Domains: Research, Innovation
Lean Impact Measurement for AT: capturing the changes in the quality of life
About
The Assistive Technology (AT) Impact Measurement project aims to measure the changes in the quality of life a person experiences after being provided with an AT. Between 50 and 100 AT users from 8 AT companies will do a telephone survey and will share their stories about how their participation in activities that hold meaning to them has changed since being provided with AT, in the domains of work, play, leisure, self care, home management, daily living and overall life satisfaction.
AT users and AT types will include: Vision and Eyeglasses, Communication and Digital AT, Communication devices, Prosthetics , Hearing healthcare and aids. The project hopes to bring important information to the AT sector that supports the hypothesis that providing AT improves lives and thus will help the sector attract more financial investment.
Countries
- Uganda,
- Sierra Leone
- Kenya, Syria
- Turkey (Syrian refugees)
- Sri Lanka
- India
- South Africa
The research
GDI Hub has collaborated with 60 Decibels, an impact measurement company, on the design of a disability innovation survey tool. The instrument allows us to carry out a lean impact measurement activity, across multiple AT ventures, using the modular structure of the survey suite. We also introduced AT companies from our Start-up Innovation and Scale Innovation pipeline to our impact measurement partner. As data is being collected throughout 2022, GDI Hub will work alongside 60 Decibels on data analysis and the write-up of the research findings.
Outputs
A research paper that aggregates a variety of AT types and answers the question “Do people who live in LMICs who have received AT services or products increase their participation in activities that are meaningful to them and what is the subsequent impact on their quality of life?”
These finding will contribute to the GDI Hub wider work across our AT2030 programme and beyond into 'What Works' to get AT to the people that need it most, as we continue to evolve a model of AT user impact measurement. This impact measurement provides important feedback to ventures and innovators, and also addresses the lack of data about what AT unlocks for the end user, which is an obstacle to further financial investment into the AT sector.
Examples of existing assessments into impact include our recent paper exploring braces for Club Foot implemented by our Assistive Tech Impact Fund venture, MiracleFeet.
Parent project
Scale Innovation
Final top level for national-to-international ventures, taking innovations to scale
Sibling projects
AT Impact Fund
The AT Impact Fund was established to better enable frontier technology solutions to reach people with disabilities in Africa, and to test business models that are most likely to succeed. Assistive Technology Impact Fund is operationalised as a collaboration between GDI Hub, Brink, and Catalyst Fund, providing deep expertise in AT, innovation and venture-building in Africa respectively.
06 March 2019
AT Impact Fund
The AT Impact Fund was established to better enable frontier technology solutions to reach people with disabilities in Africa, and to test business models that are most likely to succeed. Assistive Technology Impact Fund is operationalised as a collaboration between GDI Hub, Brink, and Catalyst Fund, providing deep expertise in AT, innovation and venture-building in Africa respectively.
