What has digital technology ever done for us?

Description

York Disability Week Lecture

The last 40 years has seen a “digital revolution”, with the development of personal computers, the World Wide Web, mobile phones, virtual/augmented reality and many other technologies. Many of these new technologies have provided life-changing opportunities for disabled and older people, from the use of augmentative and alternative communication systems, made famous by Stephen Hawking’s computer voice to personal navigation systems for visually disabled pedestrians. However, there have also been many failures and problems. For example, the Web holds great potential for providing information and services for disabled and older users, as Tim Berners-Lee famously said “"The power of the web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect”. However, the Web still poses many challenges for disabled and older people. And many new technologies seem to isolate older people more than assist them. This talk will consider some of the successes and challenges in this area, drawing partly on the speaker’s own research, and will discuss how we can work to make technology more successful in the future.

This lecture is part of York Disability Week. a week-long programme of events taking place within Disability History Month and supported by York Human Rights City Network.

This programme coincides with the UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities on 3 December, the aim of which is to promote the human rights and well-being of people who identify as disabled or as having an impairment in all spheres of society and increases awareness of their situation in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life.

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