title: Disability and assistive technology advancements in disability sport: Understanding the embodied experiences of disabled athletes

authors: Asare, Francis

subjects: Assistive technology

abstract: The World Health Organisation estimates that one billion disabled people currently rely on assistive technology in their day-to-day activities. Yet, the participation of disabled people in sports remains significantly low, often due to inadequate access to assistive technology needed to participate, train and compete. Meanwhile, the use of assistive technology in sport has raised critical questions about disability, access, and equity in culture and society. In disability sports, the use of assistive technology by athletes has often been simplified with notions of ‘cyborgification’, and popular discourses positioning them as ‘superhuman’, or ‘posthuman’. While this is problematic, little is known about how one’s impaired experience, self, and mind impact the use of assistive technology in disability sport.

Given this, in this research, I sought to enhance the understanding of the role of assistive technology for disabled athletes with a focus on embodied experiences. Particularly, the various ways that disabled people use, interact with and embody assistive technology throughout their engagement in disability sport. Using embodiment as a theoretical lens, the research drew on a critical qualitative framework, encompassing ethnographic fieldwork, semi-structured interviews and photo-elicitation. I used these methods to complement each other to deeply explore the embodied experiences of twelve disabled athletes with various physical impairments who use assistive technology across different sports. 

In this research, assistive technology was fundamentally woven into the lives of disabled individuals and plays a crucial role in shaping an identity that challenges traditional norms and perceptions in disability sport. By becoming socially embodied, assistive technology transformed physical impairments and self-perceptions, enabling athletes to achieve technological competency in their athletic pursuits. The findings revealed that athletes experience a sense of embodied freedom, positioning themselves as active agents in their sport. This was facilitated by the high level of customization of their assistive devices and their proactive approach to seeking adjustments and modifications to enhance their performance. Importantly, using assistive technology involved an embodied knowledge and learning process that addressed pain, fatigue, and impairment limitations. These experiences helped normalise the subjectivities of the disabled athletic body, illustrating how assistive technologies can symbolize and support integration and a sense of belonging in sport.

Broadly, this research challenged discursive accounts that theorised the blurry boundaries of using assistive technologies by centralising the lived experience, voices and accounts of disabled athletes. Doing so enabled me to challenge the dualist or binary notions (i.e. human-nonhuman and artificial-biological) that dominate discussion about how disabled athletes incorporate assistive technology into their bodily experience of sport. By thinking with and through embodiment, the research illustrated the unique, hybrid identity of disabled athletes; skilful, athletic, fluid and the constant shift between the empowering and at times restrictive nature of assistive technology. Despite this positivity, disabled athletes still face inequitable access to assistive technology, and the research highlights the importance of embodied belonging and community in learning how to participate, train and compete with assistive technologies. Taken together, the implications of this research demonstrate the need for better opportunities, provision, services and policies for disabled people to access assistive technology as a means of participating in sport. Importantly, we can understand how the relationship between disability and assistive technology can be perceived, felt, and embodied as one being.

text: Disability and assistive technology advancements in disability sport: Understanding the embodied experiences of disabled athletes The World Health Organisation estimates that one billion disabled people currently rely on assistive technology in their day-to-day activities. Yet, the participation of disabled people in sports remains significantly low, often due to inadequate access to assistive technology needed to participate, train and compete. Meanwhile, the use of assistive technology in sport has raised critical questions about disability, access, and equity in culture and society. In disability sports, the use of assistive technology by athletes has often been simplified with notions of ‘cyborgification’, and popular discourses positioning them as ‘superhuman’, or ‘posthuman’. While this is problematic, little is known about how one’s impaired experience, self, and mind impact the use of assistive technology in disability sport.

Given this, in this research, I sought to enhance the understanding of the role of assistive technology for disabled athletes with a focus on embodied experiences. Particularly, the various ways that disabled people use, interact with and embody assistive technology throughout their engagement in disability sport. Using embodiment as a theoretical lens, the research drew on a critical qualitative framework, encompassing ethnographic fieldwork, semi-structured interviews and photo-elicitation. I used these methods to complement each other to deeply explore the embodied experiences of twelve disabled athletes with various physical impairments who use assistive technology across different sports. 

In this research, assistive technology was fundamentally woven into the lives of disabled individuals and plays a crucial role in shaping an identity that challenges traditional norms and perceptions in disability sport. By becoming socially embodied, assistive technology transformed physical impairments and self-perceptions, enabling athletes to achieve technological competency in their athletic pursuits. The findings revealed that athletes experience a sense of embodied freedom, positioning themselves as active agents in their sport. This was facilitated by the high level of customization of their assistive devices and their proactive approach to seeking adjustments and modifications to enhance their performance. Importantly, using assistive technology involved an embodied knowledge and learning process that addressed pain, fatigue, and impairment limitations. These experiences helped normalise the subjectivities of the disabled athletic body, illustrating how assistive technologies can symbolize and support integration and a sense of belonging in sport.

Broadly, this research challenged discursive accounts that theorised the blurry boundaries of using assistive technologies by centralising the lived experience, voices and accounts of disabled athletes. Doing so enabled me to challenge the dualist or binary notions (i.e. human-nonhuman and artificial-biological) that dominate discussion about how disabled athletes incorporate assistive technology into their bodily experience of sport. By thinking with and through embodiment, the research illustrated the unique, hybrid identity of disabled athletes; skilful, athletic, fluid and the constant shift between the empowering and at times restrictive nature of assistive technology. Despite this positivity, disabled athletes still face inequitable access to assistive technology, and the research highlights the importance of embodied belonging and community in learning how to participate, train and compete with assistive technologies. Taken together, the implications of this research demonstrate the need for better opportunities, provision, services and policies for disabled people to access assistive technology as a means of participating in sport. Importantly, we can understand how the relationship between disability and assistive technology can be perceived, felt, and embodied as one being.

year: 2024-10-05

title: Book review: The Blue Coat

authors: Locke, Terry

subjects: book review

abstract: The article reviews the book "The Blue Coat" by Elizabeth Smither.

text: Book review: The Blue Coat The article reviews the book "The Blue Coat" by Elizabeth Smither.

year: 2013

title: Sharing, listening, learning and developing understandings of Kaupapa Māori research by engaging with two Māori communities involved in education.

authors: Kana, Fred

subjects: Kaupapa Maori research methodology

abstract: This paper is a culmination of common understandings that were elicited from two pieces of research: ‘The Impact of the BHP New Zealand Steel Mining on the Tangata Whenua and the Environment’ and ‘The Impact of Maori Medium Education within a Mainstream Secondary School on the Lives of its Participants, in particular the Teachers, Caregivers and Students’. It was at the conclusion of each research project and as a consequence of informal conversations and discussions that this paper evolved. The paper discusses shared understandings in the context of Kaupapa Māori research methodology and key findings from the two research projects.

text: Sharing, listening, learning and developing understandings of Kaupapa Māori research by engaging with two Māori communities involved in education. This paper is a culmination of common understandings that were elicited from two pieces of research: ‘The Impact of the BHP New Zealand Steel Mining on the Tangata Whenua and the Environment’ and ‘The Impact of Maori Medium Education within a Mainstream Secondary School on the Lives of its Participants, in particular the Teachers, Caregivers and Students’. It was at the conclusion of each research project and as a consequence of informal conversations and discussions that this paper evolved. The paper discusses shared understandings in the context of Kaupapa Māori research methodology and key findings from the two research projects.

year: 2006