When the HEART (Horizontal European Activities in Rehabilitation Technology) project presented its results to its Honorary Council in November 1994 at Saltsjöbaden outside Stockholm, it was with a sense of pride and knowledge that the work done amounted to a unique investigation into the field of assistive technology in Europe and in the world. Twenty-one partners from twelve countries had collected information for two years, covering the requested areas of the study: standardisation, testing, certification, industry, service delivery, legislation, economics, education, research and development. This paper will follow up that era from the perspective of the Action Plan. Not because we are nostalgic about times gone, but because we believe that there is something to be learned from what happened and what did not. What were the forces influencing the actual developments, promoting them or blocking them? What was achieved and what remains to be done in the future?
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