Putting technology to work: Connecting people to the community through work
Desleigh de Jonge, Dr Marcia Scherer, Dr Sylvia Rodger
When technologies are well chosen and supported, they can have a significant impact on the working life of people with disabilities and their capacity to stay connected with their community through work.
This presentation will examine the importance of customising and adjusting technology to ensure assistive technology users remain healthy and productive in the workplace. It will explore the experiences of twenty-six assistive technology users with a range of physical impairments as they endeavour to optimise their contribution in the workplace using technology. Many users found that they continued to experience discomfort and pain in using their technology and that this impacted on their productivity and well-being. While some employed a range of strategies to address this, others struggled on with ill-fitting systems. With a limited understanding of increasingly complex technologies, many also found they were not well equipped to adjust their technology to meet their specific requirements. The amount of time required for training, limited work time available for mastery, cost of training and limitations of the training provided, resulted in an over-reliance on trial and error and informal support networks and a growing sense of isolation. This presentation will examine how these issues can be addressed to enable people with disabilities to participate equitably in the work community.