Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
familiar sources of information for new products in their particular niche. The
Internet makes publicizing new products even easier, with online communities
dedicated to particular disabilities.
Fundraising groups dedicated to specific disabilities are often quite focused
and effective at raising money for research, or at providing specific AT solu-
tions. For example, the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, the Rick
Hansen Institute, and the National Federation of the Blind have lobbied gov-
ernments and raised funds for research and technology transfer. Companies
looking to innovate in these areas may benefit from such organizations, with
or without traditional partnerships with academia. Targeted grants are some-
times available for specific research into small market AT solutions, including
joint industry-university funding. There is also regulatory assistance available
in certain circumstances, for example, through the FDA's Humanitarian De-
vice Exemption. Thus, non-traditional resources are often available to help
innovators make an impact in small AT markets. Hopefully, these mechanisms
create enough incentive to further technology innovation.
11.3 New Opportunities in Small Market Innovation
The term assistive technology may be redundant, perhaps better described
as simply technology for individuals with a disability (see Ladner [
8
,
7
]for
more on this issue of redundancy and individual empowerment). Rick Hanson,
Terry Fox, and other individuals have helped raise international awareness of
the capabilities of persons with disabilities. We are moving to a “social model”
of disability and away from a “medical” or “rehabilitation” model. That is,
people with disabilities (and an aging population) are part of the diversity of
life, not necessarily in need of treatment and cure. But people with disabilities
do need full access to all facets of community, with complete dignity and
integrity when at all possible. User-driven AT design for small markets is
closely related to issues of individual empowerment within this social model.
It is possible that technology innovation may greatly support the efforts of
individuals to create their own novel solutions for their own specific wants
and needs, thus further encouraging small market innovation efforts.
As described in Sect.
11.2
, user-driven design is a powerful innovation force.
Computers and the Internet have now opened up countless new opportuni-
ties for individual users of almost anything. This is most obvious in terms
of software and information. As Chris Anderson of Wired Magazine [
1
,
2
]
explains, new opportunities abound for small scale manufacturing and prod-
uct development, a perfect fit for AT innovations. This is an application of
the “long tail” of stuff [
2
], with do-it-yourself manufacturing, crowdsourcing,
and micro-factories. A small market innovator with very little money can use
open-source design tools to design a novel device. Factories around the world,
and particularly in China, now accept small batch and prototype orders from
