Technology acceptance

The degree to which individuals are willing to embrace, use, and integrate a new technology into their practices, influenced by perceived usefulness, ease of use, social norms, trust, and prior experience. In accessibility contexts, technology acceptance is shaped by additional factors including whether the technology stigmatizes the user, whether it threatens to replace valued human services like sign language interpreting, cultural attitudes within disability communities, and the match between the technology and the user's specific needs and capabilities. Understanding acceptance is crucial because even technically functional assistive technologies fail if users reject them.