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Side Event GDS 2022 - AT provisioning

Mainstreaming Assistive Technology Provisioning Across Development and Humanitarian Systems

Global Disability Summit 2022 Virtual Side Event organized by UNICEF, WHO, ATscale and GDI Hub

16 February 2022


You can watch the recording of the session here

Speakers:

  • Almah Kuambu & Sana Khurshid, assistive technology users

  • Etleva Kadilli, Director of Supply Division, UNICEF

  • Grant Leaity, Deputy Director of the Office of Emergency Programmes, UNICEF

  • Mariangela Simao, Assistant Director-General, Access to Medicines & Health Products, WHO

  • Pascal Bijleveld, CEO, ATscale, Global Partnership for Assistive Technology

  • Victoria Austin, Co-Founder & CEO, GDI Hub

  • Fernando Botelho, Programme Specialist, Assistive Technology, UNICEF

  • Susannah Rodgers, Technical Advisor on Disability Inclusion, FCDO

  • Judy Heumann, disability rights activist

  • Marco Pelligrini, OPD leader and inclusion activist

  • Modesta Zabula, project manager & inclusion expert

A group of children are sitting at desks in a classroom. Two boys are in focus in the front, talking together, one of whom is a wheelchair user.

The Global Disability Summit 2022, has five thematic focus areas: inclusive education, inclusive health, inclusive livelihoods and social protection, inclusion in situations of crisis and conflict, and capacity development of OPDs. Across these areas inclusion for persons with disabilities is only possible if access to appropriate, affordable, and effective assistive technology is ensured. Given that today only an estimated 10% of those who need assistive technology actually have access, we have a long way to go.

This informative side event to GDS22, called Mainstreaming Assistive Technology Provisioning Across Development and Humanitarian Systems, will bring together experts and users of assistive technology, to build a common understanding across a diverse set of stakeholders regarding the need for mainstreaming of AT to expand access widely enough and sustain provisioning long enough to meet GDS commitments and relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).