Reuniting speech-impaired people with their voices: Sound technologies for disability and why they matter for organization studies

Ethopolitical media: Organizing Assistive Technology, disability and care in the platform society

“…Public AT service delivery systems, in fact, have been in place in many European Countries for many years as part of their national or regional welfare systems, providing technologies to individuals through health-care institutions after individuals have passed through medical and bureaucratic hurdles to get their needs recognized (Andrich et al, 2017). At the same time, the very criteria and parameters via which impairments are assessed and diagnosed are not neutral, but are constructed on certain ideals of “normal functioning” and a “healthy body” rooted in the dominant culture (Napolitano et al, 2023; Sterne, 2021). Think, for example, to the audiometer, that measures hearing thresholds on the base of a statistical average value obtained arbitrarily from a test group aged between 18 and 30 (Napolitano et al, 2023) – so implying that hearing beyond 30 is by definition impaired.…”

“…At the same time, the very criteria and parameters via which impairments are assessed and diagnosed are not neutral, but are constructed on certain ideals of “normal functioning” and a “healthy body” rooted in the dominant culture (Napolitano et al, 2023; Sterne, 2021). Think, for example, to the audiometer, that measures hearing thresholds on the base of a statistical average value obtained arbitrarily from a test group aged between 18 and 30 (Napolitano et al, 2023) – so implying that hearing beyond 30 is by definition impaired.…”