Cyborgs and The Americans With Disabilities Act

Medical technology is advancing at lightning speed with the potential to drastically benefit the disabled. These new technologies will result in humans who will use a wide array of assistive technologies and will likely be labelled as Cyborgs. Assistive technologies such as self-driving cars, robots, computer chip implants, insertable medical hardware, and exoskeletons are already well developed. The day is rapidly approaching when Cyborgs as a class will be large and influential. Critically, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the judges tasked with enforcing this legislation, and the legislature itself are all ill equipped to handle the speed of this coming change and the emergence of this Cyborg class. This paper points to the flaws around the ADA and the upcoming judicial quagmire due to a world that is being utterly transformed by the emergence of the Cyborgs. The epicenter of this new legal battle will be the legal determination of what constitutes a reasonable accommodation under the ADA. It is therefore of paramount importance that the courts anticipate these coming changes and prepare our legal system for such coming battles. Further questions as to where the legal border between a human and machine are increasingly being asked due to these technological and medical advances. Future political divisions regarding this new type of mechanical person are also touched upon and speculated about in this paper. There seems to be little written in anticipation of the emergence of a new class of Cyborgs and the legal problems this may yet pose under the ADA. The author hopes to shed light on this critical area of the law. The author himself is a proud “Cyborg” having had five open heart surgeries and numerous artificial as well as animal heart valves installed throughout his life. This author considers it time that this class of person and citizen receive greater scholastic and legal consideration. This author also hopes that many of the potential upcoming issues created by the emergence of the Cyborg class can be addressed and discussed ahead of time

Falling in love with a wheelchair. Enabling/disabling technologies

Abstract in UndeterminedThe aim of this article is to explore how young women with physical impairments make use of technology in their identity construction, drawing on the metaphor of the cyborg as well as on science and technology studies and disability research. In addition to participant observation, semi-structural interviews were conducted and video diaries were kept of the women playing sledge hockey, wheelchair basketball, or table tennis. The informants included their wheelchairs in constructing their identities as young women and active subjects. In talking about pleasure and strength, they opposed the discourse that characterises disabled people as leading empty, tragic lives. They challenge stereotypical notions of gender in sport by displaying determination, strength, and risk-taking, while embodying a more traditional femininity when resisting the widespread view of disabled women as non-gendered and asexual

How using assistive technologies (AT's) affect the interpretation of the ability-disability construct of people with adult-onset locomotor disabilities

This study focused on how assistive technologies (ATs) affect the ability-disability construct of adult-onset locomotor disabled individuals in the South African city of Johannesburg. Its main aim was to understand the socialized use of assistive technologies in adult-onset locomotor disabilities and to unravel how the socialized use of assistive technologies affect the users’ interpretations of the ability-disability construct; through the perceptions of the participants within a developing world context. Relatively, there have been few ATs studies in South Africa and they have excluded the ‘voice ‘of the disabled people. Ten conveniently sampled adult-onset locomotor disabled individuals participated. An interpretive technique in the form of semi structured one hour interviews was used for data collection. The descriptors of events for the thematic analysis were the patterns or themes in which participants were constructing the narratives of their lives. These patterns were formulated using Braun and Clarke (2006) six stages of identifying, analysing and reporting patterns within the data. Transcribed texts from the ten semi-structured interviews were subjected to thematic analysis based on how the participants perceived their assistive technologies. Four central themes emerged which centred on how people perceived their ability-disability; the social acceptability of ATs, accessibility factors and new trends in assistive technologies. The research findings indicate that most adult onset disabled individuals in a South African context tended to embrace the promises of technology centred on positive attributes such as: improved communication with others, increased mobility, physical safety, personal autonomy, control over one's body and life, independence, competence, confidence, the ability to engage in the workforce and participation in the wider community. Although such positive attributes seemed to reinforce perceived ability as the boundary between disabled bodies, technology was blurred. However, this perceived ability was found to be rather misleading since it was premised in the same medical and social discourse that ‘disabled’ individuals. T he participants’ narratives were constantly constructing and reconstructing the way they perceived themselves as able or disabled. The studies therefore recommend that, disability narratives on the perception of ATs should be viewed as fluid, complex and multi-layered

Can the 4th Industrial Revolution be a Solution to the Challenges of Social Aging?

This paper explores whether the fourth industrial revolution - robotization automation digitalization and the Internet of Things - may mitigate the social economic and labor impacts of an aging society The increasing role of advanced technologies in economic and social life has fueled concerns about the risks of such technologies to human labor social relations and human dignity These risks seem particularly tangible in advanced societies which face a shortage of skilled labor and increasing demand for social and care services By reviewing a variety of business practices in several developed economies this research seeks to build a case in favor of the use of advanced technologies in aging societies Taking into account the scale of population aging and the limited effectiveness of social and fiscal reforms in favor of a demographic change the fourth industrial revolution appears to be a useful tool to tackle social aging Without dismissing the ethical social and other concerns related to the use of advanced technologies the research shows a wide range of successful solutions and symbiotic collaboration between humans and advanced technologies in socially aging context

Welfare technologies in Finland: An ethico-politics of hype, hope and experimentation

In the past decade, the Finnish government has been eager to enable and support the development, implementation and growing business of automation, robotics and artificial intelligence—that is, welfare technologies in elderly care services. In these visions, technologies offer an intervention to increase health and wellbeing while also being an economic commodity to generate profit. Therefore, expectations towards welfare technologies show politics with high optimism, in which simultaneous expectations of good health, smooth services, a growing economy and a thriving welfare state are fostered. This dissertation delves into a problem in which care politics raise high expectations of technology while catering to the needs of the ageing population. My main research question is as follows: How are the high expectations related to the technology realised in care practices, and what are the ethico-political implications? This dissertation consists of four articles that exemplify the different dimensions of realising these expectations. The dissertation is theoretically based on multiple perspectives from science and technology studies. My theoretical framework enables a focus on ethico-political practices and expectations, offers a symmetrical approach to care and technology and provides a critical viewpoint to the technological promises laid in contemporary care politics. I use multi-sited ethnography as a methodology. The research materials consist of documents, observations and interviews. The focus of the empirical materials is on social robots and telecare technology—that is, robots designed to provide companionship and assistance and surveillance technologies for secure care. I read the different research materials through the sociology of translations, which emphasises that the manner in which expectations are fulfilled concerns the adaptation and transformation of different actors and their aspirations. This dissertation advances the theoretical and empirical understanding of the welfare technology phenomenon. My main argument is that expectations related to welfare technologies in Finland are realised in actual care practices through negotiations between the regimes of hype and hope. The regime of hype captures the health and social policy side of the welfare technology phenomenon, while the regime of hope mainly concerns institutional care. Hype creates, collects and circulates optimistic expectations, while hope enables living with the uncertainty that comes with technology’s material agency. With technology comes the possibility of disruption, which intervenes with care relations and, paradoxically, enables them by offering possibilities for creativity. Experimentation is central to both regimes. While experimentation in the regime of hype aims at fulfilling optimistic expectations, experimentation in the regime of hope is obligatory to secure care. Experimentation in practice makes the wellbeing of individuals and the state commensurate, transforming disappointments into achievements and technological possibilities into necessities. Both regimes value ambivalence and uncertainty due to their shared focus on experimentation.----- Tarkastelen sosiologian alaan kuuluvassa väitöskirjassa iäkkäiden hoivatyöhön suunnattuihin hyvinvointiteknologioihin liittyviä odotuksia sekä niiden eettis-poliittisia vaikutuksia. Väitöskirja koostuu neljästä vertaisarvioidusta tutkimusartikkelista ja yhteenvetoluvusta. Kaksi artikkeleista on julkaistu kansainvälisissä ja kaksi kotimaisissa lehdissä. Tutkimus paikantuu suomalaisen hyvinvointivaltion ja sen hoivapalvelujen murroskohtaan, jossa riittämättömiin hoivaresursseihin haetaan poliittista ratkaisua automaatiosta, tekoälystä ja robotiikasta. Hyvinvointiteknologian käsite viittaa pohjoismaisten hyvinvointivaltioiden pyrkimyksiin vastata ikääntyvän väestön tuomiin haasteisiin teknologisilla innovaatioilla samalla uusia yritysmahdollisuuksia kehittäen ja julkista taloutta eheyttäen. Päätutkimuskysymykseni on: Miten hyvinvointiteknologioihin liittyvät odotukset käytännössä toteutetaan ja millaisin eetis-poliittisin seurauksin? Teoreettisesti tutkimus paikantuu tieteen- ja teknologiantutkimuksen monitieteiseen kenttään. Osallistun erityisesti tutkimusalan keskusteluihin, jotka lähestyvät hoivaa, ikääntymistä ja teknologiaa sekä näihin liittyvää etiikkaa ja politiikkaa käytäntöjen kautta, eivät tee lähtökohtaista erottelua hoivaan liittyvien inhmillisten ja ei-inhimillisten toimijoiden välille sekä mahdollistavat kriittisen tulokulman hyvinvointiteknologiaan kohdistuviin lupauksiin. Metodologisesti tutkimus pohjautuu monipaikkaiseen etnografiaan. Keräämäni aineistot koostuvat dokumenteista, havainnointiaineistosta ja haastatteluista. Lähestyn hyvinvointiteknologian ilmiötä etenkin sosiaalisen robotiikan ja etähoivateknologian kautta. Analysoin aineistoja käännösten sosiologian avulla eli paneutumalla siihen, miten teknologioihin liittyvien lupausten toteutuminen on riippuvaista käännösprosesseista, joissa erilaiset toimijat ja niiden tavoitteet määrittyvät uusiksi. Tutkimus kontribuoi yhteiskuntatieteelliseen hyvinvointiteknologioiden ja iäkkäiden hoivan tutkimukseen tarkastelemalla monipaikkaisesti, miten uusiin teknologioihin liittyvät, eettis-poliittisesti latautuneet ja tulevaisuuteen kohdistuvat, odotukset taipuvat osaksi hoivatyön arkea sitä samalla muuttaen. Tutkimuksessa näytän, miten hyvinvointiteknologiaan liittyvät odotukset toteutuvat käytännössä jännitteisten neuvotteluiden kautta. Väitän, että hyvinvointiteknologiaan liittyvien odotusten toteuttaminen liittyy Suomessa kahteen erilaiseen, hypen ja toivon, regiimiin. Siinä missä hypen regiimi kuvaa hyvinvointiteknologioihin liittyvien suurten odotusten politiikkaa, toivon regiimi havainnollistaa uusien teknologioiden kanssa elettyä hoivan arkea. Molemmat regiimit painottavat kokeellisuutta. Siinä missä hypen regiimissä kokeellisuuden avulla toteutetaan teknologiaan liittyviä lupauksia, toivon regiimissä kokeellisuus on välttämätöntä hyvän hoivan turvaamiseksi. Käytännössä kokeellisuus on keino yhteismitallistaa yksilön ja valtion hyvinvointi, muuttaa pettymykset saavutuksiksi ja teknologiset mahdollisuudet välttämättömyyksiksi. Kokeellisuudesta seuraa, että molemmissa regiimeissä hyödynnetään epävarmuutta resurssina

Free Play: Removing Barriers to Athletic Self-Expression in Sport

The choice of what sport to play and the manner in which a person plays it has moral content and represents values that are personally meaningful to the individual athlete. However, due to the hegemonic influence of the concept of fair play, athletes do not have control over, or freedom of expression within, their chosen sports. This has additional and harmful ramifications for those currently excluded from communities of sport practice because the rules of sporting contests have very little flexibility to allow for participant directed change. A rights-based conception of sport encourages athletes to engage in ‘civil disobedience’ within sport to bring about, or at least draw attention to, necessary rule changes, and for sport to tolerate such disobedience so as not to compromise the autonomy of those who dissent to current standards of excellence or practice. This implementation of rights-based sport will be examined in the context of para-sport since individuals with disabilities are one possible group who would benefit significantly. Finally, the ethical arguments and their implications for sport will be practically tested within the context of the Canadian University Rowing Championships and the creation of a unified sport opportunity for ‘able-bodied’ athletes as well as para-athletes alike

Hybridity and Habitation: A Rhetorical Analysis of Interior Design in Live-Action Cyberpunk Films Through the Lens of Posthumanism and Thing Theory

Characterized by hyper-urban environments, extreme class division, and an abundance ofcorporate oversight, the cyberpunk subgenre of science-fiction is a prime candidate for scholarly research on speculative interior design and associated technologies. Using the theoretical frameworks of posthumanism, or the concept that humans will transcend their current biological form in the near future, and thing theory, or the worldview that objects are able to enact their autonomy on living subjects, interior design in three live-action films in the cyberpunk subgenre were analyzed in order to determine how depictions of future spaces reflect present ideations of our potential real future. Metaphor analysis was employed as this thesis’ methodology, as the ideologies implemented in design and technology are often understood through tactile or visual interactions with artifacts. After applying metaphor analysis to one domestic space, one workspace, and one decorative element in each film, it has become evident that in our inevitable posthuman future, human scale and the corporeal form of our species must be taken into account when creating spaces and technologies for us to inhabit and use. Though it may be inaccurate to surmise that design can solve all of the institutional problems that plague societies, there is reason to believe that the inanimate spaces and technologies that occupy our lives do play a role in affecting our psyche and ability to foster healthy relationships

Assistive robotics: research challenges and ethics education initiatives

Assistive robotics is a fast growing field aimed at helping healthcarers in hospitals, rehabilitation centers and nursery homes, as well as empowering people with reduced mobility at home, so that they can autonomously fulfill their daily living activities. The need to function in dynamic human-centered environments poses new research challenges: robotic assistants need to have friendly interfaces, be highly adaptable and customizable, very compliant and intrinsically safe to people, as well as able to handle deformable materials. Besides technical challenges, assistive robotics raises also ethical defies, which have led to the emergence of a new discipline: Roboethics. Several institutions are developing regulations and standards, and many ethics education initiatives include contents on human-robot interaction and human dignity in assistive situations. In this paper, the state of the art in assistive robotics is briefly reviewed, and educational materials from a university course on Ethics in Social Robotics and AI focusing on the assistive context are presented.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Intelligent Communication and Patterning in Smart Cities

What makes a city great and smart has puzzled many, and millions are fascinated by metropolises and interested in the effects and phenotypes of urbanization. More than ever before, citizens are demanding smart cities, which are in progress and have co-evolved and shaped us, the citizens, the country, the economy, and the world, reciprocally over many centuries. This chapter highlights the past and future roles of communication and pattern formation in the local cluster of the developing smart city and “assistive technologies” and catalyzes that were and will be needed to transform a city via better cluster management, urban planning, coordination, citizen enablement, integration, and citizen feedback into a better functioning, convenient, and intelligent place for all of us including disabled, ill, young, or aged persons. With some explicatory analogy, the “metacity” is becoming a new living entity that is either more or less disable and needs “smart enablement,” new solutions that solve old bottlenecks, as the city is as enabled as its citizens that need some aids. Hence, smart cities are on the agenda in most countries, and fair opportunity, city functioning, smart communication, and smart pattern formation play pivotal roles in the unmatched urban enablement of all citizens and, concomitantly, the enablement of the “metacity” entity. Smart cities thus hold the key to stimulate the economy, to create the pattern of great places for all, to meet our Maslow’s pyramid of needs also on the city level, and without leaving anyone of us behind