Assistive technology as accounting system and the government of disability

In this paper we explore the issue of Assistive Technology (AT), that is technology designed for disability, from the organizational point of view. Considering AT as a system rather than a simple device, we investigate how it actively reconfigures ways to account, classify and eventually discriminate disability. The qualitative study takes in consideration two aspects: AT service delivery and the subjectivation processes AT enacts in organizational life. Reading our data through an archaeological method rooted in critical disability studies and media studies, we argue that AT is an accounting system that supports and sometimes substitutes classic medical diagnosis, producing regimes of visibility and recognition which may both foster inclusion and reproduce discrimination.