Eliminating disability, particularly congenital disability, was part of the “war against the

disabled experts and professionals are continually getting asked inappropriate personal questions when they are there to offer their professional expertise. They are not treated like other authors/scientists/social workers/teachers.

The social model simply asks us to expand our ideas about disability: it pushes back against the knee-jerk assumption that disability is abnormal and that our bodies and minds should be normalized.

The trope treats us as exceptional individuals, rather than as members of an underrepresented minority community that needs access and accommodations and structural change—not just gadgets to help us function individually.

the historical origin of disability was “anything that kept people from participating in labor”).

Sit with this idea for a moment. So many of our stories about technology and disability are about technologies as redemptive, as having the power to normalize disabled people, to make us “overcome” our disabilities. They show us “better” living through technology, where better means something pretty specific in how people exist in the world. But so

The category of “disability” doesn’t fall simply along the lines of impairment: we don’t count most people who wear glasses as disabled, although they are visually impaired. And not everyone who is disabled is impaired: some people with dwarfism who are otherwise healthy experience the world as disabling simply because things are built too tall—fro

Because ableism has often been a central feature of conversations around bodily autonomy, reproduction, immigration, education, inclusion, and even public services, and more intensely around additionally minoritized groups, it’s critical to understand disability as both political and relational too.

autistic people have higher occurrences of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS, a collagen disorder), Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS, a condition impacting blood flow and balance), and digestive issues with related gut pain.