Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they analyse the use of assistive technology to ensure there is a continuity of supply offered to students and workers throughout their lifetimes, and if so, which department is responsible for the analysis.

In 2022 the Disability Unit within the Cabinet Office contracted the Global Disability Innovation Hub to complete a needs and capacity assessment of Assistive and Accessible Technology (ATech).

This research sought to improve our understanding of the country’s capacity to finance, procure and provide ATech; identifying system inefficiencies and maximising the greatest positive impact on the life outcomes for individual ATech users.

The research, “Assistive Technology Changes Lives: an assessment of AT need and capacity in England” was published in 2023.

This research, alongside our engagement with disability stakeholders and Atech experts, has enabled us to understand some of the biggest barriers that disabled people face in accessing Atech to support them into employment and wider society.

Insights from this research have recently fed into the DWP Pathways to Work Spring Green Paper, which announced that the government is going to develop and deliver a digital resource that will help raise awareness of existing Atech and provide guidance on how it can be used to support disabled people. We will also set up an Atech expert working group to identify and, where possible, develop solutions to the barriers disabled people face when trying to use and access Atech.