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Presentation: Cross-Cultural Influences on the Semantics Ascribed to Assistive Technology Product and Its Envisaged User: A Preliminary Study Between Collectivist (Pakistan) and Individualist (United Kingdom) Cultures

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posted on 2018-12-18, 11:04 authored by Salman Asghar, George TorrensGeorge Torrens, Robert G. HarlandRobert G. Harland

Assistive Technology (AT) products are defined as the devices, items or systems whether acquired commercially, modified or customised that are aimed to enhance, improve or maintain functional capabilities of an individuals living with some form of disability. The AT market is growing internationally, as the number of elderly and individual with disabilities is increasing. Like mainstream products, the use of AT products does not occur in vacuum but happens in a socio-cultural environment, where those products communicate the intended message of their designer.

On the other hand, culture is an important variable when considering the communication of meaning through an artefact. Meanwhile, evidences from literature has highlighted distinct differences in the cognitive processing that delivers perception between individuals from collectivistic and individualistic societies. Little is published about how cultural differences in cognition relate to the semantic preferences of a AT product attributes and their users.

To address this question, a presentation was prepared and delivered at ‘The Asian Conference on Media, Communication & Film, MediAsia 2018’ conference held in Toshi Centre Hotel, Tokyo, Japan. The document contains slides of the given presentation, from which conference paper was prepared. The manuscript presented in conference proceeding was entitled as “Cross-Cultural Influences on the Semantics Ascribed to Assistive Technology Product and Its Envisaged User”.


Full conference proceeding can be accessed at: http://papers.iafor.org/wp-content/uploads/conference-proceedings/MediAsia/MediAsia2018_proceedings.pdf


Funding

University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Lahore and Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan under FDP scholarship scheme

History

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