About FreedomTech

FreedomTech is a project with a mission. We think that everyone with a disability, including older people, should have access to affordable, up to date and appropriate technology that suits their needs.  We believe that Assistive Technology and Accessible Technology are key to supporting people to live independently, access education and work be active members of their communities. 

We work to achieve this mission in two ways:

Advocacy:  We lobby government to introduce an effective architecture for accessible and assistive technology supports based on research we conducted in 2016. We published our findings in a Discussion Paper that proposes a service delivery model suitable for Ireland. It has gained international recognition for introducing the concept of an AT Passport. We held a conference in Aviva Stadium in 2017 and in July 2019, we wrote an open letter to government ministers seeking better supports.

Our discussion paper “Assistive Technology for People with Disabilities and Older People” (O’Donnell, Joan; Long, Siobhan; Richardson, Pierce 2016) outlines how technology can be used to enhance the lives of people with disabilities through increased independence at home and by enabling full participation in employment and education. Download the full document at the link below (PDF) or Click here for the web version.

• Download Paper full Paper
  
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Our briefing paper Digital Assistive Technology: An essential tool to support people with disabilities and older people to live independently contextualises the current state of provision of digital AT supports and services nationally, and to identify some of the challenges which may be addressed through the implementation of the forthcoming National Disability Strategy. Click here to read the paper (PDF 510 KB). 

For more see the Freedom Tech website.