In 1998 the British Computer Society (BCS) and the Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEE) instigated an annual public lecture in memory of Alan Turing (1912–1954). Turing was one of the most influential early developers of computer technology, a member of the wartime UK code-breaking team at Bletchley Park, and proposer of the ‘Turing Test’ of machine intelligence. The 2006 Turing Lecture, entitled ‘Lifestyle Access for the Disabled – Adding Positive Drift to the Random Walk with Technology’, was delivered by Chris Mairs, co-founder in 1981 of Metaswitch, part of the communications company Data Connection plc and chair of ‘a-technic’, a charity which develops assisted technology for people with disabilities, primarily those who (like Mairs) are blind or otherwise visually impaired.

Your tasks

1. Consider this case in the light of the theoretical approaches to technology given in the chapter. Which approach do you believe provides the best framework to explain what happened, and why?

2. Critically evaluate the concept of ‘accessible technology’ for the management of work in an organisational setting.

3. Why and how can individual managers influence the design of both work and the work environment to encourage accessibility?