2023 has been a great year for books in the disability space. Previously, I posted about Sounds Like Misophonia by Dr. Jane Gregory. Most recently, my copy of Against Technoableism arrived.
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.
The MIT Press Bookstore
Technology needs to do more for people with disabilities. Ashley Shew argues that it’s not the individuals who need “fixing,” it’s their environment. The author is participating in an upcoming free talk. The ITS Technoableism seminar series presents: Ashley Shew on Monday, January 15th, 2024. She was also a guest on The Disability Rights Florida podcast last month.
Prior to that, the most recent addition to my non-fiction book stack was The View From Down Here: Life as a Young Disabled Woman by journalist Lucy Webster. In her own words, it is “a memoir exploring what it’s like to live at the intersection of ableism and sexism, how these forces have shaped me, and how society often fails to see disabled women as women at all.” Get the book and sign up for her newsletter!
Skipping back to October, a couple of significant things occurred. After years of wondering, I was formally diagnosed with autism and ADHD. On the same day I had my final session with my fantastic clinician, a book I pre-ordered arrived. And, in the most ADHD move ever, another copy of the same book showed up the next day. Apparently, I’d pre-ordered it two days in a row without realizing it. That book was Unmasked: The Ultimate Guide to ADHD, Autism and Neurodivergence by Ellie Middleton. Thankfully, I was able to give the second copy to a friend who has been pondering her own neurodivergence.
“Learning the way my brain works has changed everything for me,” she says, and describes herself as almost being a poster girl for what can happen when you get the answers you need.
Ellie Middleton BBC Access All
