Public space as ‘context’ in assistive information and communication technologies for people with cognitive impairment

Barbara Adkins; Dianne Smith; Karen Barnett; Eryn L Grant

doi:10.1080/13691180600751330

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Public space as ‘context’ in assistive information and communication technologies for people with cognitive impairment

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Public space as ‘context’ in assistive information and communication technologies for people with cognitive impairment

Barbara Adkins, Dianne Smith, Karen Barnett and Eryn L Grant

Information, Communication and Society, Vol.9(3), pp.355-372

2006

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13691180600751330

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Abstract

Library and Information Studies

Communication and Media Studies

cognitive impairment

information and communication technology

public space

interaction order

habitus

field

This paper examines emergent issues of 'context' raised by the application of information and communication technologies for people with cognitive impairment. The issue of the development and application of cognitive prostheses for this group provides an opportunity to examine assumptions and issues emerging from this area pertaining to understandings of the term 'context' in these applications. In this sense the paper takes these assumptions and issues as a point of departure for the development of a 'problematic' that can contribute to the study of the experience of cognitive impairment. The paper specifically addresses recent concerns about the lack of knowledge of these experiences in public spaces such as shopping centres, given that this is a critical site for the civic participation of this group. We argue that this participation should be understood in terms of the 'meeting of two histories': the history of contemporary requirements governing participation in public space and the habitus of people with cognitive impairment with regard to this participation. The paper proposes that the salience of cognitive impairment in these spaces turns on what it means for individuals to inhabit them as complex 'Container Technologies' (Sofia) and underlines the importance of understanding their efforts to attain a sense of normality (Goffman) in these contexts. We propose that this approach can inform research contributing to the development of a 'pattern language', informing applications that make cognition a system property in networks that operate between humans, machines and their contexts.

Details

Title: Public space as ‘context’ in assistive information and communication technologies for people with cognitive impairment
Authors: Barbara Adkins (Author) - Australasian CRC for Interaction Design
Dianne Smith (Author) - Queensland University of Technology
Karen Barnett (Author) - Queensland University of Technology
Eryn L Grant (Author)
Publication details: Information, Communication and Society, Vol.9(3), pp.355-372
Publisher: Routledge
Date published: 2006
DOI: 10.1080/13691180600751330
ISSN: 1369-118X
Copyright note: Copyright © 2006 Taylor & Francis. This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Information, Communication and Society, 2006, 9:3 pp355-372, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13691180600751330
Organisation Unit: Centre for Human Factors and Systems Science; School of Social Sciences - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99448805702621
Output Type: Journal article

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