Use of Assistive Devices

The aim of the WG-SS questions is to identify persons who have functioning difficulties when they are not using assistive devices or assistance, namely, those at risk of restricted participation. Moreover, as assistive devices become more readily available, the gaps in participation between those with and those without functional difficulties will lessen.

Box 9. Use of assistive devices

There is a need for countries to assess and decide, within a national context, whether to include “assistive devices” or not in the question on ‘seeing’ or ‘hearing,’ depending on their availability, accessibility and affordability to the public. Countries that do not include “assistive devices” would be able to reflect on the prevalence of disability more accurately if such devices were able to be identified as being unaffordable, subsidized or available for most people.

However, for countries that include “assistive devices”, the prevalence of disability would be more accurately estimated if such devices were affordable and accessible to most people.

 

However, in order to measure the impact of the growing availability of assistive devices among the population – expressly, a narrower participation gap – it is important to measure the population of persons with disabilities, as defined by the CRPD, and therefore persons for whom assistive devices are relevant. 

However, easily obtainable assistive devices can almost completely accommodate a large proportion of people with impaired vision and hearing functioning.  Therefore, asking the WG-SS ‘seeing’ question to those without the use of assistive devices like eyeglasses would greatly increase the number of persons identified as having disabilities.  Moreover, that group would have a high degree of heterogeneity, in that it would include persons at none or very little risk of facing problems participating in society, along with those at greater risk. Consequently, questions on ‘seeing’ difficulties should be asked in conjunction with eyeglasses use.  

Box 10. Accessibility to assistive devices in Arab countries

Since many people in the Arab region may not necessarily have access to healthcare or insurance coverage, concern exists regarding public accessibility to assistive devices. Such devices are imported and expensive, the cost of which may not be subsidized by respective governments. In addition, inexpensive over-the-counter replacement eyeglasses do not exist in most Arab countries.  The general population, including those in rural areas, consider assistive devices as luxury items. Therefore, if eyeglasses are scarce, countries may consider excluding the “even if using glasses” clause, and similarly for the hearing aids.

 

While prosthetic correction for hearing impairment is generally not as successful as vision correction, difficulty in hearing is usually measured by whether hearing aids, are used, in order to be consistent with the vision question.  In some countries, the availability – or even knowledge – of hearing aids may be extremely limited. In such cases, it is permissible to exclude the clause “even if using a hearing aid” from the hearing question, since including it would cause confusion among the vast majority of respondents. Excluding it, however, would pick up very few people, if any, whose hearing difficulties are fully accommodated.