Abstract

This paper presents a conception of personhood as both physical and social, and both as radically contingent upon their respective physical and social environments. In the context of age-related cognitive decline it supports literature suggesting social personhood is occluded rather than deteriorating with brain function. Reviewing the literature on value sensitive design (VSD) as applied to assistive technologies for people with age-related cognitive decline, it finds an exclusive focus upon physical support. The paper concludes that issues of power must be grasped by those in VSD practice in order to reorient VSD in assistive technologies to support social personhood in those with age-related cognitive decline.