Persons with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and Information Technologies. Some Ethical Observations—A Comment on Chalgoumi et al.

Abstract

This comment on Chalgoumi et al.’s article “Information Privacy for Technology Users with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: Why Does It Matter?” focuses on the concept of autonomy in order to expand the scope of the ethical discussion. First we explore the conceptual and practical relations between privacy and autonomy. Following this, we address the issue of underfunding of information technology for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities in terms of distributive justice and provide some potential policy solutions.

Keywords:

• autonomy
• privacy
• distributive justice
• ethics
• IDD
• IT

Acknowledgments

The ASSISTID program is cofunded by the charity RESPECT and the European Commission and is coordinated by RESPECT’s research institute DOCTRID, a network of universities, service providers, and industry partners across Ireland, the United States, and the United Kingdom undertaking groundbreaking research in intellectual disabilities and autism.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by funding from the charity RESPECT and the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under REA grant agreement no. PCOFUND-GA-2013-608728FP7/2007-2013.