The creation of cyborgs within a socially constructed understanding of disability and assistive activity technology use

Abstract

This article illuminates how understandings of disability is negotiated through use of assistive activity technologies, when people with physical impairment use this kind of technology in their social and physical environment. A qualitative data design was adopted involving interviews with 44 adults with mobility impairments using assistive activity technology. The study was conducted in Mid-Norway. In analysing the findings, this study adopted the stepwise deductive-inductive approach with social constructivism as a theoretical basis. Furthermore, a relational understanding of disability and the cyborg metaphor are used to explain how disability and assistive activity technology are embodied, as well as social and material matters. The article shows how aspects in the social construction of disability are changed when people using assistive activity technology become subjects for new and positive interpretations.