What works to increase access to assistive technology in southern Africa
type: CreativeWork
description: Access to assistive technologies (AT) is necessary to achieving all 17 sustainable development goals. Yet for most people who need AT in Southern Africa, AT is unaffordable, unavailable, and often inappropriate. My PhD research was guided by the core question: What works to increase access to assistive technology in Southern Africa? Organized into three sub-studies, my research aimed to identify and describe the facilitators and barriers to access AT and develop a theoretical model to inform strategies to increase AT access in Southern Africa. The first two sub-studies listed below were previously published and the full manuscripts are included as separate chapters within the thesis. The three sub-studies included: • Sub-study 1: A scoping review that characterized existing evidence on AT from resource limited environments. Evidence identified was limited in quantity and quality, and primarily focused on mobility and vision types of AT. • Sub-study 2: A secondary analysis (i.e., bivariate regressions) of national survey data from Botswana and Swaziland served to examine factors associated with higher levels of AT access. The type of disability (i.e., mobility vs. non-mobility) was found to be the most important factor in determining AT access in both countries. • Sub-study 3: A regional qualitative sub-study was conducted to increase the understanding of how a multitude of interrelated factors operate to increase the supply of and access to AT. An adapted health systems framework was applied to analyse multiple data sources including stakeholder interviews, documentation review and observations. The thesis is organized into seven chapters. In Chapter 1, I provide background information and conceptual framing of the research topic, assistive technology access within Southern Africa. The research questions and overview of the three sub-studies are included in this introductory chapter. Chapter 2 covers the research methods of all three sub-studies. For the first two s…
abstract: Access to assistive technologies (AT) is necessary to achieving all 17 sustainable development goals. Yet for most people who need AT in Southern Africa, AT is unaffordable, unavailable, and often inappropriate. My PhD research was guided by the core question: What works to increase access to assistive technology in Southern Africa? Organized into three sub-studies, my research aimed to identify and describe the facilitators and barriers to access AT and develop a theoretical model to inform strategies to increase AT access in Southern Africa. The first two sub-studies listed below were previously published and the full manuscripts are included as separate chapters within the thesis. The three sub-studies included: • Sub-study 1: A scoping review that characterized existing evidence on AT from resource limited environments. Evidence identified was limited in quantity and quality, and primarily focused on mobility and vision types of AT. • Sub-study 2: A secondary analysis (i.e., bivariate regressions) of national survey data from Botswana and Swaziland served to examine factors associated with higher levels of AT access. The type of disability (i.e., mobility vs. non-mobility) was found to be the most important factor in determining AT access in both countries. • Sub-study 3: A regional qualitative sub-study was conducted to increase the understanding of how a multitude of interrelated factors operate to increase the supply of and access to AT. An adapted health systems framework was applied to analyse multiple data sources including stakeholder interviews, documentation review and observations. The thesis is organized into seven chapters. In Chapter 1, I provide background information and conceptual framing of the research topic, assistive technology access within Southern Africa. The research questions and overview of the three sub-studies are included in this introductory chapter. Chapter 2 covers the research methods of all three sub-studies. For the first two s…
author: Matter, Rebecca
keywords: Public Health
date published: 2020
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:23:46Z
provider: University of Cape Town
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Department of Public Health and Family Medicine

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32417