Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
highlights the limitations of 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 how informed consent is construed and obtained, empowerment of partici-
pants to become involved in co-design, awareness of the unfamiliar cultural issues
of participants (as opposed to subjects) and accommodating community-centred, as
opposed to person-centred, nuances. Action research is a useful paradigm for ICT
for development and requires that researchers intervene in a community to transform
social practices based on mutually defi ned research goals. The author's approach to
action research is called community-based co-design where technological innovation
emerges together with a technology-empowered community.
This chapter describes work with the Deaf Community of Cape Town (DCCT),
a disabled people's organisation that works on behalf of a marginalised community
of undereducated, underemployed and semi-literate Deaf people across metropolitan
Cape Town. Here, the capital 'D' calls attention to a cultural identity due to either
the physical deafness or a preference for using signed language to communicate, in
this case South African Sign Language (SASL).
This chapter shows how community-based co-design can direct academic research
to bridging communication gaps while simultaneously providing ICT solutions to
empower marginalised Deaf people towards independent communication. There is a
confl ict/tension between these two goals, with ethical issues nuanced by sensitivity to
Deaf culture and their preference for SASL communication, power relations and tech-
nical and socio-economic disparity. There is also tension between the requirements of
the Deaf community, and the evolving and changing roles and expectations of the
research and traditional ethics processes, including those of university institutional
review boards. The chapter discusses related work to identify the central shortcomings
of traditional computer science and engineering approaches to ethics and illustrates
the associated challenges with examples from work with the Deaf Community of
Cape Town. The author refl ects on how these ethical issues affect AT design, based on
long-term engagement, and how this has affected the research team's practices and
offers suggestions to others working on AT in developing regions.
Chapter
11
on 'Ethics, Scientists, Engineers and the Military' by Marion Hersh,
Scotland, discusses the ethical issues arising from military work by scientists and
engineers. The chapter is introduced by an overview of global military expenditure
and its consequences. A number of statistics are presented on the trends in military
expenditure and its consequences, as well as the resulting deaths and social costs in
terms of inadequate development, poverty and lack of education. A three-part model
of the causes of confl ict is presented and discussed and used to highlight the impor-
tance of resolving the underlying issues that lead to confl ict and changing the con-
text that may encourage war rather than peaceful resolution. This leads into the
discussion of military technology as part of this unfortunate context. An overview
of different types of military technology is presented from nuclear weapons to small
arms, and the various arms control agreements are discussed. This is followed by a
discussion of the arms trade. Despite cuts in military expenditure due to austerity
measures, this still remains very signifi cant and includes sales to countries with
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