Architectural Design, Occupational & Industrial Medicine, General & Miscellaneous Architecture, Special Education - General & Miscellaneous, Medical Technology, Social Aspects of Technology, Occupational Therapy, General & Miscellaneous Computing, Vocatio
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Overview
*What is the significance of new microchip technologies for disabled workers/job seekers?*How is new technology enabling some disabled workers to gain enhanced access to employment and a more enabling employment?
*What are the policy implications of the research findings and the reevaluation of the role of new technology?
There is much evidence to suggest that disabled people are less likely to be afforded the same rights as able-bodied workers in accessing jobs, equal employment rights and equal access to the workplace. Using a social barriers model of disability Enabling Technology addresses the role of new technology in reducing the environmental and attitude barriers disabled people have commonly faced in the field of employment. This work is critical of established writings on disability and new technology and suggests that by adopting a medical model of disability such analyses have misrepresented the benefits of new technology for disabled people. A social barriers model views the benefits of new technology as inhering in its potential to rehabilitate disabling environments. The book addresses the urgent need to reframe policies on technology access away from a welfarist 'eligibility' model to a 'social rights' approach, one where disabled people are centrally involved in the framing, operation and review of technology access policy.
Enabling Technology is recommended reading for students and researchers in disability studies, applied social sciences and the sociology of work. It is also of relevance to those working in rehabilitation medicine and occupational therapy.
Alan Roulstone is currently Programme Director for Social Sciences at theUniversity of Sunderland where he lectures in Disability Studies and Work, Leisure and Employment. He obtained a PhD in Disability Studies at the Open University in 1995 and has previously lectured in Employment Studies and Law at Staffordshire University.
Incl. potential to rehabilitate disabling environments; guide policy away from welfare to working social rights.
Editorials
Booknews
Advocating a social barriers model of disability to replace the conventional medical model, the author, a British social scientist, explores the role of new technology in enhancing disabled workers' access to jobs and equal employment rights. He presents interviews, case studies, and quantitative evidence to document the potential, as well as the limitations, of new technology to overcome barriers; and he discusses the role that disabled people themselves should play in the framing, operation, and review of technology access policy. Distributed by Taylor & Francis. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.Book Details
Published
April 1, 1998
Publisher
Open University Press
Pages
159
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780335198016