The five-year project (1999–2004), administered by the World Institute on Disability (WID), and funded by the U.S. National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, concentrated on trends, developments and research in technology and accessibility as one of its main topics.

Technology specialists hired by WID provided regular reports to the project periodical, www.disabilityworld.org, from Europe, Japan, and North and South America, as well as attending international state of the art conferences. Technology reporters included Deborah Kaplan, former Executive Director of the World Institute on Disability; Mark Krizack of Whirlwind Wheelchair International; Jane Berliss of the Center for Accessible Technology in Berkeley; and Judy Wilkinson of the USA; Hiroshi Kawamura and other representatives of the Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons; and Andries Koster and other representatives of Kantel Konsult in the Netherlands. Jennifer Geagan of WID, IDEAS project manager, provided technology news and resources throughout the project.

For the final report, WID commissioned several specialists to prepare overviews of key technology topics with a view towards the future. Some of the reports have already appeared in DisabilityWorld, while others are printed here for the first time. The topics selected for an international perspective are: universal design, advocacy and the information society, accessible information technology in the European Union, wheelchair provision trends in developing countries and information technology developments benefiting blind and print disabled users.