Fiachra O'Brolcháin

As the numbers of people with disabilities actively using technology to support their day-to-day activities increases the benefits afforded by these technologies are ever more evident. Much of the technology used by people with disabilities is often characterised as Assistive Technology (AT) which is designed and developed to address the specific needs of people with disabilities. In contrast to AT which is focused on serving the needs of people with disabilities, consumer digital technology refers to those technologies that are developed for use by the general public. The aim of this study was to explore the assistive potential of a range of exemplar consumer digital technology, namely, digital voice assistants and internet of things. A qualitative study was conducted in the context of a field-trial of a range of digital consumer technologies which included a Digital Voice Assistant alongside voice-operated Internet of Things technologies.

Possibilities are not neutral. Our engagement with the possible – the possibilities we value and the possibilities we ignore – will, to a degree, always be constrained by the moral universe we inhabit. Philosophy has always been concerned with normative questions – how should we live, what should we value? With growing inequality, rapid and potentially destructive technological development, and multiple environmental crises, the limits of traditional ethical and political philosophies are becoming apparent, particularly in areas focused on novel technologies and the environment. There can be an extremely fruitful dialogue between Possibility Studies and environmental ethics in examining the possibility of realising novel ethical frameworks to help us navigate the myriad problems of the world.

This paper presents a literature review on the ethics of self-tracking technologies which are utilized by users to monitor parameters related to their activity and bodily parameters. By examining a total of 65 works extracted through a systematic database search and backwards snowballing, the authors of this review discuss three categories of opportunities and ten categories of concerns currently associated with self-tracking. The former include empowerment and well-being, contribution to health goals, and solidarity. The latter are social harms, privacy and surveillance, ownership control and commodification of data, autonomy, data-facilitated harm, datafication and interpretability of data, negative impact on relation to self and others, shortcomings of design, negative impact on health perception, and regulation and enforcement of rules. The review concludes with a critical analysis of the existing literature and an overview of a future research agenda that could complement the current work on ethics of self-tracking.

This paper explores the ways in which assistive technologies (ATs) can both promote and undermine the autonomy of Persons with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (PIDD). Following an initial discussion of ATs for PIDD, I examine the specific issues of autonomy for PIDD. I outline the ways in which ATs can boost autonomy, of PIDD, focusing on knowledge, authenticity, and liberty. Following that I suggest that ATs are not necessarily beneficial in terms of autonomy and examine ways that they might be used to undermine the autonomy of PIDD, specifically the categories of knowledge, authenticity, and liberty. I conclude by suggesting that the development of ATs requires ethical oversight.