Journal Article

Emerging Technologies and Their Impact on Disability

Wise, Paul H.

2012

Overview

Technological innovation is transforming the prevalence and functional impact of child disability, the scale of social disparities in child disability, and perhaps the essential meaning of disability in an increasingly technology-dominated world. In this article, Paul Wise investigates several specific facets of this transformation. He begins by showing how technological change influences the definition of disability, noting that all technology attempts to address some deficiency in human capacity or in the human condition. Wise then looks at the impact of technology on childhood disabilities. Technical improvements in the physical environment, such as better housing, safer roads, and poison-prevention packaging, have significantly reduced childhood injury and disability. Other technological breakthroughs, such as those that identify genetic disorders that may lead to pregnancy termination, raise difficult moral and ethical issues. Technologies that identify potential health risks are also problematic in the absence of any efficient treatment. Wise stresses the imbalance in the existing health care delivery system, which is geared toward treating childhood physical illnesses that are declining in prevalence at a time when mental and emotional conditions, many of which are not yet well understood, are on the rise. This mismatch, Wise says, poses complex challenges to caring for disabled children, particularly in providing them with highly coordinated and integrated systems of care. Technology can also widen social disparities in health care for people, including children with disabilities. As Wise observes, efficacy—the ability of a technology to change health outcomes—is key to understanding the relationship of technology to social disparities. As technological innovation enhances efficacy, access to that technology becomes more important. Health outcomes may improve for those who can afford the technology, for example, but not for others. Hence, as efficacy grows, so too does the burden on society to provide access to technology equitably to all those in need. Without such access, technological innovation will likely expand disparities in child outcomes rather than reduce them.

• Publisher: Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and the Brookings Institution,Princeton University,Princeton University-Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs,Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and The Brookings Institution
• Subject: Abortion / Access / Access to Health Care / Accessibility (for Disabled) / Accident Prevention / Appropriate Technology / Assistive Technology / Built environment / Caring / Child care / Child Health / Child health services / Childhood / Children / Children & youth / Children with disabilities / Chronic Disease - rehabilitation / Clinical outcomes / Cost of Illness / Definitions / Delivery Systems / Design / Diffusion of Innovation / Disabilities / Disability / Disabled children / Disabled Children - rehabilitation / Diseases / Disorders / Early Intervention (Education) - trends / Educational Technology / Efficacy / Emerging technology / Epidemiology / Ethical dilemmas / Ethics / Female / Forecasting / Functioning / Genetic disorders / Genetics / Handicapped / Handicapped assistance devices / Health care delivery / Health Care Services / Health Conditions / Health disparities / Health outcomes / Health Problems / Health risks / Health services / Health Services Accessibility - trends / Health Services Needs and Demand - trends / Health status / Healthcare Disparities - trends / Housing / Human Factors Engineering / Human technology relationship / Humans / Imbalance / Incidence / Infant / Infant mortality / Infant, Newborn / Influence of Technology / Innovation / Innovations / Interpersonal Relationship / Mass Screening - trends / Medical technology / Medicine / Mental health services / Packaging / Patient-Centered Care - trends / Pediatric diseases / Pediatrics / People with disabilities / Physical disabilities / Physical Environment / Physically Handicapped / Pregnancy / Prevention / Preventive Health Services - trends / Self-Help Devices - trends / Social aspects / Social Environment / Social Influences / Society / Technological Advancement / Technological change / Technological innovation / Technological Innovations / Technology / Technology and civilization / Technology and society / Termination / Therapy / Transformation / United States / Wheelchairs