Beyond traditional ethics when developing assistive technology for and with deaf people in developing regions
Loading...
Date
2015
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer
Abstract
There are limitations to traditional ethical approaches and procedures when engaged in assistive technology (AT) research for Deaf people in a developing region. Non-traditional issues arise as a consequence of employing action research, including but not limited to how informed consent is construed and obtained; empowerment of participants to become involved in co-design; awareness of unfamiliar cultural issues of participants (as opposed to subjects); and accommodating community-centred, as opposed to person-centred, nuances. This chapter describes AT research with an entity called Deaf Community of Cape Town (DCCT), a disabled people’s organisation (DPO) that works on behalf of a marginalised community of under-educated, under-employed and semi-literate Deaf people across metropolitan Cape Town. We describe how non-traditional ethical concerns arose in our experience. We reflect on how these ethical issues affect AT design, based on long-term engagement; and summarise the themes, what we have learned and how we modified our practise, and finally, offer suggestions to others working on AT in developing regions.
Description
Keywords
Assistive technology (AT), Deaf Community of Cape Town (DCCT), Disabled Peoples Organisation (DPO), Cape Town, Ethics, Cultural identity, Sign language, South African Sign Language (SASL), Children of Deaf adults (CODA), Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
Citation
Tucker, W. D. (2015). Beyond traditional ethics when developing assistive technology for and with deaf people in developing regions. In M. Hersh (Ed.), Ethical Engineering for International Development and Environmental Sustainability. Springer: London.