A. Survey design

The present study used data from an online mobility survey that addressed persons with disabilities. A total of 13 different assistive technologies were presented, each of which introduced by a short text describing its operation and potential use, in case a respondent has not heard about it:

Smart communication aids - Imagine a system that can augment your voice to help you communicate with others and with machines faster and with more ease.
Location-based alerts - Imagine an app that assesses if you are at risk of harm and provides you with guidance, or alerts your personal assistant or staff to assist you.
Augmented reality - Imagine a pair of glasses that can tell you or show you information about the world around you, for example show you a certain route, the location of accessible facilities, or how to find a station manager.
Exoskeletons - Imagine wearing a body suit that can help you stand, walk, and lift or handle objects with ease.
Robots - Imagine having a robot personal assistant to help you with cooking, eating, cleaning, shopping, carrying stuff, playing games, and chatting.
Wearables - Imagine having a wristband or ring that can automatically open and close doors, make payments, and even pull out a ramp for you.
3D-printed prostheses - Imagine that a printer can print prosthetics that perfectly fit your body.
Autonomous wheelchairs and vehicles - Imagine being able to navigate from point A to B without the need for steering the wheels.
Artificial intelligence sign language translation - Imagine a system that can translate movements, gestures, and sign languages into text and vice versa.
Artificial intelligence alerts - Imagine a system that can alert you in your local language via your phone or wearable when your name is called, your bus stop is announced, or a fire alarm goes off.
Automated captions - Imagine a system that can automatically produce text captions on videos.
Accessible navigation systems - Imagine having a tool that can recognise objects, and provide navigation and information on how to avoid obstacles.
Smartcanes - Imagine having a long mobility cane with sensors to help you know what is happening around you by giving you audible or tactile warnings.

The respondents indicated their level of use intentions of these assistive technologies on a 5-point Likert scale with the response options “never” (1), “rarely” (2), “sometimes” (3), “frequently” (4), and “always” (5). Additionally, if the respondents felt the technology in question was not relevant for their access needs, they could choose “Non-applicable”.

The survey was developed in close collaboration with local disability user groups in seven European cities (Bologna, Brussels, Cagliari, Lisbon, Sofia, Stockholm, and Zagreb). The survey was translated into 15 different languages, namely Bulgarian, Croatian, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish.