Collaboration and Participation in the trying-out of welfare technologies

Conversation analytical studies on atypical interaction are mostly directed to linguistic challenges. The present contribution is based on a broad understanding of communication impairment: not only verbal expressions but also embodied challenges (eg difficulties in walking) influence the ability to participate in everyday life. Therefore we approach the question of participation with limited communication means with a special interest in the multimodal and material practices of participation and collaboration. Our focus is directed to practices during the introduction of welfare technology. Our analysis shows that these practices are not just about ‘testing technology’ but also provide valuable information about how a person with communication difficulties manages such a complex practice with their specific communicative and bodily resources. The analysis is based on a single case study in which Jette, a person living with acquired brain injury is introduced to a new walking help. Our interest is directed to the multimodal practices through which Jette, whose ability to speak and move is impaired, becomes a competent and mobile participant. The analysis describes the situated and multimodal practices through which a 'mobile-Jette-in-the-walking-help' is collaboratively constructed. The focus of the analysis is directed to a) the practices of seeing and feeling the material device and the collaborative construction of a "walking formation" and b) the different interactional resources the participants and material artefacts are during the trying-out practices. As these practices of seeing and feeling are reflexively interwoven with the actual activities the participants are engaged in, the paper also describes and analyses the interactional management of the trying-out period. Questions that will be addressed are:
• How do the participants coordinate their actions to engage in the joint activity of a trying-out?
• How do the participants make others 'see' what they see or experience?
• Which participation roles do the different parties take up and/or get ascribed?
• How does the person with acquired brain injury become involved and can we see an orientation towards her limited communication means?