Technologies for inclusive employment: beyond the prosthetic fix–social transformation axis

Constructions of disability and technology and the shaping of future research

“…In my view technology, used with care and the right kind of support, can help towards independence but over-emphasis on it can smother an individual's resources and only lead in the end to further limitations. (p. 190) Grijseels et al (2021) argue that the positioning of technology as capable of transformational fixes persists in current policy discourses: "Following conventional dichotomies, policy actors generally consider technologies to either provide a prosthetic fix to 'able' people with disabilities or become instruments for social transformation" (p. 1).…”

3D printed children's prostheses as enabling technology? The experience of children with upper limb body differences

“…Technologies are often approached as combining elements of disability "repair" and social change. The extent to which the two opposing characteristics often blend, Grijseels et al (2021) show that they are still described in terms of extremes: the medical and the social. As an example the authors describe the cochlear implant [1], which in its function as a medical technology is meant to "solve" the problem of hearing impaired patients, yet was seen by them as an attack on the deaf community in general.…”

“…Technologies are often approached as combining elements of disability “repair” and social change. The extent to which the two opposing characteristics often blend, Grijseels et al. (2021) show that they are still described in terms of extremes: the medical and the social.…”