Caregiving

The unpaid or paid work of supporting another person with daily living, health management, social participation, or emotional needs, often in the context of disability, chronic illness, or ageing. In accessibility research, caregiving is usually treated as an interdependent relationship rather than one-directional help: the disabled or older person and their care partner shape each other's practices, technologies must support both, and proxy voices in research must be balanced against the voice of the person receiving care. Spousal, family, and professional carers have different motivations, burdens, and expertise, and designing only for the carer or only for the person with the condition reliably fails one of them.