Socio-technical aspirations for children with special needs : a study in two locations — India and Finland |
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Author: | Sharma, Sumita1; Avellan, Tero2; Linna, Juhani2; |
Organizations: |
1University of Oulu, Finland 2Tampere University, Finland 3University of Delhi, India
4Tamana NGO, India
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Format: | article |
Version: | accepted version |
Access: | open |
Online Access: | PDF Full Text (PDF, 2.1 MB) |
Persistent link: | http://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi-fe202102195381 |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Association for Computing Machinery,
2020
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Publish Date: | 2021-02-19 |
Description: |
AbstractSociety’s expectations and assistance for children with special needs is rooted in its cultural, societal, and political backdrop. Previous work on the role of culture on assistive or adaptive technology design for children with special needs identified a three-part framework: lifestyle, socio-technical infrastructure, and monetary and informational resources. Through our work in India, we proposed a fourth dimension to this framework: socio-technical aspirations. We defined socio-technical aspirations as the individual- or community-driven ambition and desire to own or use a specific technology for personal benefit or societal acceptance or both. In Finland, we interviewed four parents of children enrolled in a rehabilitation program, with the aim to understand their expectations from and current usage of technology. Findings from Finland reveal a desire for technology for children with special needs to be more engaging than what is currently available. We also identified several attributes that can contribute to socio-technical aspirations in a given context, including but not limited to: the level of inclusiveness supported in the school, which directly affects how technology is viewed with respect to the social acceptance it provides; the socio-technical aspirations of the child and how they are perceived and met by the parents and teachers; and previous technology experience of the various stakeholders involved in raising a child with special needs, which determines their attitude toward technology for not only for themselves but also for the child. In this article, we validate the dimension of socio-technical aspirations to strengthen our case for incorporating stakeholder’s socio-technical aspirations for technology designed or adapted for children with special needs. see all
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Series: |
ACM transactions on accessible computing |
ISSN: | 1936-7228 |
ISSN-E: | 1936-7236 |
ISSN-L: | 1936-7228 |
Volume: | 13 |
Issue: | 3 |
Article number: | 13 |
DOI: | 10.1145/3396076 |
OADOI: | https://oadoi.org/10.1145/3396076 |
Type of Publication: |
A1 Journal article – refereed |
Field of Science: |
113 Computer and information sciences |
Subjects: | |
Copyright information: |
© 2020 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive Version of Record was published in ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing, https://doi.org/10.1145/3396076. |