ABSTRACT Contrary to stereotypes that portray people with disabilities as passive recipients of technological innovation, individuals with sensory and mobility impairments have played key roles in the invention, design and use of adaptive or assistive devices over the course of the twentieth century. This article interrogates this history through a case study focusing on the research program of James Swail, an engineer with the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada from 1947 until 1985. As someone who was himself blind, Swail’s predicated his design work on an asset-based understanding of disability. He strived to disrupt conceptions of both the technological functionality and economic rationality of technologies produced for and by disabled people in mid-twentieth century Canada. Framed within a medical model, however, the overall fate of these machines mirrored back the imagined inability of people with disabilities to become fully participating members of the society in which they lived.

中文翻译：

---

“盲人康复辅助工具”：加拿大的残疾和技术知识，1947-1985

摘要与将残疾人描绘成技术创新的被动接受者的刻板印象相反，在二十世纪的过程中，有感官和行动障碍的个人在自适应或辅助设备的发明、设计和使用中发挥了关键作用。本文通过一个案例研究来探究这段历史，该案例研究侧重于 James Swail 的研究计划，James Swail 是 1947 年至 1985 年在加拿大国家研究委员会 (NRC) 担任工程师的工程师。 作为一个失明的人，Swail 将他的设计工作预测为一项资产- 基于对残疾的理解。他努力打破对 20 世纪中叶加拿大残疾人生产的技术的技术功能和经济合理性的概念。然而，在医学模型中，