Insufficient technical aids for disabled persons

Many disabled persons require technical aids. In some countries the technology needed to produce such items is well developed, and highly sophisticated devices are manufactured to assist the mobility, communication and daily living of disabled individuals. The costs of such items are high, however, and only a few countries are able to provide such equipment. Other people need only simple equipment to facilitate mobility, communication and daily living but, although such aids are produced and available in some countries, in many other countries they cannot be obtained because of a lack of their availability and/or of high cost. Insufficient attention is being given to the design of simpler, less expensive devices, with local methods of production which are more easily adapted to the country concerned, more appropriate to the needs of most disabled persons and more readily available to them. The insufficiency of technical aids is matched by an insufficiency of infra-structure of rehabilitation therapists who can provide training in the use of such aids.