Social Agency

Social agency is the capacity to shape, initiate, and sustain one's social interactions - to contribute meaningfully to a group, express preferences, and influence shared activity. For people with cognitive disabilities, dementia, or communication differences, social agency is frequently constrained when caregivers, family, or technology take over decisions 'for' them. Accessibility research emphasises designs that place social agency in the hands of the disabled or older person rather than their support network - for example, open-ended creative tools, AAC devices that support initiation as well as response, or participatory workshop formats that foreground lived experience.