Our aims are to:

• Ensure that development of assistive technology and service delivery is led by the needs and wishes of disabled and older people.
• Bring together the people who use assistive technology, researchers, developers, manufacturers and service providers to build effective partnerships.
• Co-ordinate information sharing and collaboration within the assistive technology community.
• Raise awareness about emerging technologies for disabled and older people.
• Provide expert analysis and highlight the issues within the research and development of new assistive technology products and services.

How we achieve this:

• FAST provides information on the website about a wide range of research being carried out into AT product development and service improvement.
• It also maintains information on completed research so that the learning from these projects can be incorporated into new studies.
• Information on research in AT is provided to external organisations through the Annual Report to Parliament, which provides an overview of current activity.
• Each month FAST produces a free email bulletin with breaking news and current issues affecting the provision of AT services. 
• We work as a project partner in a range of nationally significant research and development programmes.
• Increasingly we act to get disabled and older users of assistive technology involved in the design and provision of assistive technology solutions.