Last summer, my colleague Robert McLaren asked what the then newly elected Labour government would mean for the assistive and accessible technology (ATech) agenda. Now, one year into the government’s term, I have reviewed the work of every department and mapped out where ATech is being recognised, piloted, and implemented. The resulting paper, ATech in UK Government Policy 2024-25, is available here and constitutes the first in what will be a series of annual reports from the ATech Policy Lab. The article below is adapted from the paper’s first section.  

ATech and the ‘Plan for Change’ 

The government’s ‘Plan for Change’ sets out its major long-term priorities. Of these, three objectives stand out as the most relevant to the ATech agenda: Kickstarting Economic Growth, Breaking Down Barriers to Opportunity, and Building an NHS Fit for the Future. Let us consider each of these areas in turn, reviewing how far the government has made progress in harnessing the benefits of ATech, and where existing work opens opportunities to do more.  

Kickstarting Economic Growth 

The Government's ‘Modern Industrial Strategy’ includes a Digital and Technologies Sector Plan, aiming to enable “frontier technologies with the greatest growth potential” to thrive in the UK. Though assistive technology is not explicitly mentioned as a ‘frontier technology’, the ATech sector has a compelling case to make. ATech can break down barriers for disabled people at work, boosting employment and productivity. This, and an aging global population, has made ATech a growing export market – a fact already recognised by the previous government. Hence, investing in ATech would be a strategic move to help the government achieve its growth mission. 

Since taking office, the government’s Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has signalled a growing interest in disability and entrepreneurship, noting recently that 25% of small business owners are disabled. This issue gained attention following the Lilac Review that called for reforms to support disabled-led businesses.  

DBT released its Backing your Business paper last month, which identified that improving access for disabled founders would add £230 billion to the UK economy.   The paper promises to respond to Lilac Review’s recommendations, while continuing to expand the reach of the Disability Finance Code for Entrepreneurship: a scheme for disabled entrepreneurs to access finance and support to start their own business. 

We hope to see this disabled entrepreneurship agenda evolve to encompass a focus on ATech. DBT could create schemes to provide entrepreneurs with ATech, aiding their success as business owners, and even create schemes to support disabled ATech developers to scale up—developing the industry at large. As the government looks for levers to drive growth, ATech could enable an often-overlooked demographic to enter and thrive in the workforce; turning a persistent labour market inequality into a driver of national productivity. 

Breaking Down Barriers to Opportunity 

The Department for Education has taken significant strides to embed ATech in both SEND and educational technology policy.  In January, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson confirmed that assistive technology will become part of national training for all new teachers from 2025. They have since published research on developing a new competency framework for ATech training for staff in special schools and colleges.  

Even more is being done to show that ATech is a worthwhile investment for classrooms. £1.7 million was allocated this June for a “lending libraries” pilot, which will embed ATech in up to 4,000 mainstream schools, providing access to tools such as reading pens, dictation software, and communication devices. 

We noted last year that Labour’s plan for “Regional Improvement Teams” had the potential to help schools better support learners with ATech. This policy, now named regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE), will work with schools that Ofsted has judged require improvement. Given that Ofsted is proposing to make “inclusion” a new evaluation area we can expect RISE teams to support schools with SEND provision, and this should include ATech.  

Meanwhile, the Department for Work and Pension’s Pathways to Work Green Paper asked for the public’s views on reforming the Access to Work scheme that disabled people use to receive access to ATech in employment. We’re still waiting for the outcome of that consultation, but the government also used the green paper to announce new commitments on ATech. This year, the government will both develop a digital resource to inform disabled ATech users and the people they work with, and set up an ATech Expert Working Group. But perhaps most significantly, the paper announced that the Cabinet Office is exploring proposals for a National Centre for ATech. As we previously suggested, a National Centre for ATech, modelled after the successful National Centre for Cyber Security, would be a catalyst in developing the ATech agenda across service and sectoral boundaries.  

Building an NHS Fit for the Future 

The new 10-Year Health Plan sets out an ambition to reform the healthcare sector: shifting from hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention. The plans on digital are focused on tools to personalise care and boost productivity, rather than improve accessibility directly. However, the NHS also aims to become “the most digitally accessible health system in the world”. This is promising but it’s not made explicit whether talk of being ‘accessible’ is meant to refer to disabled inclusion, as opposed to the idea of patients being able to access services via digital. We would hope that the shift from analogue to digital will include work on ATech, to make healthcare truly inclusive for everyone. 

The abolition of NHS England has implications for many ATech users, as NHS England currently commissions two ATech specialised services:  Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) and Environmental Control (EC). We're seeking more detail on specialised services and how they will be absorbed into the new Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) system. This structural shift could open a window of opportunity to expand the role and reach of ATech within our healthcare system. As the NHS and DHSC redefine their shared and respective priorities, they should consider that both disabled people and society at large would benefit from greater ATech resources and services. 

In contrast to the NHS, policymakers have developed new initiatives in social care that are clearly aimed at promoting access to ATech. First, the Telecare National Action Plan shares how the digital phone switchover is indirectly creating an ATech win,  with several local authorities “trailblazing the trial and use of new care technologies”, including smart-home ATech devices.  Additionally, we’re seeing new initiatives to train care leaders in how to make  ATech part of their services, and work to define new specialist roles, which could perhaps include ATech specialists.   

Looking Ahead 

The assistive and accessible technology agenda is gaining momentum. We are seeing important initiatives on workforce training, service provision pilots, and significant research and development to build the evidence-base around ATech.  

Of course, the progress is uneven, with some departments and teams having an explicit ATech agenda, and others addressing ATech only implicitly under the banner of broad ‘digital’ and ‘technological’ reforms. 

Importantly, the Cabinet Office has now announced it will develop a cross-departmental Plan for Disability. The development of this plan, and the exploration of a national Centre for ATech, present an opportunity to draw together disparate strands to work and build a truly strategic approach to ATech.  

This briefing, produced by the ATech Policy Lab at Policy Connect, provides an overview of how assistive and accessible technology (ATech) has featured across UK government policy between 2024 and 2025.

It brings together key publications, announcements and research from departments including the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Cabinet Office, the Department for Education, and the Department of Health and Social Care. Topics covered range from digital inclusion and employment support to education, social care, and health.

The document highlights where ATech is referenced in government strategies, white papers, research and statistics and sets out emerging initiatives within the ATech sector.