Memorial Day Post: The Larger Possibilities of AT

Memorial Day has been a time of taking stock since it was created. The holiday has the strength of being recreated every year in a form that reflects the personal histories and connections that veterans, their families, and their friends have with their lived experience, their social networks, and the larger society.

Reflection

It seemed reasonable to me as a veteran to think about the ongoing importance of personal support in the crafting of freedom and choice in each of our lives on this Memorial Day, the 50th since I first entered Vietnam.

Over time, I have come to see Assistive Technology as far more than devices or single-purpose apps. To the extent that we focus on the small affordances that devices enable, as important as those affordances are, we miss out on the core purpose of AT, which is to facilitate universal access that allows each of us to forge the life we want and not just the life we have been dealt.

To me, that means that social connection enabled by technology is as much AT as an automatic can opener, and, to the extent that our vision of what AT can do extends to all who use it, and not just those of us who see ourselves as part of our common disability community, the use of AT builds inclusion and lasting social relationships throughout our society.

So, one of the values we need to remember on Memorial Day is the way our personal reflections and our personal struggles for choice and freedom must facilitate the building of all our futures together.