Australian Rehabilitation & Assistive Technology Association
Australian Rehabilitation & Assistive Technology Association
Never has there been so much attention on assistive technology than right now.” With these words Roger Smith, past president of RESNA opened the first official General Assembly of the Global Alliance of Assistive Technology Organizations (GAATO).
The seeds for GAATO were laid in 2000, when 4 organizations (AAATE, ARATA, RESNA, RESJA) decided to join forces to better move the agenda on assistive technology (AT) forward. In 2016, two more organizations, namely RESKO and TREATS, joined in.
All these organizations are motivated by the wish “to advance the field of assistive technology (AT) and rehabilitation engineering (RE) to benefit people with disabilities and functional limitations of all ages” – as per GAATO’s mission statement. As well as the need to coordinate on a global level for a coherent approach and way forward – which led to this first official general assembly and the wish to become more structured as alliance.
“The strength of this alliance lies in the huge amount of competence in its ranks and also that it is neither part of government nor industry. Instead it is a third party that can be the connecting piece between policy and high-level initiatives like WHO’s GATE and ATscale with the people on the ground who work with people with disabilities and older users and everyone who potentially needs assistive technology”, said Evert-Jan Hoogerwerf, Co-Chair of the GAATO.
Why is there a need for GAATO? For one, AT is increasingly an issue of global concern and despite existing solutions there are still many people that could benefit but lack access to AT. On the other, AT is an area where we can learn from our mutual experience and work together on standards, training, good practice and policies. Furthermore, there does not exist yet a unified global platform to represent the AT sector and coordinate with governments and international bodies such as the WHO and UN.
Areas where GAATO intends to make a difference include policy, research, innovation and development.
In 2019, GAATO (formerly IAATO, the International Alliance of Assistive Technology Organizations) received 6 more applications for membership, 4 of which were accepted in this 1st General Assembly, and 2 being accepted as associate members.