Technology Acceptance Model

A theoretical framework originally developed by Fred Davis in 1989 that explains how users come to accept and use a technology. TAM posits that technology adoption depends on two primary factors: perceived usefulness (the degree to which a person believes the technology will enhance their performance) and perceived ease of use (the degree to which using the technology is believed to be effort-free). In accessibility research, TAM has been widely applied to study factors influencing assistive technology adoption by people with disabilities. However, critics argue that TAM focuses too narrowly on individual attitudes and fails to account for the sociopolitical forces, institutional barriers, and power dynamics that shape AT access in historically underserved communities.