A Research Agenda for Disability and Technology

Author: Jane Seale Series: Elgar Research Agendas

This innovative Research Agenda offers a comprehensive analysis of the role of assistive technology (AT) in the lives of people with disabilities. Contributors representing a diverse range of stakeholders including researchers, practitioners and people with disabilities suggest avenues for research over the next 10 years.

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Elgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary.

A Research Agenda for Disability and Technology addresses inequalities and tensions surrounding the ways that disability and technology interact, exploring how technologies have an important role but that they cannot, on their own, transform the lives of people with disabilities. Focusing on digital AT, chapters discuss alternative approaches to ‘wicked’ design and accessibility problems and offer ways of thinking differently about the relationship between research, practice and policy. Contributors also debate how our assumptions about disability and technology influences the ways in which people with disabilities are meaningfully involved in research and development.

Considering a wide range of interconnected issues, this Research Agenda is a seminal resource for academics in health policy, critical disability studies, science and technology studies, computer science, and social policy. It also provides valuable insights for policymakers and practitioners, guiding them toward a more inclusive and accessible future where technology serves as a catalyst for positive social change.

Critic Reviews

‘This highly relevant Research Agenda offers important insights into definitions and constructions of disability and technology. The call to give voice and agency to disabled people in research and development of technology has never been more pertinent to ensure inclusive societies in a time where technology is deeply interwoven into our everyday lives. An important read with an interesting and broad selection of contributors.’ -- Anne Marie Kanstrup, Aalborg University, Denmark
‘Technology and disability are vast and dynamic concepts. The internet and world wide web brought huge potentials of digital connectivity and the possibilities – and risks – of digital inclusion and exclusion. We can only imagine how much more would have been achieved, had a cogent Research Agenda been in place, and this is now offered by Seale and colleagues. A vision for multistakeholder collaborations, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research is laid out across ten chapters. Concluding with a call for communities of practice, this Research Agenda will stand us in good stead for the future.’ -- Natasha Layton, Monash University, Australia and ARATA (the Australian Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology Association, Australia)