Consumer Feedback to Steer the Future of Assistive Technology Research and Development: A Pilot Study.

The overall objective of this project was to identify consumers' opinions of their needs and wants related to assistive technology (AT) in a systematic and quantitative manner via a questionnaire that can be used to validate existing and establish new research priorities. This pilot study describes questionnaire development, online implementation, and revisions considered to the questionnaire in preparation for conducting a nationwide survey. Data from a sample ( = 112) are presented. The pilot study was critical to refine the questions and ensure that meaningful information was being collected. It was identified that revisions were warranted to provide more structure and allow for consumers to prioritize AT research efforts. The questionnaire results, although positively in favor of many of the technologies presented, are inconclusive to identify generalizable research priorities, thus expansion to a nationwide population is warranted.