Overcoming the Stigma Associated with Assistive Devices

This paper focuses on the stigma associated with current assistive devices. Through examples from literature on stigma and preliminary results from an ongoing empirical study, the paper presents how users experience assistive devices and how assistive devices become stigmatizing. Drawing from Erving Goffman’s insights into the management of stigma, the paper explores the ways stigma related to assistive devices could be challenged from the viewpoint of design. The paper introduces how people with physical disabilities have tried to manage the stigma in order to have assistive devices that express their identities. The paper concludes with implications for design and suggests personalization as a means of overcoming the stigma associated with assistive devices.