Do Assistive Products Enhance or Equalize Opportunities? A Comparison of Capability across Persons with Impairments Using and Not Using Assistive Products and Persons without Impairments in Bangladesh

Abstract

Aiming to compare capability across persons with impairments using and not using assistive products and persons without impairments in Bangladesh for 16 different functioning, we contrast two sets of self-reported cross-sectional data from eight districts of Bangladesh: i) data from persons with hearing impairment not using hearing aids, persons with hearing impairment using hearing aids and persons without impairments (N = 572); and ii) data from persons with ambulatory impairment not using manual wheelchairs, persons with ambulatory impairment using manual wheelchairs and persons without impairments (N = 598). Kruskal–Wallis tests were used to compare levels of capability across the three groups in each data set. Results showed that, for all functioning in both data sets, the levels of capability were statistically significantly highest for persons without impairments. Compared to persons with hearing impairments not using hearing aids, persons with hearing impairments using hearing aids scored higher in all functioning metrics, with statistical significance at the .05 level for 12 of them. Persons with ambulatory impairments using manual wheelchairs scored higher than persons with ambulatory impairments not using manual wheelchairs for 11 of the functioning metrics, but none of the comparisons between the two groups were significant at the .05 level. Assistive products—hearing aids more than manual wheelchairs—enhance capabilities but do not fully equalize opportunities between people with and without impairments.

Assistive Technology and the Wellbeing of Societies from a Capabilities Approach

“…Applying a capability perspective to primary data on assistive products, Brusco et al [13] present an economic case for robotics in rural Australia. The fundamental question of whether assistive products enhance or equalise opportunities, which is explored through a comparison of capability of people with impairments using and not using assistive products and their non-impaired neighbours in Bangladesh (Borg et al [14]). Borg et al demonstrate that assistive products alone enhance capabilities but do not fully equalise opportunities between people with and without impairments.…”