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A Research Agenda for Disability and Technology
This innovative Research Agenda offers a comprehensive analysis of the role of assistive technology (AT) in the lives of people with disabilities. Contributors representing a diverse range of stakeholders including researchers, practitioners and people with disabilities suggest avenues for research over the next 10 years.
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Critical Acclaim
Contributors
Contents
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Elgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary.
This innovative Research Agenda offers a comprehensive analysis of the role of assistive technology (AT) in the lives of people with disabilities. Contributors representing a diverse range of stakeholders including researchers, practitioners and people with disabilities suggest avenues for research over the next 10 years.
A Research Agenda for Disability and Technology addresses inequalities and tensions surrounding the ways that disability and technology interact, exploring how technologies have an important role but that they cannot, on their own, transform the lives of people with disabilities. Focusing on digital AT, chapters discuss alternative approaches to ‘wicked’ design and accessibility problems and offer ways of thinking differently about the relationship between research, practice and policy. Contributors also debate how our assumptions about disability and technology influences the ways in which people with disabilities are meaningfully involved in research and development.
Considering a wide range of interconnected issues, this Research Agenda is a seminal resource for academics in health policy, critical disability studies, science and technology studies, computer science, and social policy. It also provides valuable insights for policymakers and practitioners, guiding them toward a more inclusive and accessible future where technology serves as a catalyst for positive social change.
This innovative Research Agenda offers a comprehensive analysis of the role of assistive technology (AT) in the lives of people with disabilities. Contributors representing a diverse range of stakeholders including researchers, practitioners and people with disabilities suggest avenues for research over the next 10 years.
A Research Agenda for Disability and Technology addresses inequalities and tensions surrounding the ways that disability and technology interact, exploring how technologies have an important role but that they cannot, on their own, transform the lives of people with disabilities. Focusing on digital AT, chapters discuss alternative approaches to ‘wicked’ design and accessibility problems and offer ways of thinking differently about the relationship between research, practice and policy. Contributors also debate how our assumptions about disability and technology influences the ways in which people with disabilities are meaningfully involved in research and development.
Considering a wide range of interconnected issues, this Research Agenda is a seminal resource for academics in health policy, critical disability studies, science and technology studies, computer science, and social policy. It also provides valuable insights for policymakers and practitioners, guiding them toward a more inclusive and accessible future where technology serves as a catalyst for positive social change.
Critical Acclaim
‘This highly relevant Research Agenda offers important insights into definitions and constructions of disability and technology. The call to give voice and agency to disabled people in research and development of technology has never been more pertinent to ensure inclusive societies in a time where technology is deeply interwoven into our everyday lives. An important read with an interesting and broad selection of contributors.’
– Anne Marie Kanstrup, Aalborg University, Denmark
‘Technology and disability are vast and dynamic concepts. The internet and world wide web brought huge potentials of digital connectivity and the possibilities – and risks – of digital inclusion and exclusion. We can only imagine how much more would have been achieved, had a cogent Research Agenda been in place, and this is now offered by Seale and colleagues. A vision for multistakeholder collaborations, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research is laid out across ten chapters. Concluding with a call for communities of practice, this Research Agenda will stand us in good stead for the future.’
– Natasha Layton, Monash University, Australia and ARATA (the Australian Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology Association, Australia)
– Anne Marie Kanstrup, Aalborg University, Denmark
‘Technology and disability are vast and dynamic concepts. The internet and world wide web brought huge potentials of digital connectivity and the possibilities – and risks – of digital inclusion and exclusion. We can only imagine how much more would have been achieved, had a cogent Research Agenda been in place, and this is now offered by Seale and colleagues. A vision for multistakeholder collaborations, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research is laid out across ten chapters. Concluding with a call for communities of practice, this Research Agenda will stand us in good stead for the future.’
– Natasha Layton, Monash University, Australia and ARATA (the Australian Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology Association, Australia)
Contributors
Contributors include: Shamima Akhtar, Huseyin Dogan, Dave Edyburn, Alan Foley, Clive Gilbert, Tom Griffiths, J. Bern Jordan, Crystal Marte, Robert McLaren, Jane Seale, Rohan Slaughter, Gregg Vanderheiden, Annalu Waller, Paul Whittington
Contents
Contents:
Preface xv
1 Constructions of disability and technology and the
shaping of future research 1
Jane Seale
2 Scoping a future research agenda for disability
and technology: issues to consider 19
Jane Seale
3 Understanding technology access for people with
intellectual disability through Participatory Action
Research 61
Alan Foley
4 Improving quality of life through the application of
assistive technology 85
Paul Whittington and Huseyin Dogan
5 An alternate approach to accessibility involving
auto-hyper-personalisation 107
Gregg Vanderheiden, Crystal Marte and J. Bern Jordan
6 A UK example of the relationship between ATech
research and ATech policy 135
Robert McLaren, Shamima Akhtar and Clive Gilbert
7 Rethinking assistive technology research and the
evidencing of assistive technology outcomes 147
Dave Edyburn
8 How the professional training of Assistive
Technologists can inform a future research agenda 167
Rohan Slaughter, Annalu Waller and Tom Griffiths
9 Methods for achieving greater involvement of
people with disabilities in the design of technologies 195
Jane Seale
10 Addressing the main challenges of future assistive
technology research by building a community of
practice 227
Jane Seale
Index 243
Preface xv
1 Constructions of disability and technology and the
shaping of future research 1
Jane Seale
2 Scoping a future research agenda for disability
and technology: issues to consider 19
Jane Seale
3 Understanding technology access for people with
intellectual disability through Participatory Action
Research 61
Alan Foley
4 Improving quality of life through the application of
assistive technology 85
Paul Whittington and Huseyin Dogan
5 An alternate approach to accessibility involving
auto-hyper-personalisation 107
Gregg Vanderheiden, Crystal Marte and J. Bern Jordan
6 A UK example of the relationship between ATech
research and ATech policy 135
Robert McLaren, Shamima Akhtar and Clive Gilbert
7 Rethinking assistive technology research and the
evidencing of assistive technology outcomes 147
Dave Edyburn
8 How the professional training of Assistive
Technologists can inform a future research agenda 167
Rohan Slaughter, Annalu Waller and Tom Griffiths
9 Methods for achieving greater involvement of
people with disabilities in the design of technologies 195
Jane Seale
10 Addressing the main challenges of future assistive
technology research by building a community of
practice 227
Jane Seale
Index 243
