Brian Villani, 26 years old, tall and in khakis, extroverted, both steadfast and serious, sharing a garden apartment with two roommates in older Boston, furnished with the material culture of young adulthood: go Oversized couches, multiple game systems, oversized posters, a bunch of plastic kitchenware. He took the train to the job he had held for many years at a corporate mailroom downtown, a job he loved—“I take all the packages and all the homes.” My suppliers all know me,” he said. He lives close – “but not too close,” he wittily says – to his parents and has a strong passion for sports, especially the art of informing each game. He is counting down the days to his brother’s wedding.
Villani moves through life, back home to work and back again, with an expansive array of technologies that combine the familiar and the special. There’s a touch-screen tablet on his kitchen wall that can control the microwave with voice commands, and a sensor-enhanced trash can that opens with just the hover of a hand or foot. His window blinds automatically open and close to welcome and mute the sun, morning and evening, via a phone app. His shower is activated by a touchscreen interface, with both on/off and temperature control, which simplifies the task of combining locomotion and perception. He uses smart speakers to listen to music and search the internet, as in many households, but Villani also has a voice-activated script on his tablet that predicts when he says “Good morning.” morning” or “Good night,” to digitally end your day with reminders big and small: news headlines, upcoming calendar events, and daily reminders to wear your office badge. him as he walked out the door. It’s a morning routine that incorporates all the steps leading from home to office.
Like his roommates, Villani graduated from nearby Lesley College in Cambridge, where he attended the Threshold Program, a combined two-year undergraduate program for young adults with developmental disabilities. and awareness, combining subjects with life skills training: budgeting, time management, meal planning. Now that he is living with less human assistance, he has been using this smart home toolkit and software applications as the next support for his daily activities. he practiced at school.
“Technology is my way of acquiring skills as independently as possible,” says Villani, “and he is expressing an idea that is rapidly changing the paradigm of prosthetics and assistive technology in the United States,” says Villani. — what counts as technology, how and by whom it is used, but also how it is paid for and distributed.
Many people think prosthetics and assistive technology, or AT, in a relatively narrow model, imagine familiar objects such as wheelchairs, walkers, and hearing aids. For decades, US state disability services have truly been shaped by this clinical understanding, providing coverage for what is officially known as Durable Medical Devices because its “medically necessary” designation. Of course, these medical technologies are still important. But they often fail to address the needs of adults like Brian.
Until recently, people with developmental or cognitive disabilities (or combined cognitive and physical barriers to access) have relied heavily on human support services, from cooking, personal hygiene to arrange and remind. Sometimes this human presence is desirable and necessary. But sometimes self-advocates — perhaps especially a new generation of people who already enjoy a more mainstream integration into schools — prefer a technology-based approach, with remote enrollment. and easy backup contacts, rather than a rotating staff of direct assistants.
Prosthetics for this population aren’t so much about replacements for body mobility. It is something less tangible, more pervasive, and requires a distinct model of support, unthinkable even in the very recent era of the Americans with Disabilities Act, with its emphasis on emphasis on critical physical infrastructure such as ramps and elevators. Because people like Chris, support now comes in the form of a combination of standalone housing, animal companionship, smart home technology, and teleconferencing. It’s a mix of high tech and low tech in distributed networked tools, many of which are ready-to-use, seamlessly integrated as pervasive features of everyday life, can bridge some of the logistical barriers to employment.
And a Constellation of technology is indeed an appropriate metaphor. There is no way to dominate this market — no single system can equip a living space or workplace with “universal” accessibility features. There won’t be a”cutting effect“For this digital world. What is needed instead is a people-centred approach to bringing together a set of human services. and versatile tools, elegantly curated to meet the needs and requirements of one person at a time. More importantly, this future for automation need not be a worrisome and unsettling substitute for human care and connectivity. What’s to come is quite possibly more interesting and complex: a new and growing collaboration between people and assistive devices, low- and high-tech, domestic and professional. If carefully orchestrated, this expansive idea from AT can help create support not only for medical needs but for a full definition of life: assisted living. important on a daily basis, but without the support of people with “special needs”.
