Mobile Tech and the Mentally Disabled Pt. 2: Impact on the Future

During our discussion about how the iPad has helped her client Tom enter into the digital age, the woman telling me Tom’s story brought up the fact that in Maine kindergarteners are being given iPads that have been paid for with taxpayer dollars.

“I don’t understand it. If they can give them to little kids, why not my guys?”

My response was that, in theory, the iPads would help the children learn faster, more efficiently, and more independently. And since schools are funded by taxpayer dollars, getting things to work more efficiently means getting them to work more cost-effectively. So there is a theoretical benefit for society as a whole to getting these children iPads. The same can not be said for the mentally disabled.

However, this is not true. Not even a little. I knew that I was wrong the moment that I suggested it.

In truth, leaving this population behind and not assisting them into the digital age by supplying them with the hardware they need to do so is not only detrimental to their quality of life, but also to the society that pays to support them.

Like all people with handicaps that severely limit their ability to work and therefore support themselves independently, the mentally disabled are supported by taxpayer funded disability benefits. There is a direct correlation then, between the level of independence achieved in this population and how much assistance ($$$) they require from the government. Since it is now indisputable that we live in a digital world, the inability of a large number of people to interact with this digital world will heavily increase their need for living assistance.

One of the first places that this becomes apparent is in the professional sector. Many jobs previously filled by the mentally handicapped population are vanishing into the virtual domain. In the same way online retail is beginning to limit the number of physical retail locations with positions available to the mentally disabled, digital technology is helping to decrease the number of remedial positions the mentally disabled were once able to fill in all industries.Take for example the preparation of mailers. This consists of folding, collating, and packing things like newsletters for mass distribution. It was previously an excellent source of income for this population. The work was simple, abundant, and lent itself well to socialization since it could be done in an assembly line manner. However, due to the emergence of email, the need for this work is quickly disappearing.

By limiting the amount of paid work that this population can do, society limits the amount of independent funds they are able to procure for themselves. Increasing their dependence on social assistance.

And while their dependence on society increases, their opportunities to interact with society decrease. Since things like local newsletters are becoming digitized, their ability to find out about local news, events, and volunteer activities without use of the internet is disappearing. Without being able to interact with society, how will they be able to contribute to it? How will they be able to be a part of it?

This is exacerbated by the vanishing of physical media. Without things like CDs, DVDs, and covered books being produced, the only way for this population to keep current on social trends will be through use of the internet. Which requires a computer. A tool which, as previously discussed, can be difficult if not impossible for many of these people to use. There are even questions surrounding how much longer, or in what form, TV will be available to them. With television moving more and more into the realm of Hulu and Netflix style streaming, even this oasis may be lost. That is, unless we as a society invest time and money into equipping and acclimating this population with the hardware they need to be able to become “connected”.

Even something as basic as language could present future difficulties for a group of people if they are not “connected”. How often now do we hear people say “OMG” or “LOL” out loud? If this social trend continues to move away from complete, grammatically correct, adult sentences to what is essentially internet/texting originated baby talk, how will people who don’t use digital technologies be able to communicate? If one doesn’t use social media, how would they be able conceptually understand the idea of a meme or having something go viral? In this age of social media, the conceptual understanding of something going viral is integral to how we communicate. Living outside of this world could mean the inability to communicate meaningfully with those inside of it.

And this trend is only going to accelerate. Since these issues affect an entire population, demographic statistics are essential in developing ways to help them. And since most demographic statistics are now collected digitally, taxpayers will have to pay professionals to collect the data from this population manually. How much time and energy could be saved if we were able to collect demographic data on this population through their Google searches and online surveys just as we do every other population?

When working with the disabled, increasing independence is the name of the game. It improves the quality of life for the individual and lowers the financial burden on society. We are now at a crossroads. If we are able to get digital technology into the hands of the mentally disabled, we could increase their level of independence to a point that past generations could never have imagined. However, if we don’t do it, and do it fast, we run the risk of leaving them helpless and picking up the tab for our lack of action.