Beyond wheelchairs and white canes
New books take on complex questions of disability, technology, and public space
“By listening to disabled people, we learn a whole new way of thinking about disability,” writes Ashley Shew. “There is an opportunity for disabled people to form alliances with environmentalists and postcolonial urban theorists reimagining streets,” argues David Gissen. “How do you expect the average person, with no experience of blindness, to understand the dynamics when they encounter you?” ponders Andrew Leland.
This week at Public Seminar, three authors rethinking disability share their perspectives—from visions of a disabled future to the nuances of whether or not to fold one’s white cane.
Andrew Leland on The Country of the Blind
Andrew Leland and Mitchell Abidor
For me personally? I have a friend visiting from LA and we haven’t spent a lot of time together since I started using a cane, since I came out as a blind person, and he’s constantly telling me, “I’m on your right side now” or “There’s a curb over there,” and I let him say maybe two or three things and when it became clear he was going to be doing that constantly I told him not to do that anymore. Unless I’m about to be knocked unconscious by a swinging pole, let’s just be two guys out for a walk. I think the problem with excessive accommodations is that they do strip you of your dignity. Like when people tell me, “There’s a street there,” and I think, well, yeah, I know there’s a street there because I can hear the seven thousand tons roaring by.
David Gissen on The Architecture of Disability
David Gissen and Bella Okuya
Typically, contemporary disability critique of cities focuses on promoting more access for disabled people to circulate through urban spaces, such as sidewalks, streets, and public spaces. All of that, of course, is extremely important. However, in my chapter “The Urbanization of Disability,” I ask whether a disability critique of the modern city should aim simply to access the city as it is—or should it rethink some of the values embedded in urban spaces?
Against Technoableism
Ashley Shew
The wheelchair is the universal icon of disability. It’s on restroom doors, parking spaces, and ramps. Yet technologists are always trying to replace the wheelchair (which is itself a piece of technology). Exo-skeletons and devices aimed at walking and climbing stairs—designed to make disabled people adjust to the world as it is, obviating the need for ramps or elevators or accessible doorways—are by far the most commonly covered mobility devices in mainstream media. The wheelchair, instead, requires the world to adjust to the disabled person.