Kimberly Jones, Utah State University
The purpose of my research project is to analyze the ethics of what prevents assistive technology from being used for children and adults with multiple disabilities. A person with multiple disabilities by definition cannot perform a number of everyday functions on their own, leaving them to rely entirely on others. The parents of these individuals, as well as their lawmakers, have historically been opposed to new assistive technologies for these individuals for a variety of reasons. I am going to examine why parents and lawmakers may be opposed and how different ethical frameworks can suggest solutions to these problems. In particular, I will use two ethical frameworks to look at this issue. The first is the ethics of care as described by Joan Tronto. This ethical framework is especially fitting because individuals with multiple disabilities by definition cannot care for themselves; they rely entirely on care from others. I will research how care, which is framed as trying to better the world around you, is being used for them already and see where it might be lacking. Care is all about community and recognizing as well as fulfilling the needs of others. The second framework I will use is virtue ethics as described by Shannon Vallor. Virtue ethics is all about self-cultivating certain virtues in order to live a good life. I am going to examine how assistive technology may allow individuals with multiple disabilities to cultivate virtues for themselves in ways they never could before, as well as how other people involved in making decisions for them (such as parents and lawmakers) may feel compelled to allow assistive technology or may feel compelled to ban it based on their virtues. This framework helps expand the research into a place it’s never gone before by asking certain questions that have never been asked. Such questions would be: what is different about cultivating virtues in oneself compared to in a person with multiple disabilities? How does care ethics suggest the community look at the situation and handle these individuals who rely so wholly on others? Where does this assistive technology fit into these frameworks and how does it change the way we have done things for these individuals in the past? I do not want to look at this issue in a binary way; rather, I want to ask questions that have not been asked before and see where they lead.