Assistive Technologies: Social Barriers and Socio-Technical Pathways

TLDR

Recent international regulation has prompted analysis of assistive technologies’ roles in independent living, education, and employment. The article proposes a socio‑technical development strategy that emphasizes the social context of assistive devices. The authors conducted qualitative expert interviews across Europe to describe the role and scope of assistive technologies for visual impairment, hearing impairment, and autism spectrum disorder, and to identify unintended consequences and ethical concerns. Digitalization offers both major opportunities and challenges for assistive technologies in all three fields, and additional measures are required to realize their full potential in adverse social contexts.

Abstract

Against the background of recent international regulation, the role of assistive technologies in the fields of independent living, education, and employment is analyzed in this article to propose a future strategy for a socio-technical perspective on their further development processes. Based on qualitative expert interviews at the European level, the role and scope of ATs in these fields are described for three types of disabilities: visual impairment, hearing impairment, and autism spectrum disorder. The findings show that digitalization processes entail major opportunities and challenges for ATs in all three fields and that further measures are needed to bring technical opportunities to their full potential in adverse social contexts. Regarding future technology development, the authors propose a development strategy focusing strongly on the social context of the devices. Only in this manner, relevant “unintended consequences”, as well as social or ethical concerns, can be identified and addressed.