Simultaneous Assistance

Simultaneous assistance, described by Cynthia Bennett and Daniela Rosner, is a form of support in which help flows in multiple directions at once rather than unidirectionally from a non-disabled helper to a disabled recipient. In a simultaneous-assistance encounter, the disabled person contributes expertise, orientation or initiative while also receiving scaffolding, so the exchange produces mutual recognition and agency. The concept is used in accessibility research to challenge framings that cast disabled people as perpetual care recipients, and to show how interdependence can function as a scaffold for self-determination rather than its opposite.