Assistive Communication Technologies and Stigma: How Perceived Visibility of Cochlear Implants Affects Self-Stigma and Social Interaction Anxiety

Abstract

Assistive technologies promise improved functionality for people with disabilities, but their use and adoption are complicated. Previous research has identified several reasons why people with disabilities choose to abandon their assistive technologies. However, less is known about the adoption of assistive technologies that are permanent and user perceptions of these technologies. This study builds upon existing assistive technology, disability, identity, and stigma literature by examining the role of perceptions of cochlear implants, an assistive technology that permanently renders an invisible disability visible, among the single-sided deaf community. Analysis of survey data from 332 single-sided deaf individuals with cochlear implants all over the world revealed that the perceived visibility of assistive technology is positively associated with self-stigma and social interaction anxiety. Results from this study highlight the centrality of sociotechnical perceptions of assistive technologies to the experience of stigma, rather than the objective characteristics and features of technology, and problematize the existing dichotomous approach (visible v. invisible) to understanding assistive technologies. This study also illuminates the importance of studying assistive technologies on an intragroup level as well as focusing on how specific stigmatized niche communities may perceive and use their assistive technologies.

Twitter Perspectives on Cochlear Implantation: Sentiment and Thematic Analysis

“…This highlights the importance of continued activism to support the representation, awareness, and destigmatization of individuals with CI's, given that visible implants have been associated with self-stigma and social anxiety. 32 Lastly, we found discrepancies around punctuation and plurality of nouns in hashtags, supporting prior findings that social media conversations about otology/ neurotology have overlapping hashtags. 33 We combined hashtags with small differences in spacing and capitalization to highlight the most common hashtags where cochlear implantation is discussed (Figure 4).…”

“…That was the night of The Bachelor premiere with Abigail discussing her CI! !” This highlights the importance of continued activism to support the representation, awareness, and destigmatization of individuals with CI's, given that visible implants have been associated with self‐stigma and social anxiety 32 …”

Factors Influencing Intentions of People with Hearing Impairments to Use AR Glasses as Hearing Aids

“…Any one of the above reasons can lead to the direct abandonment of assistive technologies by people with disabilities. In contrast, the use and adoption of assistive technology is complicated (43), as it is in uenced by an interplay of multiple factors. Generally, functional quality is seen as a prerequisite and foundation for the adoption of assistive technologies.…”

“…This signi es a change in their personal and societal identities. In social activities, they become more concerned about being treated differently, fearing the prejudices and stereotypes that might arise from exposing their invisible disabilities (43). Even though assistive technology product are nonliving object, it actively participates in human life and in uences the construction of the user's social image (59), thereby affecting the adoption and use of assistive technology.…”

Accessible Parallel Embodiment of Multiple Robotic Avatars in a Cafe

“…On the one hand, disabled individuals are consistently overlooked due to ableist prejudice, at the same time, and for often the same reasons, they can also be subject of unwanted attention and curiosity [3,13,22,36]. The experiences of disabled children using telepresence robots in the classroom largely resonated with this seemingly opposing dichotomy [55] .…”