Considering Material Culture in Assessing Assistive Devices: “Breaking up the Rhythm”

You wouldn't need to do research like this if your stroke doctors had stopped the neuronal cascade of death by these 5 causes in the first week, resulting in much less disability. Solve the real problem and these secondary problems cease to exist.
http://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/6/2/14

Sharon Anderson ^1,* , Kerri Kaiser Gladwin ^2,† and Nancy Mayo ^3,†

¹

Department of Human Ecology, University of Alberta, 302 Human Ecology Building, Edmonton, AB T6G 2N1, Canada

²

Department of Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2N1, Canada

³

School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, McGill University, 3654 prom Sir-William-Osler, Montréal, QC H3G 1Y5, Canada

^†

These authors contributed equally to this work.

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Academic Editor: Gregor Wolbring

Received: 24 December 2015 / Revised: 5 March 2016 / Accepted: 14 April 2016 / Published: 19 April 2016

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interrogating Representations of dis/Ability within and through Material Culture)

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Abstract

This paper reports on a project that looked at the meaning stroke survivors assigned to assistive devices. Material culture theory served as a framework to help stroke survivors explicitly consider [dis]ability as a discursive object with a socially constructed meaning that influenced how they thought about themselves with impairment. Material culture theory informed the design (taking and talking to their peers about photos of anything that assisted) and analysis of the meaning of the assistive devices project. In our analysis of the narratives, survivors assigned three types of meanings to the assistive devices: markers of progress, symbolic objects of disability, and the possibility of independent participation. Notably, the meaning of assistive devices as progress, [dis]ability, and [poss]ability was equally evident as participants talked about mobility, everyday activities, and services. We discuss how considering [dis]ability as a discursive object in the situation might have enabled stroke survivors to participate. View Full-Text

Keywords: disability; material culture; stroke; assistive devices

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).