Hope and Technology: Other-Oriented Hope Related to Eye Gaze Technology for Children with Severe Disabilities

Patrik Rytterström, Maria Borgestig and Helena Hemmingsson
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Patrik Rytterström: Division of Nursing Science, Department of Social and Welfare Studies, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University, 601 74 Norrköping, Sweden
Maria Borgestig: Faculty of Medicine and Health, School of Health Sciences, Örebro University, 702 81 Örebro, Sweden
Helena Hemmingsson: Department of Special Education, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 10, 1-16

Abstract: Introducing advanced assistive technology such as eye gaze controlled computers can improve a person’s quality of life and awaken hope for a child’s future inclusion and opportunities in society. This article explores the meanings of parents’ and teachers’ other-oriented hope related to eye gaze technology for children with severe disabilities. A secondary analysis of six parents’ and five teachers’ interview transcripts was conducted in accordance with a phenomenological-hermeneutic research method. The eye gaze controlled computer creates new imaginations of a brighter future for the child, but also becomes a source for motivation and action in the present. The other-oriented hope occurs not just in the future; it is already there in the present and opens up new alternatives and possibilities to overcome the difficulties the child is encountering today. Both the present situation and the hope for the future influence each other, and both affect the motivation for using the technology. This emphasises the importance of clinicians giving people opportunities to express how they see the future and how technology could realise this hope.

Keywords: eye gaze control technology; technology; disabled children; self-help devices; phenomenological-hermeneutic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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