1. Dis/ability-producing technology assemblages and networks at the workplace: a new materialist analysis.
- Author
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Gauci, Vickie
- Subjects
WORK environment ,FOCUS groups ,INTERVIEWING ,QUALITATIVE research ,ASSISTIVE technology ,QUESTIONNAIRES ,ATTITUDES toward disabilities - Abstract
In this study, 25 Maltese employees with physical or sensory impairments shared their experiences regarding access and use of various technologies at work, first via focus groups and individual interviews, and then through observation sessions at their workplace. The research initially rested on the premise that disabled people face various barriers related to the access and use of technology in their employment, that are not directly ensuing from their impairments. It then built on this premise by applying concepts from new materialisms in an attempt to broaden the notions proposed by the social model of disability. Through the use of vignettes, this paper shows how enabling technologies form part of assemblages, networks and entanglements of people, things and affects to produce consequences that are conducive to or limiting of dis/ability. This article is about people with physical or sensory impairments and how they use technology at their place of work. Research participants describe many difficulties they have in order to obtain and use technology at work. Difficulties using technology at work are not only due to financial, physical or attitudinal barriers but also due to difficulties that have to do with impairment such as pain and fatigue. It is difficult to understand how barriers to obtaining and using technology in work produce disability because they are entangled with many other factors, human and non-human. Stories presented show that people, things, places and feelings, can all equally produce ability or disability in the workplace depending on how they interact together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2021
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