The line between accessory and assistive technology
Glasses = cool, hearing aids = not so much?
This segment first aired in January 2016.
How do some tools, like eyeglasses, come to be considered 'normal' while others, like hearing aids, continue to be labeled as 'assistive' technologies that are used by people with disabilities? Michelle Macklem is a radio producer and graduate student in media studies at Concordia University. She examines how labelling certain devices as assistive technologies, shapes our assumptions and treatment of the people who use them.
Michelle's graduate thesis project is called Adaptive. Her research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada.
In this piece you heard from Aimee Louw, Sara Hendren, and Graham Pullin.