The present Patent Landscape Report (PLR) forms part of WIPO’s Patent Landscape Reports series1. The PLRs started as one of the outputs of WIPO’s Development Agenda project “Developing Tools for Access to Patent Information”, (DA_19_30_31_01) described in document CDIP/4/6, adopted by the Committee on Development and IP in 2009. The project document foresaw the preparation of PLRs in the areas of food and agriculture, public health, environment and energy, and disabilities, on topics of particular interest foremost to developing and least developed countries. This report is the first one prepared in the area of disabilities. It aims to provide patent-based evidence on the available technologies, patenting and innovation trends in the area of assistive devices and technologies for visually and hearing impaired persons. The present PLR is prepared in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) Medical Devices Program and the Disabilities and Rehabilitation Program2 and is aimed , among others, at supporting the Global Cooperation on Assistive Technology (GATE)3 in its efforts to assist “children accessing education and adults to earning a living, overcome poverty, participate in all societal activities, and live with dignity, which are some of the key objectives of the global development goals” It will also be distributed to NGOs working to the benefit of persons with visual and/or hearing impairments. Its part on visual impairment and in particular the one on technologies facilitating access to published works aims to constitute a complement to the recently adopted Marrakesh Treaty to facilitate access to published works for persons who are blind, visually impaired, or otherwise print disabled4, and the recent launching of the Accessible Books Consortium (ABC) at WIPO in June 2014, as it provides information on technical solutions described in patent applications which could serve the needs of print disabled persons in the Marrakesh Treaty and ABC context. The ABC supports the goal of the Marrakesh Treaty to increase the number of books worldwide in accessible formats - such as braille, audio and large print - and to make them available to people who are blind, have low vision or are otherwise print disabled (the print disabled). Through its capacity building activities, the ABC is actively engaged in the provision of assistive reading devices to students who are print disabled in developing and least developed countries.