Abstract
Introducing advanced assistive technology such as eye gaze controlled computers can improve a person’s quality of life and awaken hope for a child’s future inclusion and opportunities in society. This article explores the meanings of parents’ and teachers’ other-oriented hope related to eye gaze technology for children with severe disabilities. A secondary analysis of six parents’ and five teachers’ interview transcripts was conducted in accordance with a phenomenological-hermeneutic research method. The eye gaze controlled computer creates new imaginations of a brighter future for the child, but also becomes a source for motivation and action in the present. The other-oriented hope occurs not just in the future; it is already there in the present and opens up new alternatives and possibilities to overcome the difficulties the child is encountering today. Both the present situation and the hope for the future influence each other, and both affect the motivation for using the technology. This emphasises the importance of clinicians giving people opportunities to express how they see the future and how technology could realise this hope.
Highlights
This study seeks to gain a deeper understanding of the hope that parents and teachers might experience when new assistive technology is introduced for children with severe disabilities
The overall goal of this study is to explore and deepen the understanding of other-oriented hope related to advanced assistive technology for children with profound disabilities
The first narrative was about how the eye gaze technology was an assistive device that works, and how the children had already improved with the help of the eye gaze controlled computer
Summary
This study seeks to gain a deeper understanding of the hope that parents and teachers might experience when new assistive technology is introduced for children with severe disabilities. Hope is a central concept in health care, but lacks conceptual clarity since there are different types and levels of hope [1] and hope is highly contextual [2]. It is often described from an individualistic perspective (or, self-oriented hope), but it is possible to have other people as the target for ones hope, which. Parents of children with autism showed a positive correlation between the other-oriented hope they had for their children, and their personal parental hope [4] They experienced greater life satisfaction, less parenting stress and less depression [5]. A study of parental hope involving children with cystic fibrosis showed that the degree of other-oriented hope is related to the levels of emotional distress, depression and anxiety
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