People with disabilities are the original hackers

[kestrell]

Two outstanding articles on disability and technology.

1. Disabled Do-It-Yourselfers Lead Way to Technology Gains

So long to overhyped innovations. Hello to tech that embeds accessibility into everyday devices.
By David M. Perry
...[M]any leaders, designers and scholars in the disability community say that they aren’t excited by stair-climbing wheelchairs, mechanical exoskeletons or brain-controlled prosthetics. They are drawn to innovations that embed accessibility into everyday technologies and the spaces that we all share. Also, they want people to stop trying to solve problems that don’t exist.
Mark Riccobono, who lost his sight to glaucoma as a child and is president of the National Federation of the Blind, says that blind people generally love their white canes, a simple and effective piece of technology. “A couple times a year someone comes to us and says, ‘We have this great new idea for how to replace the cane!’ ” he said. “We try to be objective, but no. You’re trying to solve a problem that’s not a problem.”

[Kes: Amazing final paragraph!]
For Ms. Shew, the Virginia Tech professor, the best way to ensure that this transformation continues will require centering the power — and the money — on disabled people as the initiators of innovation. “The future of assistive tech should be ‘cripped,’” a once-pejorative term that many members of the disability community have reclaimed, she said. “It should be bent, claimed, reclaimed, reforged, hacked, owned/controlled, made, swapped and shared by disabled people.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/style/assistive-technology.html?searchResultPosition=1

2. The ADA is Turning Thirty: It's Time That It Included Digital Accessibility
While the Americans with Disabilities Act regulates the physical world fairly well, its age means it lags eons behind when it comes to ensuring digital accessibility.
By Caroline Casey, social activist and founder of The Valuable 500

The lack of accessible websites is particularly frustrating because there are many simple fixes that exist if website designers and owners felt motivated to implement them.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/ada-turning-30-it-s-time-it-included-digital-accessibility-ncna1234860?fbclid=IwAR36suctA1qLlTvFW8Aw5y9PttKNA-KT0ZuOAm1dNLoQW566zFwx2z88948

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Yes, that David Perry article was swell!

Here's a lovely presentation from someone with a minimal DW presence, alexwlchan

https://alexwlchan.net/2019/01/monki-gras-the-curb-cut-effect

which rounds up some new suspects for the "original hackers" club.