On 26 May 2025, members from Albania, Austria, Portugal, Slovakia and Switzerland gathered for the quarterly AAATE online Aperitivo.

One discussion centred around the huge differences between the available technologies in higher and lower income countries. However, both, even those where the assistive technology is provided by the state, pointed out the crucial lack of training for professionals and end users, leading to high abandonment rates of technology. Even with technology like smart watches, people might have them but not understand the features that would best support them.

Members underlined that they would like to connect better among AAATE members to tap into the experience and knowledge of the membership and potentially create a pool of AT training offers, best practices, even model policies for effective AT deployment, as well as an AAATE resource collection.

In Albania for instance, AT is deployed based on single initiatives but there is no national plan for AT delivery.

Those working in higher education, repeated the observation that mental health issues are rising among students and that universities are not properly prepared to offer support in this area, seeking methods and strategies to model.

One university in Austria is currently developing a programme dedicated to dyslexic and neurodiverse students, building on three pillars: 1) technical, collecting and developing AT tools; 2) social, analysing compensation strategies; and 3) medical, working on most reliable diagnosis.

Our Slovakian member is contributing to an initiative to removing physical barriers from all universities by 2027 and involved in a European project on person-centred design.

In Switzerland, one of our members is working on addressing accessibility issues in smart homes, both on a physical as well as mental and cognitive level, and developing tools for the digitalisation of self-help groups to facilitate connecting people with rare conditions across country borders.