Summary
In this week’s article, “Emerging Technologies And Their Impact On Disability”, Paul H. Wise explains that technology is impacting children with disabilities in both positive and negative ways. He believes that all technology attempts to fix human deficits. While technology can result in safer physical environments, it can also present health risks without presenting solutions to fix them. Technology is increasingly used to fix physical problems for those with disabilities even though emotional health concerns continue to rise. Efficacy is also an issue. As we fight to change health outcomes using technology, we also observe that technology is not readily available to all in our society. Health costs are expensive and available only to those who can afford it, making technology a major social concern on multiple levels. Technology has actually influenced our definition of the term “disability”. Wise recognizes that there are two main factors that determine our current health the ways we are able to treat it: Social environment and tech innovation.
In recent decades, assistive technology has been created by modifying scientific technology to be used for practice purposes in an effort to improve health. Environments have been made safer, preventative vaccines have been created, medicinal treatments have been established to help people cope with illnesses. Technology has become so great that society has been able to decrease infant mortality rates. As a result, however, the amount of childhood chronic illnesses and disabilities has increased. These children with special needs were saved by technology, yet it cannot always cure them and they depend on it for medical and educational help.
Assistive technology can improve independence and participation in typical situations, but disabled students often suffer from a lack of resources because of government pressures to reduce health and educational spending. The individuals With Disabilities Education Act of 1990 was established to help people with special needs gain access to the services they need to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Laws in support of disability rights would not be possible if it weren’t for social acceptance. It has been crucial that society raise awareness of diseases and mortality rates in an effort to call for change. A society’s willingness to change is what fuels research and implementation of technology to help those with special needs. It is important that these new innovations be universal in design so that all society members may benefit from their existence. Furthermore, designing technology for all people instead of a niche group makes the technology less costly. Wise explains that our society needs to be willing to continuously evaluate and alter the ways we implement technology in our community to ensure good health of the people who live in it.
Reflection
Last week’s module activity involving the use of WebAnywhere text-to-speech technology is a great example of why technology and society need to continuously work together to accommodate those members of society with special needs. I believe WebAnywhere exists as a result of society recognizing the helplessness of visually impaired populations in public settings where they cannot read signage. Consequently, technology was developed and publicized for the visually impaired to use. However, this is only a small group of special needs community members that is being helped by the program. Not to mention the WebAnywhere program is extremely difficult to understand and in need of some “fine tuning”. If this program had been created with universal design in mind, it would be useful to a larger population of people and probably more streamlined for efficient use. This is a prime example of the need for society to continuously re-evaluate the success of technology and find ways to make it relevant to human deficiencies.
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