development approach which can be used across the social care sector.

The varied nature of Assisted Living Technology providers and delivery models presents a challenge to the development and implementation of a standardised programme of workforce development.

This paper presents the results of new empirical research arising from a quantitative and qualitative study of the workforce development implications of Assisted Living Technology in the English social care sector.

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.