Technology empowers

Technology is thought to be an enabler that helps empower people with disabilities. Does it really though is a question I found myself asking when I read Against Technoableism, Rethinking Who Needs Improvement by Ashley Shew. This book explores the ethics of technology and disability. Technology seems to fix disabled people and makes them normal or at least help live a normal life. For example, prosthetics that can operate like real hands or legs to hearing devices like cochlear implants help deaf people hear. We rely on technology to assist disabled people as if its something they need or must have in order to exist. What is it you want? This question rarely gets asked.

There are a few discussion questions at the end of the book. The last one took a while for me to answer. It was what experiences in your life or in the lives of loved ones have pushed you to think differently about accessibility? One is a cartoon I used to watch when I was a kid. It was called raggy dolls and the theme tune of this cartoon is probably ingrained in my brain ever since. The cartoon follows some toys that are not good enough to be sold due to some visual imperfection like a disability, are then discarded to the toy factory's reject bin where they live together and go on lots of adventures together. The cartoon was to encourage a more positive way of thinking about physical disabilities for children.

Its the lyrics of the theme tune that probably has the most powerful message. They are: It's not much of a life when you're just a pretty face. Just to be whoever you are is no disgrace. Don't be scared if you don't fit in, look whose in the reject bin. Its the raggy dolls, the raggy dolls, made imperfectly. So if you've got a bump on your nose or lumps on your toes do not despair. Be like the raggy dolls and say I just don't care. Raggy dolls, raggy dolls are happy just to be, raggy dolls raggy dolls those like you and me. It's not much of a life when you're just a pretty face. Just to be whoever you are is no disgrace. Look around and you will find, people of every kind. Like the raggy dolls, raggy dolls those like you and me. Raggy dolls, raggy dolls, made imperfectly. So if you're not as ease with your knobbly knees and your fingers are all thumbs, stand on your two left feet and join our raggy doll chums. Raggy dolls, raggy dolls are happy just to be, raggy dolls raggy dolls those like you and me.

The reason these lyrics make me think differently is two fold. One is that disabled people will always be othered by society because they look different. No matter how fancy the wheelchair is or what colour their hearing aids are, people looking or walking differently they may not always fit in or feel welcome in a society. Whatever technology is in place doesn't change that.

Two is capitalising on this othering by using technology to pretend to empower people with disabilities and remove barriers that were created by the abled has become a trend. I hear, see and read terms such as the purple pound, which is the spending power of disabled people, that is used to help businesses see what they are missing out on by not prioritising accessibility or inclusion in their business. Putting people in boxes doesn't work.

Hence like the raggy dolls and Ashley's points covered in her book, they just don't care. Because no one ever asks what they want. Maybe they should start asking before doing.