The Assistive Technology Assessment Model and Basic Definitions

As a part of the human condition, “Disability is complex, dynamic, multidimensional, and contested” (WHO and World Bank 2011, p. 3). The concept of disability conveys a very wide set of different and correlated issues: from disability models to individual functioning and its measurement, from social barriers to the digital divide, from the objective quality of life to subjective experience, to concepts of functioning, activity and participation, human rights and poverty, health and well-being, morbidity, and quality of life (WHO and World Bank 2011). Because of the multidimensionality of disability, the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) would like to make clear that disability (and its correlated term “functioning”) must be understood as an umbrella term, “encompassing all body functions, activities and participation” (WHO 2001, p. 3). Disability’s multidimensionality and complexity entails a kind of “definitional paradox” (Madans and Altman 2006): On the one hand, any theoretical definition of disability implies aporia, and on the other hand, operational meaning is determined by the purpose of research. In fact, Mont explains: