Abandonment of Assistive Technology

Abandonment of assistive technology is the well-documented phenomenon in which a substantial proportion of assistive devices acquired by disabled users — commonly reported in the literature at roughly one-third or higher — end up unused or discarded within a few years of purchase. Causes are multifactorial: poor fit between device capability and user needs, changes in the user's condition or goals, lack of adequate training or ongoing support, stigma, unreliable hardware, and (critically) exclusion of the user and their informal supporters from the selection and procurement decision. The phenomenon underlines why accessibility research places heavy emphasis on participatory design, long-term field studies, and ecologically-valid evaluations rather than short laboratory trials — a device that performs well in a lab study can still end up in a drawer if it does not fit the user's real life.