Introducing the resolution for adoption, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, stated that approximately 2.5 billion people worldwide need one or more assistive products, devices or related services, while millions remain without adequate access because of barriers including affordability, availability, access to technology, inadequate infrastructure and services, and shortages of trained personnel.
He said that assistive technology encompasses products and services that can transform everyday life — from wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs and hearing aids to communication devices, screen readers and other digital solutions. They can enable a child to attend school, allow an adult to work, help an older person retain independence, and enable persons with disabilities and certain health conditions to participate more fully in society.
Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad underscored that these are not simply products or devices, but the means that can serve as “the bridge between dependence and independence; between exclusion and participation; between potential and opportunity.”
He said that the resolution places access to assistive technology within the broader development and inclusion agenda, recognizing its links with education, employment, health, social protection and meaningful participation in society. He said that it calls for sustainable access to quality and affordable assistive technology; encourages national strategies and priority assistive-products lists; promotes research, innovation, stronger data and appropriate procurement systems; and emphasizes the meaningful participation of those who use and benefit from assistive technology.
Throwing light on the various facets of the resolution, the Permanent Representative said that the resolution calls for strengthened international cooperation, financing and technical assistance, especially for countries facing resource and capacity constraints. He said it also recognizes that the need for assistive technology does not disappear during crises and calls for its systematic inclusion in humanitarian preparedness and response, including in situations of armed conflict and disasters.
The resolution was drafted and negotiated by Counsellor Ms. Saima Saleem, Pakistan’s first visually impaired career diplomat and herself a user of assistive technology. Her involvement brought a distinctive lived perspective to an initiative centred on how access to technology can translate into independence, opportunity and equal participation.
For a person who is blind, for instance, a screen reader can transform a computer or smartphone into a gateway to education, information and employment.
Similarly, a wheelchair can open the way to a classroom or workplace, a hearing aid can connect a child with a teacher, and a prosthetic limb can restore mobility and independence.
It may be mentioned that Pakistan has maintained longstanding leadership on the issue. It initiated the landmark World Health Assembly resolution 71.8 on improving access to assistive technology, which was adopted by consensus in 2018.
Conceived as a one-time resolution in line with the spirit of the UN80 initiative, the General Assembly resolution broadens this work beyond any single sector and recognizes access to assistive technology as a cross-cutting development imperative.
The consensual adoption reflects broad international recognition of a simple principle at the heart of the initiative: technology fulfills its greatest purpose when it expands human possibility. Access to assistive technology is ultimately about dignity, choice, independence and ensuring that no person’s potential is limited simply because the technology that could enable them remains beyond their reach.