PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Digit. Health
Sec. Health Technology Implementation
This article is part of the Research TopicAssistive Technology and Universal Health Coverage: Clinical and Educational ChallengesView all 5 articles
From abandonment to adoption: Advancing assistive technologies for blindness and low vision in the AI era
Provisionally accepted
- 1New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, United States
- 2NYU Langone Health, New York, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Assistive technologies can enhance safety, independence, and quality of life for people with blindness and low vision. Despite their benefits, abandonment of these technologies remains widespread, and recent research on this issue is limited. In this Perspective article, we draw on both professional experiences and relevant scientific literature to examine adoption and abandonment in the context of new artificial intelligence-powered applications. We highlight risks arising from misaligned design, inconsistent industry support, and inadequate user training. We synthesize existing knowledge on factors that influence abandonment and propose three priorities to realign assistive technology development: participatory and transdisciplinary research, integrated technology ecosystems, and socially supported engagement. Taken collectively, these priorities ensure that emerging assistive technologies better align with the needs of people with blindness and low vision, promoting lasting adoption rather than abandonment.
Keywords: Assistive Technology, Technology abandonment, Technology Adoption, User-Centerd Design, artificial intelligence, blindness and low vision
Received: 06 Oct 2025; Accepted: 11 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Barak Ventura, Hamilton-Fletcher and Rizzo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Roni Barak Ventura
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.