Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement
Ratings7
Average rating4.4
15
Ratings7
Average rating4.4
**A manifesto exploding what we think we know about disability, and arguing that disabled people are the real experts when it comes to technology and disability.**
When bioethicist and professor Ashley Shew became a self-described “hard-of-hearing chemobrained amputee with Crohn’s disease and tinnitus,” there was no returning to “normal.” Suddenly well-meaning people called her an “inspiration” while grocery shopping or viewed her as a needy recipient of technological wizardry. Most disabled people don’t want what the abled assume they want―nor are they generally asked. Almost everyone will experience disability at some point in their lives, yet the abled persistently frame disability as an individual’s problem rather than a social one.
In a warm, feisty voice and vibrant prose, Shew shows how we can create better narratives and more accessible futures by drawing from the insights of the cross-disability community. To forge a more equitable world, Shew argues that we must eliminate “technoableism”―the harmful belief that technology is a “solution” for disability; that the disabled simply await being “fixed” by technological wizardry; that making society more accessible and equitable is somehow a lesser priority.
This badly needed introduction to disability expertise considers mobility devices, medical infrastructure, neurodivergence, and the crucial relationship between disability and race. The future, Shew points out, is surely disabled―whether through changing climate, new diseases, or even through space travel. It’s time we looked closely at how we all think about disability technologies and learn to envision disabilities not as liabilities, but as skill sets enabling all of us to navigate a challenging world.
Featured Series
1 released bookNorton Shorts is a 5-book series first released in 2023 with contributions by Ashley Shew, Matthew Lockwood, and 3 others.
Reviews with the most likes.
A fantastic short nonfiction book with a fantastic cover stuffed with useful, accessible information. I feel like this book worked its way inside me and pushed on all these assumptions and biases I did not realize I had from the inside out. Shew gives a frank primer on disability, including common harmful tropes, the medical vs. social model, cross-disability communities, and historic examples of how disabled people have been and are currently targeted as “drains on the system.” I grew up watching Extreme Home Makeover, and distinctly remember a reveal where everyone cried watching a wheelchair-using family member walk again using some new-fangled technology. Much like every other aspect of Extreme Home Makeover, it turns out that was a tacky veneer slapped over ruining the lives of an already struggling family, but we do not have time to talk about Extreme Home Makeover any more than I already have in this Goodreads review. Because it is time to talk about Maintenance Phase. Maintenance Phase is a podcast about wellness culture and fatphobia. It zeroes in on the idea that sometimes people say they are commenting on others' weight out of concern for their health. Yet, many of the medical treatments fat people are subjected to, cause new and serious health issues (example: prescription weight loss pills that could only be prescribed for a few months due to cardiac and neurological problems). Ableism and fatphobia are closely intertwined, as both rest on the idea that health can be ascertained based on outward appearance. This is false in and of itself, but the entire thing crumbles in on itself like an Extreme Home Makeover horse stable themed children's bedroom when the interventions detract from the health of people others are supposedly so invested in.Until this book, I had never thought about the idea that technology can or even should aim to solve (and thus, eliminate) disability. The section on outer space was way more interesting than I thought it would be. I loved reading this alongside [b:Doppelganger 138505710 Doppelganger A Trip into the Mirror World Naomi Klein https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1689105362l/138505710.SY75.jpg 167494133] (even though, spoiler alert, I liked this more), as the accounts at times corroborate each other, and both draw on fictional texts. I would also recommend this to fans of [b:Disability Visibility 51456746 Disability Visibility First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century Alice Wong https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1582004027l/51456746.SY75.jpg 76117598], [b:Assata 100322 Assata An Autobiography Assata Shakur https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328857268l/100322.SX50.jpg 943760], [a:Devon Price 15184474 Devon Price https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1601572773p2/15184474.jpg], and [a:Angela Davis 5863103 Angela Y. Davis https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1643594354p2/5863103.jpg].
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