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: Introduction and Editorial: NZJHRM: Special Issue: The Future of Work

authors: Roche, Maree A.

abstract: This special issue of the New Zealand Journal of Human Resources Management focuses on the growing research perspectives by leading and emerging New Zealand human resource scholars.

text: Introduction and Editorial: NZJHRM: Special Issue: The Future of Work This special issue of the New Zealand Journal of Human Resources Management focuses on the growing research perspectives by leading and emerging New Zealand human resource scholars.

year: 2016

title: Overview of the Kukutaaruhe Gully restoration initiative: Part 1

authors: Elliot Noe, Elizabeth

abstract: Kukutaaruhe Gully is a minor branch of Hamilton’s extensive gully system, and runs from the corner of Bankwood and Clarkin Road, behind Fairfield College, connecting with Donny Park in the north and out into the Waikato River. The Kukutaaruhe Education Trust was established to support the implementation of the Fairfield Project, which is a partnership between Ngati Wairere, local community and Fairfield College. The project’s goals include the establishment of an ecological and environmental education centre on the approximately 12 ha of land behind Fairfield College and restoration of the adjacent Kukutaaruhe Gully. In 2019, the University of Waikato’s Environmental Research Institute was contracted by the Kukutaaruhe Education Trust to create an Overview of the Kukutaaruhe Gully restoration initiative. This is one in a three-part series created together under one contract:
• Part 1 of 3 is the first document presented here, an Overview of the Kukutaaruhe Gully Restoration Initiative
• Part 2 of 3, the Operational Forest Restoration plan for Kukutaaruhe Gully
• Part 3 of 3 is an Ecological Restoration Plan Template.

text: Overview of the Kukutaaruhe Gully restoration initiative: Part 1 Kukutaaruhe Gully is a minor branch of Hamilton’s extensive gully system, and runs from the corner of Bankwood and Clarkin Road, behind Fairfield College, connecting with Donny Park in the north and out into the Waikato River. The Kukutaaruhe Education Trust was established to support the implementation of the Fairfield Project, which is a partnership between Ngati Wairere, local community and Fairfield College. The project’s goals include the establishment of an ecological and environmental education centre on the approximately 12 ha of land behind Fairfield College and restoration of the adjacent Kukutaaruhe Gully. In 2019, the University of Waikato’s Environmental Research Institute was contracted by the Kukutaaruhe Education Trust to create an Overview of the Kukutaaruhe Gully restoration initiative. This is one in a three-part series created together under one contract:
• Part 1 of 3 is the first document presented here, an Overview of the Kukutaaruhe Gully Restoration Initiative
• Part 2 of 3, the Operational Forest Restoration plan for Kukutaaruhe Gully
• Part 3 of 3 is an Ecological Restoration Plan Template.

year: 2020-10