EDECT: Empowering Disabled users and carers through the Ethical development... (October 2014)

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EDECT: Empowering Disabled users and carers through the Ethical development and Care provision of assistive Technology.

 

One billion people around the world living with some form of disability. In the European Union, according to the European Disability Forum, there are 80 million disabled people, which is more than 15% of the population. For example, in the Netherlands there are 1.8 million disabled people while in France there are 9.6 million and in the UK 10.7 million.
The numbers using Assistive Technology are much lower but still significant, with 800,000 in the Netherlands and 5.4 million in France, for example.


One of the answers to all these needs could Assistive Technology. Assistive Technology can be defined as any service or device which has been designed for the purpose of aiding the disabled and the elderly to maintain their independence. The level of that technology can range from walking sticks to sophisticated electronic Brain-Computer interfaces. Two important applications of Assistive Technology are devices to enable users who can no longer speak or access a computer to communicate and powered wheelchairs to provide independent mobility.


Given this, we increasingly need to develop an ethical reflection as well as a practical one, a reflection that helps us to see technology as fundamentally mediating the way we live in the world today. The main ethical question is how we should work with dependant and disabled people. How should we listen and take into account their point of view, especially in such a technologically driven care context?