Policy Position Paper: Smart Housing & Disability in Australia by 2020

This policy position paper examines the potential of smart housing for individuals with disabilities in Australia by 2020. It explores how smart home technology, including environmental adaptations, remote control of appliances, and safety monitoring, can enhance independence and quality of life. The paper references key concepts such as social construction and instrumentalism to analyze the development of smart homes. It draws on scholarly articles and authoritative sources, including Tony Gentry's research on smart homes for neurological disabilities. The paper outlines the services provided by a disability care organization and details the research methodology, including resource gathering, timeline, and the use of internet and colleague consultations for project development. The paper emphasizes the instrumentalist nature of technological advancements in meeting the needs of the disabled, aiming to minimize the need for caregivers and promote self-efficacy.

Policy Position Paper 1
Smart Housing for people with disability in Australia by 2020
By (Student name) on behalf of Disability care organization

Policy Position Paper 2
Smart home technology includes environmental adaptations allowing remote control of
home appliances, safety monitoring, electronic communication as well as automated task cueing.
All these features are important for individuals with disability. Recent research indicates that
people, including the disabled, do not want automatic appliances and lights, instead they are
seeking a common, portable, user-friendly tool allowing them to access home environmental
controls, manage tasks, operate entertainment devices and mange tasks (Gentry, 2009). The
future of smart home technology will be developing a common application that integrates control
of all these home activities seamlessly. Within the disability community, smart home means
applying electronic assistive technology, using electronic aids to daily living, assistive
technology for cognition and other tools offering support to people with disability in a home
setting. Smart home technology for persons with disability is an important and growing field as
these people rightfully campaign for self-efficacy and determination. Smart homes are becoming
a promise of increased independence and minimizes the need for a caregiver provision in the
home.
One theoretical concept used in investigating the issue is “the story line of social
construction” derived from the readings for learning “Perceptions of Science and Technology”.
This concept argues that developers co-construct technological artifacts with non-humans to
meet social welfares (Andrew Jamison, 2011). In this case, futuristic smart houses in Australia
will be an advancement from the current smart home technologies today to satisfy the social
needs of the disabled. Other theoretical concepts applied in investigating the issue are the two
dominating opposing sets of assumptions about technology; determinism and instrumentalism,
also derived from the readings for learning “Sustainable Technology” Instrumentalism shows

Policy Position Paper 3
that technology refers to all the tools and artefacts humans use to advance their interests in life.
Instrumentalists argue that technology is naturalist in character meaning technology is a fact of
nature that changes following the laws of natural evolution. Determinism on the other hand
argues that technology is a political power that is independent of human action that establishes
certain social values and interests while damaging others (Davison, 2004). In our case, the
advancement of smart houses in Australia by 2020 is instrumentalist in nature in that they will
evolve to meet the needs of the disabled.
Apart from the scholarly articles, another authoritative source referenced in investigating
the topic is Tony Gentry’s article “Smart homes for people with neurological disability: State of
the art” written for the department of Occupational Therapy, School of Allied Health, Virginia
Commonwealth University. In the article Gentry provides a breakdown of the five classes that
define the technology for smart houses within the disability community. They include; homes
incorporating intelligent objects, homes utilizing wireless or wired networks, homes with
electronic networks that go beyond the house, homes linked to computers analyzing patterns of
activity and homes building upon these connectivity and learning characteristics to control
technology to avail adaptive cues for human occupants.
The disability care organization is an agency providing services for the disabled
population in Australia (Dylan, 2014). Its objective is delivering various services focusing on the
immediate needs of the disabled persons and families.
The timeline for conducting the research on the issue is referencing content on innovative
technologies for the disabled that are featuring in smart houses within the last ten years. Among
the keywords used for searching resources include; smart houses, innovative technologies for the

Policy Position Paper 4
disabled and disability care organizations (openaccessgovernment.org, 2019). Other appropriate
resources to look for include websites with content on the recent technologies featuring in smart
houses, and, press releases by techno-firms building smart houses (Louie, 2017).
It will take close to one month to produce the written deliverable before submitting it.
Drafting the project will consume the most time due to its tasking nature. Two weeks will be
used in developing the draft, editing will take three to four days while proofreading will require
one week. After approval from more than one proofreader, the project will finally be submitted
the week after. The internet will be a valuable source for assistance in writing where different
material on the topic are available, Consulting my colleagues will also aid in developing insights
on the topic and appropriate ways to approach the project.

Policy Position Paper 5
References
Andrew Jamison, S. H. C. a. L. B., 2011. Perceptions of Science and Technology. In: C. Baillie,
ed. SYNTHESIS LECTURES ON ENGINEERS,TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY. University of
Western Australia: Morgan & Claypool Publishers, pp. 12-14.
Davison, A., 2004. Chapter 8 Sustainable Technology. In: R. White, ed. Controversies in
Environmental Sociology. s.l.:Cambridge University Press, pp. 133-149. [Online]
Available at: http://www.untag-smd.ac.id/files/Perpustakaan_Digital_1/ENVIRONMENTAL
%20SOCIOLOGY%20Controversies%20in%20Environmental%20Sociology.pdf
Dylan, S., 2014. Access Disability and Different worlds. [Online]
Available at: https://publicaddress.net/access/disability-stakeholders/
[Accessed 16 September 2019].
Gentry, T., 2009. Smart homes for people with neurological disability: State of the art. [Online]
Available at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/38070634_Smart_homes_for_people_with_neurologic
al_disability_State_of_the_art
[Accessed 16 September 2019].
Louie, E., 2017. How Smart Homes Help People with Disabilities. [Online]
Available at: https://www.karmanhealthcare.com/blog/2017/08/24/how-smart-homes-help-
people-with-disabilities/
[Accessed 16 September 2019].

Policy Position Paper 6
openaccessgovernment.org, 2019. Smart homes’ to equip elderly and disabled people with
digital skills. [Online]
Available at: https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/smart-homes-digital-skills/56460/
[Accessed 16 September 2019].
Ramlee, R.A., Tang, D.H.Z. and Ismail, M.M., 2012, September. Smart home system for
disabled people via wireless bluetooth. In 2012 International Conference on System Engineering
and Technology (ICSET) (pp. 1-4). IEEE.[Online]
Available at: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Smart-home-system-for-Disabled-People-via-
Wireless-Ramlee-Tang/5d5248e25c9595cea5121aa12fec9eaea7fd2ad2