A recent discussion on Mastodon made me realise I don’t know anything about the relationship between technology and ableism. And no matter how much I have read on technocriticism in the past few years, the topic is barely discussed. So I searched a bit and found this book whose title felt exactly right and the author’s credentials looked on point.

I was disappointed

What is it about

After the first chapter discussing what is ableism and the different positions in the community regarding empowerment and use (and reappropriation) of terms, the book describes how ableism tries to fix disabilities, both physical or neurological.

A very American book

This book exudes America.

I mean that in 2 ways.

First, the writing style follows the very US-centric structure of “Here is argument A and I will present it in the following 3 paragraphs. Here is argument A in paragraph 1, Here is the exact same argument A in paragraph 2, Here is our beloved argument A going for another round in paragraph 3. As a conclusion, We have repeated argument A in the introduction and then in 3 paragraphs so that must mean that Argument A”. Sorry, it might be my ADHD talking but I hate this structure with a passion. If I can skim 4 pages and still read the same argument repeated once again, there’s a problem.

Then, it’s simply exclusively about the US. Sorry again, the US does not have the monopoly on bullshit tech and techniques used to control bodies. There’s no indication anywhere the scope would be this narrow.

Where’s the techno in technoableism

The term exists. It’s accurate. Fine. Provide examples. Pretty please. Where is the material analysis? Show me, prove me, scare me, anger me. But the analysis of the techno aspect of the technoableism seems have been edited out of the book.

In the end, what is actually there?

The discussion on ableism was interested and the different communities trying to finally have a voice in the decisions that concern them. How the community help them find their place in the world and to beat clichés and redefine what it means to be disabled. How it helped the author go through the whole process following the discovery of a bone cancer which lead to amputation and a bunch of other problems. This is a cool discussion. I was not able to see how it related to technoableism.

Final word

I won’t put it in the same bin as Faster than Normal but that’s still a big no for me.

That being said, the other books by the same author (especially Animal Constructions and Technological Knowledge and Spaces for the future) look very promising and I might have a look at them at some point in the future.