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Sticks and wheelchairs for elderly people in central Uganda: values of utility, provenance and presentation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2022

Rehema Namaganda ,
David Kyaddondo ,
Isaac Kajja  and
Steven Kiwuwa
Rehema Namaganda*
Affiliation:
College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
David Kyaddondo
Affiliation:
College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
Isaac Kajja
Affiliation:
College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
Steven Kiwuwa
Affiliation:
College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

While mobility-assistive devices ease movement and independence of persons with disabilities, their use may depend on their social and symbolic meaning. This article departs from our observation that elderly people in Wakiso in Uganda own a variety of assistive technologies yet do not utilize them all equally. Our findings are based on data collected through conversations, interviews and observations of thirty elderly people visited in their homes between July 2016 and January 2017. We found that elderly people with mobility disabilities valued devices for the greater autonomy they afforded, although dependence was also valued in some situations. The source or provenance of a device imbued it with meaning. Holding onto it regardless of how much one used it was in a way like holding onto the social relationship that the artefact represented, and the same can be said of abandoning it. Devices were also valued according to the manner in which they portrayed the user to the rest of the world – either positively as cosmopolitan and cared for, or negatively as sickly.

Résumé

Résumé

Les dispositifs d’aide à la mobilité facilitent le mouvement et l’indépendance des personnes en situation de handicap, mais leur utilisation peut dépendre de leur signification sociale et symbolique. Cet article part de l’observation que les personnes âgées de Wakiso en Ouganda possèdent diverses technologies d’aide, mais qu’elles ne les utilisent pas toutes de manière égale. Les conclusions de cette étude sont basées sur des données recueillies à travers des conversations, des entretiens et des observations de trente personnes âgées rencontrées chez elles entre juillet 2016 et janvier 2017. Les auteurs ont constaté que les personnes âgées à mobilité réduite appréciaient les dispositifs d’aide pour les gains d’autonomie qu’ils procurent, tout en valorisant également la dépendance dans certaines situations. La source ou la provenance du dispositif l’imprégnait de signification. L’attachement au dispositif d’aide, si peu utilisé fut-il, était d’une certaine manière comparable à l’attachement à la relation sociale que l’objet représentait, et il en va de même pour son abandon. L’appréciation des dispositifs variait également selon l’impression qu’ils donnaient de l’utilisateur au reste du monde, à savoir positive de personne cosmopolite dont on prend soin, ou négative de personne maladive.

Type
Disability and technology
Information
Africa , Volume 92 , Issue 4 , August 2022 , pp. 484 - 500
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African Institute

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