Technologies 4.0 and Functional Diversity: A Social Model for Augmented Functionality

Abstract

[EN] The idea of functional diversity was originated in 2005 within the Independent Living Movement in Spain. This vision of disability is different from traditional medical-rehabilitative and social models, and among its objectives is the fight against ‘ableism’. Technologies 4.0 are characterised by their versatility in design and digital production, which allow individualisation of technological developments in fields such as biomedicine and biomechanics. The manufacture of devices tailored to the particular needs of each user causes these technologies to extend basic assumptions in the social model. From the traditional paradigm of ‘design for all’ (or universal design), the aim now is to ensure individualised design as a result of the technological and industrial appropriation. This model will continue to be social if it allows each person’s functioning to expand, not from medical rehabilitation or ‘normality’ but rather from technological autonomy in functioning ecosystems.