Smart Watches as Assistive Technology for Disability: An Ethical Examination

Abstract

Wearable devices, such as smart watches, are being used by the disabled community as a form of assistive technology to maintain or improve their ability to function in daily life. Discussions of ethical technology use often examine issues like data protection and user privacy. However, there are additional ethical issues specific to the disabled community that should be considered by technology companies when they create products utilized by disabled people. This paper explores how assistive technology oversight in Canada is built on assumptions of companies having care-based motivations, which is incompatible with the neoliberal capitalist drivers of most private technology companies. It also examines some of the challenges of collecting and applying data from disabled people for use in technology with machine-learning capabilities. Using the frameworks of feminist ethics of care, combined with the medical and social models of disability, the author uses the Apple Watch as a case study to explore how the development and marketing of these products can be improved to better meet the needs of the disabled community.