Fostering Accessible Technology through Regulation

Technology has attracted an increasing level of attention within studies of disability and disability rights. Many researchers and advocates have maintained skepticism towards technology out of the fear that technology becomes another way to `fix' impairments. These skeptical views, however, contrast with a more positive approach towards the role that technology can play in eliminating barriers to social participation. Legal scholarship has started to focus on accessibility and accessible technology and in conjunction with the recently adopted United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has put a great emphasis on accessibility, highlighting the role that accessible technology plays in the promotion and protection of the rights of people with disabilities. Against this background, this book gathers together different contributions that focus on enhancing the production, marketing and use of accessible technology. Building upon previous academic studies and in light of the UNCRPD, accessible technology is considered a tool to increase autonomy and participation. Overall, this book attempts to show, through a multifaceted and inter-disciplinary analysis, that different regulatory approaches might enhance accessible technology and its availability. This title was previously published as a special issue of the International Review of Law, Computers & Technology.

Preface

Introduction: Fostering accessible technology and sculpting an inclusive market through regulation
Delia Ferri, G. Anthony Giannoumis and Charles Edward O'Sullivan

Part I

1. Disability, right to culture and copyright: which regulatory option?
Caterina Sganga

2. Robotic prostheses as products enhancing the rights of people with disabilities. Reconsidering the structure of liability rules
Andrea Bertolini

3. Does accessible technology need an `entrepreneurial state'? The creation of an EU market of universally designed and assistive technology through state aid
Delia Ferri

Part II

4. Public procurement as a means to achieving social gains - progress and challenges in European legislation and standards for accessible information and communication technology
Donal Rice

5. Transnational convergence of public procurement policy: a `bottom-up' analysis of policy networks and the international harmonisation of accessibility standards for information and communication technology
G. Anthony Giannoumis

6. Enforcing eAccessibility: is the current legal framework adequate?
Robert Huffaker

Part III

7. A legal perspective on body implants for therapy and enhancement
Erica Palmerini

8. Assistive technology as support for the exercise of legal capacity
Piers Gooding, Anna Arstein-Kerslake and Eilionoir Flynn