Digital technology: a serious game calling for more players

Andy McCabe has been a qualified social worker for 5 years and is a convener at Social Care Future. Andy uses technology to enhance his own independence and is passionate about its potential to offer social interaction, work opportunities and boost wellbeing for disabled people. 

In this new blog for Disability History Month (14 Nov – 20 Dec) and marking International Day of Persons with Disabilities (3 December) Andy argues it’s time to think outside the box.  

I’ve been exploring and experimenting with technology and what it can help me to do for as long as I can remember. 

When I was 15, I joined a network of other people interested in playing computer games together. After a year or so we arranged a meet up in a village hall and about 30 of us brought our computers along. Because the focus of the meet up was gaming on computers, the barriers or challenges that I might normally face in doing active games with friends were significantly reduced, as gaming gave us an accessible way of socialising and having fun. Technology has helped me build relationships and enjoy social interactions that I never would have had otherwise.

For people like me who draw on support, digital technology is about so much more than replacing or supporting “basic care functions”. It has enormous potential to increase wellbeing and improve quality of life. Much of the care sector is at last embracing technology, mostly focused around efficiency and productivity. This is great of course, but if we think creatively and really involve the people it’s designed for, digital technology has the potential to do so much more to increase socialisation, to bring joy, even to develop work opportunities. 

Before covid, working from home was an exception. It certainly wasn’t encouraged, and in many sectors and organisations it was viewed with some scepticism. This meant disabled people with mobility issues were immediately at a disadvantage. Then almost overnight we switched to not only working from home, but also socialising remotely from home. Whilst covid was isolating people physically, it actually had the opposite effect digitally. Within a few weeks I saw a hopefulness amongst the disabled community that things were going to become much more accessible.

However, if we are not careful, we are in danger of going backwards. Whilst lots of work continues remotely with things like online video meetings, lots of social events and groups have gone back to face to face, which excludes some people all over again. Just recently, someone I know who runs a poetry night was lamenting the fact that the event had worked well as a hybrid one, but that there seems to be a push back for events to be in person only, and that by losing some of the online aspects, some people were less able to attend, particularly those with difficulties with mobility.   

It is simple ideas like this that could be so effective in care settings and for people who live at home and draw on care, bringing people together and offering enrichment, be that cultural, spiritual, or a craft club chat or a football rant. 

The unpredicted combination of a global pandemic and the rapid growth in digital capability presented us with a unique opportunity to explore new ways of working and new ways of socialising. Today we are faced with another exciting opportunity with AI, as well as augmented and virtual reality offering us even greater possibilities. But to really make the most of them in social care, we must remember two simple things. Firstly, don’t underestimate the people who draw on care and their capacity to explore and embrace new technology. Secondly, involve those people as ideas and solutions are developed. And I don’t just mean ask them what they think once a product or platform has been launched in beta and make a few tweaks. I mean co-produce right from the word go.

Before covid, few people were handing their grandparents a mobile phone or tablet and hooking them up to a Zoom call for a Sunday family catch up. And when we did, many people grasped it remarkably quickly. Human beings are social creatures and we will work to reap the rewards those interactions bring us, and feel better for them. This can only be a good thing for both those who draw on support, as well as those who provide it.

I have been fortunate to work with some companies working in virtual and augmented reality and it has given me a great deal of hope for the future of technology that includes and improves the lives of disabled people, and people with health challenges.

We often think these things won’t happen in our lifetimes, but technological development comes much faster than we expect. 20 years ago, no-one thought a smartphone could take a photo and then have AI audibly describe the image to its owner, enabling them to have an audio description of what is in the image. Just thinking about this specific technological development allows us to imagine how helpful this might be for someone who is blind or visually impaired. But, for this to truly meet the needs and requirements in a way that most effectively reduces and removes barriers for blind or visually impaired people, just simply imagining how it might be helpful isn’t enough; the development and implementation of technology should be co-produced and co-developed with the people who use the technology, rather than being designed solely by those who assume they understand what will work. While this is just one example, the concept of co-production and co-development is, and will be, fundamental to ensuring technology is not being developed in a way that will create further barriers and exclusion of disabled people. 

I propose that we shift our perspective on technology, particularly in the context of social care, from merely a tool to replace human tasks or perform specific functions to a transformative force for enhancing overall wellbeing. Technology should be seen as a vehicle, not the destination, a tool that empowers people to connect with their communities, pursue their hobbies, and engage with their passions. By redefining its purpose, we can harness technology to increase wellbeing and foster meaningful connections and develop and use it with a more aspirational aim in mind.