Introduction
What is assistive technology?
Assistive technology is defined as “any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities.” (Assistive Technology Act of 1998)
If we read the definition above carefully, we realize that it’s actually a kind of unusual definition for a category of technology. Electrical technology is about the machines, equipment, and systems that conduct and produce electricity. Laser technology is about systems that emit coherent light through optical amplification. These definitions categorize their technologies independently of the way that they are used.
In contrast, assistive technology is not so much about a device or a product, but rather about a relationship – it is defined by its use by a person with a disability. This definition leads to some interesting quirks. Closed captioning is a type of technology used by lots of people who can hear just fine but is specifically an assistive technology for the deaf and hard of hearing. Home assistants like the Amazon Echo or Google Home are conveniences for their primary market (of able-bodied people) but are assistive technologies for people who can’t otherwise easily control their home environments because of disability.
Examples of different categories of assistive tech (an overlapping and non-exhaustive list) include devices related to:
mobility, seating, and positioning (wheelchairs, lifts, rollators, canes, crutches)
environmental control and adaptation (climate control, light switches, adapted door controls)
sensory deficits (high-contrast displays, closed captioning, hearing aids)
communication (text-to-speech, text prediction, eye tracking communication)
computer inputs and outputs (sip-and-puff, scanning line inputs, switch buttons)
cognitive limitations (calendars reminders, decision aids)
and more!
Multiple Views
The term "assistive technology" can have a different focus depending on the context in which it's being discussed.
For a general introduction, we would like you to watch the video from the PACER Center, "Understanding Assistive Technology: Simply Said". The PACER Center, as a social service nonprofit organization, focuses more on how assistive technologies fit into families' lives.
We would also like you to read the definition of "assistive technology" from the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission. The MRC, as part of the Massachusetts state government, focuses more on assistive technology as it relates to government programs. For example, some kinds of assistive technology are necessary in schools under federal law, or qualify for individual payment from statewide programs.
What Is Disability?
In short, disability is a condition that impairs someone's daily life activities. A disability might be permanent or temporary. It might be physical, cognitive, or sensory. Someone might be born with a disability, or they might acquire it later in life. A person might have a disability that is visible to the rest of the world, or they might have a disability that is imperceptible to others around them.
Multiple Views
As with the term "assistive technology", the term "disability" can have a different focus depending on the context in which it is being discussed. The video above addresses the social and medical models of disability, but those are not the only ways to think about the topic.
We would like you to read the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of "disability" as well as the WHO Facts in Pictures: Disability slideshow. We would also like you to watch two WHO videos: "What's disability to me? Faustina's story" and "What's disability to me? Mia's story". While the WHO is concerned with health, their focus on disability is not just a focus on physical or mental well-being. The WHO acknowledges that disability is the result of a complex interaction between a person and the society they live in. For the WHO, disability involves physical/mental health, as well as human rights, inclusiveness, and social support. Notice their language around "disabling barriers", or things in society that cause problems for people with disabilities. If such societal barriers were removed, a particular condition might not actually be considered a disability.
We would also like you to read about the Americans with Disabilities Act, and hear from some people who are ADA self-advocates. You can also take a look at how the Harvard Law School Project on Disability presents their role in this space, which is more focused on advocacy, countering discrimination, and enforcement of existing laws about disabilities.
People with Disabilities and Other Challenges as Co-Designers
In this challenge, we hope to get you thinking about assistive technology and disability in ways that will be useful as an engineer and designer. Just as there is no universal experience of disability, there is no universal list of solutions for problems in people's daily lives. As an engineer/designer, you need to be prepared to work on solutions for clients in situations you may not be used to. As such, your job will not be to step in and tell people how to solve their problems.
You should keep in mind that the while the background of this online course and more generally of assistive technology is focused on people with disabilities, we can also take a broader view of "assistive technology" to include things outside of what would traditionally be considered disabilities. For example, for our summer synchronous course, we will be designing for people who have difficulty with some aspect of an activity of daily living, regardless of whether or not they have (or think of themselves as having) "traditional" disabilities. These people will also be your co-designers, expanding the range of experience even more.
Clients/Co-Designers
In this class you will learn how to work with a client with a disability as a co-designer. Though clients will typically take an active role in the design process, it is especially important to work with people with disabilities to solve accessibility related issues. Designing with people with disabilities instead of for people with disabilities helps make sure the resulting products don't cause more problems than they solve.
Further, we use the term co-designer to emphasize the role of people with disabilities as active partners in the design process Co-designers set design specifications and make sure the resulting product actually makes sense as a tool that someone can use to overcome a barrier in daily life. Note that terms like client, user, customer, etc may be entirely appropriate based on the setting - co-designer is just the one we think works best here.
Product Specifications
In this class we will also talk about "product specifications" as the set of requirements or needs that an engineering design product must meet. In the context of assistive technology, this explicitly includes the accessibility needs of co-designers. Although accessibility should always be a concern in design/engineering projects, our product specifications in this course will relate to specific accessibility barriers. Thus the product must help someone overcome those barriers and not cause any new ones in order to be considered a success.
Reflect
As you move forward in this class, we hope you will remember that assistive technology and disability are dynamic concepts. They take on different shades of meaning depending on a specific person's context. The challenges and the rewards of this class will come from figuring out how to apply several different kinds of knowledge/experience into a specific problem-solving context.
Real-World Users
Assistive technology comes in many forms to fit a lot of different contexts. To get a clearer idea of what some kinds of assistive technology look like, please watch the two videos below:
Video profile of Elle, who communicates with others through assistive technology. In this case, Elle uses a tablet device with software to assist her in communicating her thoughts.
AT Hackathon video profile of Team Lilly, who uses a walker. Although a walker may not seem as complicated as an electronic device, the video shows how much room for improvement and good engineering there was to help create a walker that would suit Lilly's needs.
Though AT comes in many forms, we will focus on mechanical devices in this class. So, we will focus on designing physical objects/tools, like Lilly's walker, rather than an electronic device or software like the ones that Elle uses.
Research
The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) hosts a podcast Milestones, in which they feature research into child health and human development. In this episode, Dr. Alison Cernich (director of NICHD’s National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research) talks about different kinds of research into assistive technology. We would like you to listen to this episode of NICHD Podcast: Boosting Mobility for People with Disabilities. (The website includes a transcript of the podcast as well.) We would also like you to take a look at "NICHD Resource: What are some types of assistive devices and how are they used?" for a few more examples of assistive technology.
Clients/Co-Designers
This course focuses on assistive technology as an engineering design product. That means we'll develop a technological solution to a very specific problem defined by a "client" with a disability. In this course's design process, we consider the client as a "co-designer." It is important to remember that our co-designers have specific expertise on the nature of their design problem and on what solutions will actually work to suit their own needs and abilities. It is also important to remember that co-designers, like every other member of your design team, will not have all the answers. It is up to you to work together as a team to develop solutions.
The Scope of a Solution
As the readings from this week highlight, it's important to remember that disability involves a complex interaction between a person and the society they live in. For example, voice recognition software that would help someone use a computer hands-free might look a lot like personal assistant software that is widely used on smart phones. As another example, most people with prescription glasses probably wouldn't consider that an example of assistive technology, even if they couldn't drive, bike, or participate fully in a classroom setting without them. These observations are related to the role that society play's in determining what is a disability and what is assistive technology.
You might also notice that assistive technology solves problems that might be prevented from happening again through changes in industry, law, or social norms. While these social solutions to broad accessibility problems are necessary, this class will focus on more immediate solutions to personalized problems.
For example, a co-designer with one arm might be interested in a way to more easily use the zippers on their coats. A solution outside the scope of this class might be to work with clothing designers on making adaptable clothing options the norm in the fashion industry so that people with physical disabilities can shop in any store to find functional clothing they like. A solution we might focus on in this class would be to engineer a tool that someone can use with one hand to help close up the zippers on any article of clothing. It's important to note that both of these approaches would be important parts of addressing accessibility issues in fashion long-term: an engineer might be able to show that creating an accessible zipper is possible, and someone trying to change the fashion industry might help spread that engineering solution more widely.
Looking Ahead
In this class, we hope to help you develop engineering skills you can use to address issues that people with disabilities face today. By the end of the class, we hope you feel more comfortable working on issues related to disability and analyzing whether the products you design in the future are accessible to people with disabilities. These skills will help you work on assistive technology projects in the future, as well as strengthen your design skills to be a better engineer overall.