Abler (abler.gizmodo.com) is a fascinating website that features all kinds of assistive technology. It recently profiled Under Armour’s simple but ingenious invention that should make many lives easier; a magnetic zipper that can be done up with one hand.

There is another interesting thing about Abler; it doesn’t like the term “assistive technology;” preferring the plain label ‘technology’ for all these advances.

Site editor Sara Hendren argues that everyone is taking advantage of some kind of technology in their daily lives; yet some technologies – such as hearing aids, or wheelchairs, or prosthetics – are stigmatised in various ways, while others, like glasses, are increasingly seen as a fashion accessory.

In a recent interview with theatlantic.com, Hendren argues that the differing attitudes are linked to our perceptions of what should be a “normal” set of human abilities.

“Assistive technologies have largely taken their points of departure from medical aids, primarily because in industrialised cultures, people with atypical bodies and minds have been thought of as medical cases, not as people with an expanded set of both capacities and needs,” she argues.

Spectacles are the most obvious example. “People who use them are getting ‘assistance’ in a very dependent way, but their cultural register has no stigma attached to it, the way that hearing aids still do,” said Hendren.

She contends that these attitudes are the chief reason that devices like crutches have never looked “cool.”

“A lot of the design attention to things like crutches, wheelchairs, hearing aids, and the like have followed the material look and structure of hospital gear. And accordingly, designers and people working in tech have “read” them as a branch of medical technologies and, usually, uninteresting.”

“By returning “assistive technology” to its rightful place as just “technology”—no more, no less—we start to understand that all bodies are getting assistance, all the time. And then design for everyone becomes much more interesting.”

Eventually, Hendren hopes that “assistive technologies” will demand the same design attention as devices like smartphones.

“What I’m interested in is seeing technologies that have thus far been labeled for “special needs” get the kind of design attention that mainstream technologies do.”

If you are suffering with hearing loss the first step to improving hearing is to have a comprehensive test by a trained audiologist to determine the extent and type of loss. Visit Hidden Hearing at any one of our 65 convenient locations nationwide. Our goal is to provide you with the best possible hearing care, based upon your individual needs. We take pride in offering the best service and follow up care to the families in our community. Contact us today for your free no obligation appointment.

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