[Access Lunch] Reading for this Week

[Franchesca Spektor]

Hi everyone,

For this week's reading, we'll explore the cyborg as the supposed
"pinnacle" of assistive technology. Can cyborg technology eliminate
disability? Who can afford to become a cyborg? How do these questions come
to influence products and policy?

These first two essays discuss the frictions of cyborg embodiment, from the
lived experience of disability:

   - "Common Cyborg" <https://granta.com/common-cyborg/> by Jillian Weise,
   a poet, performance artist, and activist. (I've shared this essay before
   but I just love it so much).
   - "The Danger of Intimate Algorithms"
   <file:///Users/franky/Zotero/storage/XKDDB3QH/the-danger-of-intimate-algorithms.html>
   by Laura Forlano, a scholar and design researcher.

If you have time for it, this last essay is a short Vice article from
several years ago, which argues that the US should invest into exoskeletons
rather than accessible environments.

   - "In the Transhumanist Age, We Should be Repairing Disabilities, Not
   Sidewalks"
   <https://www.vice.com/en/article/4x3pdm/in-the-transhumanist-age-we-should-be-repairing-disabilities-not-sidewalks>
   by Zoltan Istvan, an attempted politician and president of the
   Transhumanist Party.

I'm really looking forward to our discussion and hearing everyone's
thoughts!

*As always, join us at Accessibility Lunch on Thursday, April 1st at 1:30
PM EST here. *To access the meeting, please use this Zoom conference link:
https://cmu.zoom.us/j/95170225799?pwd=UkhZWmwwUkp6M3BMR1dsM0taNjNnZz09

Thanks so much, and see y'all soon ~

- Franky
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