This report explores the insights and lessons learnt from the Inclusive Technology Prize, which sought to champion innovative assistive technology and encourage co-creation with disabled people.

Designed and led by Nesta and run in partnership with Leonard Cheshire Disability, with support from the Department for Work and Pensions, Innovate UK, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills and Irwin Mitchell, the Inclusive Technology Prize looked for innovative products, technologies and systems that enable disabled people, their families, friends and carers equal access to life’s opportunities.

There are over 12 million people with a limiting long-term illness or impairment in Great Britain. Many disabled people rely on assisted living technologies to support them in their everyday lives. But there is a strong view that the development and manufacture of aids, adaptations and products have not kept pace with new technologies, materials, design and manufacturing seen in other areas. Additionally, assistive tech products are often not tested and developed with potential users, disabled people.

The Inclusive Technology Prize aimed to support the development of assistive technologies with the potential of changing people’s lives.

Authors: Constance Agyeman, Eleonora Corsini, Zofia Jackiewicz, Charlotte Macken​