How has “creative technology” bridged the gap between disability and ability?

Until recently, enrollment in higher education institutions was limited to non-disabled students, and there was no place for others with various disabilities in university life. Physical obstacles and impediments, government policies, social and cultural legacies, and technological backwardness were all factors that combined to prevent the access and integration of persons with disabilities into higher education institutions and to serve human diversity based primarily on relative deficiency and variation in mental, physical, psychological, and emotional abilities and functions. Perhaps genetic factors and disabilities resulting from injuries and accidents are among the most important causes and stimuli of disability, deterioration of the performance functions of the senses, difficulty in accessing educational resources, and adaptation to the academic environment.

Recently, the tremendous technological progress, the digital revolution, and the great interest in the knowledge economy have led to the emergence of many assistive technologies and creative technologies that have contributed to finding solutions to most of the obstacles, addressing the crises that hinder the life, academic, and professional path of this group, and alleviating the social, psychological, and cultural legacies that prevent the inclusion and integration of people with disabilities into the surrounding environment.

The American Federation of the Blind (2012) defines assistive technologies as: (Any tool or technology that helps students with visual impairments complete tasks in an easy, quick, and independent manner). Assistive technologies allow people with visual impairments to access printed and enlarged fonts, Braille symbols, and audio reading via a screen reader; this reduces the gap between disability and ability, which assistive technologies play a major role in achieving

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) stipulates in more than nine articles issued in 2006: (The need to provide all tools and means of assistive technology to persons with disabilities, facilitate their access to services and all facilities, and work to adapt them and include them in society). The list of assistive technology priorities adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2016 showed the importance of assistive technology aimed at putting people with different disabilities on a par with their non-disabled counterparts. Another report issued by the same organization in (2006) shows that about 180 million people around the world suffer from different disabilities and are in need of assistive technology. 

Despite the bright advantages and qualitative leap that assistive technologies have brought about in the lives of people with disabilities, the radical transformation in their career and professional path, and their exit from the cocoon of dependency to the space of independence and self-reliance, obtaining this type of specialized technology is very expensive, requires a lot of money, and also requires a lot of government support. Also, access to this specialized type of assistive technologies is not easy or common in most developing countries. In addition, it is difficult to classify the nature of the technical needs of people with disabilities, which requires many accurate medical examinations to determine the most effective tools in adapting to the deficiency.

Greenhalgh (2016; Kelberg (2015) points out that many of the problems and obstacles that prevent some individuals with disabilities from relying on assistive technology are primarily due to social factors, their fear of being classified by society as people with disabilities, and their overwhelming desire to meet society’s requirements and satisfy its view that only recognizes a normal person free of disabilities. Researcher Carver (2015) believes that people with disabilities’ acceptance of assistive technology is closely related to a set of determinants, the most important of which are: (the degree of need for assistive technology, the cost rate of obtaining it, the nature of the returns achieved from owning it, ease of access to it, and the level of society’s acceptance of it).

The United States, Australia, Canada, Singapore, and other developed countries have encouraged and supported assistive technologies in various ways to facilitate access for persons with disabilities, especially visual disabilities, to higher education institutions as a basic basis for improving the quality of education and ensuring that everyone has equal opportunities for care, services, and social integration.

In Palestine, data issued by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics for the year 2011 indicate that the number of visually impaired people has reached approximately 113 thousand individuals, or 2.7 percent of the total population, including 75 thousand in the West Bank, constituting 2.9 percent of the total population of the West Bank, and approximately 38 thousand in the Gaza Strip, or 2.4 percent of the population. The disability rate among males reached 2.9 percent compared to 2.5 percent among females.

Although more than a third of this marginalized and vulnerable social group, i.e. 37.6 percent, did not attend education and did not have equal opportunities to enroll in schools and universities, there is a steady increase in the number of learners with disabilities, especially visual disabilities. This calls for the need to develop sectoral and institutional strategies to improve their access to sources of knowledge and invest in assistive technologies and innovation technology to enhance their presence in higher education institutions.