ABSTRACT
The focus of this chapter is technologies that were designed and developed for adults with learning disabilities before 2000. Drawing on interviews with 52 practitioners about their experiences of using technologies prior to 2000, this chapter illuminates the various and conflicting ways in which technologies of the past were positioned. Four key tensions emerge from this analysis, where technology is positioned as (1) a burden or an asset, (2) mainstream or specialist, (3) a panacea or a tool and (4) meaningful or inappropriate.
