Providing innovative engineering solutions between academia and industry

Academic research is an invaluable development engine for creating assistive technology. Commercial enterprises are critical for making academically developed technology available to individuals provided that there are sufficient numbers of people with substantially similar technology needs. Unfortunately, there is little incentive for academic research organizations to optimize user interface, fit, finish, or function attributes associated with the assistive technology that they develop. The rate at which technology is being created that could be used to help people with disabilities is staggering. However, disturbingly little of that technology is being harnessed to provide actual benefit to the disabled community because the adaptation of that technology is viewed as too customized or the market size too small to justify commercialization. In this paper, the authors focus on the use of uniquely created non-profit organizations, such as YokyWorks Foundation, to bridge the gap between academic research and traditional commercial enterprises.