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Unit-4 Soh

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20 views

Unit-4 Soh

Uploaded by

nikhilnemnani
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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You are on page 1/ 6

UNDERSTANDING DISABILITY

The term illness is far from obvious…the same is true for the
term disability
Medical model of disability…deficit that should be cured (isn’t it
that an individual has?)
According to PWDs the answer is no…how others respond to
those differences and the choices others have made in
constructing the social and physical environment

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This reflects a sociological model of disability…
(Individualizing disability…social attitudes & environment
rather than rehabilitating)
Not just two, there are several models of disability:
The moral and/or religious model
The medical model
The social model
The identity model
The human rights model
The charity model
The economic model
The limits model
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jig5uNbN3xk&t=11s

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Assistive Technology (AT) and Disability
•AT can be any technological/technical interventions/aid that help
people with disabilities function within their environment
•These ATs
• Assist them in learning
• Make the environment more accessible
• Enable them to compete in the workplace
• Enhance their independence
• improve their overall quality of life
•However, the societal meaning of disability is changing due to
introduction of technological interventions…(e.g. telephones and
emails have given different meaning towards disability like deafness
and blindness)

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Technology and Childhood Disability
Impact of preventive technology
⚫Sometimes injuries result in disabling conditions in childhood…
technological interventions prove that injuries are highly preventable
⚫The physical environment can be improved through technical
inputs…(housing, automobile travel, pedestrian, playground design)
…leads to significant reductions in injury-related mortality and
disability in children
⚫These technical improvements can benefit children depending on the
public (based on general design enhancement) and private (child car
seat, child-protective car window lock) intervention… though
certain interventions are legal, social disparities define their actual
use and consequent result
⚫Not just in case of childhood, but the role of such preventive
technology is also evident even in prenatal and neonatal stages

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⚫ Technology, in the form of screening initiatives, identify genetic or
other indicators of disability risk on prenatal stage
⚫ Genetic screening of prospective parents…risk-associated genetic
profile/conditions…may result in termination of pregnancy (which
again has many ethical, moral and legal questions)
⚫ However, sometimes technology is developing new prenatal
interventions like fetal surgery…
⚫ But, we need to understand that the use of prenatal diagnostic
technology is also characterized by significant social disparities
(complex medical procedures or delivery infrastructures, legal
codes of termination)
⚫ Newborn screening programs are designed to identify those
conditions which are present but not clinically recognizable at
neonatal stage…it can be dealt with early initiation of special diet

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⚫ However, although new testing technologies can screen such
metabolic and genetic disorders, many of these conditions are still
poorly understood or have no effective treatment
⚫ Therefore, four factors are interrelated
◦ The technical ability to identify risk
◦ The challenges of making sense of this knowledge
◦ Using them for an efficient and effective outcome
◦ And lastly, the humane response
Impact of therapeutic technology
⚫ In general, children with disabilities rely more on technical
interventions (like medications, specialized medical and even
educational services)
⚫ Technology can be helpful in case of certain conditions like
cerebral palsy…these are designed to enhance children’s functional
abilities as they suffer from cognitive and motor disorders…
improving the quality of life and social participation

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