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Beyond Traditional Ethics when Developing Assistive Technology for and with Deaf People in Developing Regions

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Ethical Engineering for International Development and Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

There are limitations to traditional ethical approaches and procedures when engaged in assistive technology (AT) research for Deaf people in a developing region. Nontraditional issues arise as a consequence of employing action research, including but not limited to how informed consent is construed and obtained; empowerment of participants to become involved in co-design; awareness of unfamiliar cultural issues of participants (as opposed to subjects); and accommodating community-centred, as opposed to person-centred, nuances. This chapter describes AT research with an entity called Deaf Community of Cape Town (DCCT), a disabled people’s organisation (DPO) that works on behalf of a marginalised community of undereducated, underemployed and semi-literate Deaf people across metropolitan Cape Town. We describe how nontraditional ethical concerns arose in our experience. We reflect on how these ethical issues affect AT design, based on long-term engagement, and summarise the themes, what we have learned and how we modified our practise, and, finally, offer suggestions to others working on AT in developing regions.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Note that in the community, there is a nuanced distinction between ICTD and ICT4D which is very effectively explained by Sterling and Rangaswamy (2010) and is considered beyond the scope of this chapter’s purview.

  2. 2.

    The word ‘vulnerable’ is problematic; it can be used to protect or to disempower. Note ‘protection’ can also be problematic.

  3. 3.

    Note that according to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU, see www.itu.int), this applies across the board to everyone in South Africa – that prices here are more in line with developed countries in the global North rather than with countries like India, Sri Lanka, Senegal and Brazil. Therefore, the use of standard communication services is prohibitively expensive for all poor South Africans.

  4. 4.

    There are only 84 SASL interpreters on the DEAFSA registry in the entire country, of which 43 have no formal training, 31 with 240 study hours of training and 10 with a further 480 study hours; and only 7 of the total of 84 are actually accredited by DEAFSA; and only 19 of the 84 are resident in the Western Cape province where DCCT is based.

  5. 5.

    ICDL (International Computer Drivers License), www.icdl.org.za, is an internationally recognized computer skills certification programme run by the (European) ECDL foundation (www.ecdl.com).

  6. 6.

    The network costs are now being borne by the community itself.

Abbreviations

ACM:

Association of Computing Machinery

AT:

Assistive technology

BCS:

British Computer Society

CBCD:

Community-based co-design

CIRN:

Community Informatics Research Network

CODA:

Children of Deaf adults

CoE:

Centre of Excellence

DCCT:

Deaf Community of Cape Town

DEAFSA:

Deaf Federation of South Africa

DEV:

Computing for Development, an ACM conference

DPO:

Deaf People’s Organisation (dedicated organisation similar to a non-governmental or non-profit organisation)

ECLD:

European Computer Driver’s License

HCI:

Human computer interaction

ICDL:

International Computer Driver’s License

ICT:

Information and communication technology

ICTD:

ICT and Development, a conference (and flavour of research and practise related to ICTD; see Sterling and Rangaswamy 2010)

ICT4D:

ICT for Development

IEEE-CS:

Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers Computer Society

IM:

Instant Messaging

IRB:

Institutional review board

ITU:

International Telecommunications Union

LMIC:

Low- and middle-income country

MRC:

Medical Review Council (South Africa)

MXit:

A popular South African mobile instant messaging tool that targeted low-end feature phones, unlike WhatsApp being targeted to smartphones

NRF:

National Research Foundation (South Africa)

PC:

Personal computer

PD:

Participatory design

RLE:

Resource-limited environment

SANPAD:

South Africa Netherlands research Programme on Alternatives in Development

SASL:

South African Sign Language

SIMBA:

Softbridge Instant Messaging Bridging Architecture

SMS:

Short message service, or mobile text

THRIP:

Technology and Human Resources for Industry Programme

TU Delft:

Delft University of Technology (Netherlands)

UCT:

University of Cape Town

UWC:

University of the Western Cape (also in Cape Town)

VoIP:

Voice over Internet Protocol

VRS:

Video Relay System

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Acknowledgements

This chapter is dedicated to the memory of Prof. Adinda Freudenthal, who tragically passed away in early 2014. A native of the Netherlands, Adinda was an associate professor of Industrial Design Engineering at TU Delft with a background in medical devices and user interfaces. Adinda became our SANPAD collaborator (South African Netherlands research Programme on Alternatives for Development – funding from the Dutch embassy; see www.sanpad.org.za). She felt a true passion for working with the Deaf community in South Africa and through supervision of two MSc research projects and a PhD, in collaboration with DCCT, UWC and UCT, sparked and guided the realisation of the SignSupport project. She is deeply missed by collaborators and beneficiaries alike.

This work would not be possible without the participation and collaboration of the Deaf Community of Cape Town (www.dcct.org.za). Thanks also to collaborators Meryl Glaser and Edwin Blake; the postgraduate students involved with SignSupport – Michael Motlhabi, Prangnat Chininthorn, Mariam Parker, Sifiso Duma, Andre Henney, George Ng’ethe, Marshalan Reddy, Muyowa Mutemwa and Koos Looijesteijn – and to all interpreters who have helped us with this project.

We also thank SANPAD for prior funding and Telkom, Cisco, Aria Technologies and THRIP (Technology and Human Resources for Industry Partnership) for continued financial support via the Telkom Centre of Excellence (CoE) programme. This work is based on the research supported in part by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa (grant number (UID) 75191). Any opinion findings and conclusion or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors, and therefore the NFR does not accept any liability in this regard.

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  1. Department of Computer Science, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa

    William D. Tucker

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  1. School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom

    Marion Hersh

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Tucker, W.D. (2015). Beyond Traditional Ethics when Developing Assistive Technology for and with Deaf People in Developing Regions. In: Hersh, M. (eds) Ethical Engineering for International Development and Environmental Sustainability. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6618-4_10

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