Thinking about sensible technologies for people with dementia
Speaker: John McCarthy – Cork, IrelandTopic(s): Human Computer Interaction
Abstract
Much technology design and development for people living with the diagnosis of dementia is remedial and focuses on providing assistance in areas that are perceived to be cognitive deficits. In this talk, an alternative approach is developed in which the capacities and potential of people with dementia is emphasised. This approach is characterised by an emphasis on the personhood and citizenship of people with dementia, and has the aim of ensuring that the rights of people with dementia to exercise their voices in managing their futures and, as a consequence, in having high aspirations and feeling confident, knowing they can contribute and participate in activities that are meaningful to them, are recognised and responded to.
In order to ground the approach in everyday experience, observations from design-oriented ethnographies of people living with dementia at home and in care will be described. The talk will focus on the notion of what is made sensible by technology design in the area of caring for people with dementia. Sensible in this context refers to what can be said, seen, heard, thought, and talked about within a particular group, community, or society (Rancière, 2004). A critical focus on what is made sensible in the design process, and in the technologies and services that emerge, invites disruption of assumptions about the experience of dementia and how people’s experience of living with dementia can be enhanced in design.
About this Lecture
Number of Slides: 20Duration: 40 minutes
Languages Available: English
Last Updated:
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