So, this post is a post of of something I already replied to on a reblog, Because I felt like it needed saying. For anyone who comes across this randomly? I’m a severely disabled wheelchair using cripple who is also a partial-foot amputee. I’ve been crippled from birth, coming up nearly forty years now.
Every time someone posts a new thing on exciting technology from a TED talk or something, which shows disabled or impaired people doing funky or just plain normal things? I wonder about the so-called Cool Tech in question, and someone, somewhere, will inevitably make a comment about a Cyberpunk future.
So, for your edification, I present the criteria for what constitutes Cool Tech that my crippled arse uses. The reason for this is, because the majority of people don’t think about such things:
It’s cool tech IF you can afford it. IF you can repair it cheaply/yourself. IF when it breaks or goes wrong, it doesn’t hurt you, or become an albatross around your neck. IF it doesn’t rely on certain pre-requisites which may not be available in an emergency.
It’s cool tech IF it’s not proprietary and has no planned obsolescence. IF you can do what you like to it. IF parts are easy to source. IF it serves a genuine need/desire of disabled people rather than just attempting to normalise us or erase our identities. Or use us as inspiration-porn.
It’s cool tech IF there is more than one source (i.e. the technology becomes generic) so that if one supplier shuts down, you can still get it.
Without the above it’s a potential nightmare - the kind of nightmare that the Cyberpunk genre was meant to warn against.
from Technoccult https://technoccult.tumblr.com/post/187240250466
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