[Access Lunch] Reading for this Week

Wed Mar 31 12:16:32 EDT 2021

Michael Chorost goes into pretty deep detail on the terms cyborg, fyborg,
etc in his book about getting a cochlear implant. The book is titled
"Rebuilt", which is a pretty large clue on how he views such technology.
He's a tech writer, so he obviously comes at this from a technophile
direction.
https://michaelchorost.com/

Aaron

On Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 11:56 AM Franchesca Spektor <fspektor at andrew.cmu.edu>
wrote:

> Sara, thank you for sharing this important perspective.
>
> I apologize that I did not use the term “cyborg” with the care that it
> necessitates when introducing readings that take up controversial language.
> To respond to your message, I did some research on the ways “cyborg” has
> been used to describe people with disabilities. As you mentioned, the term
> has been used to reduce people with disabilities into the ways they are
> enabled by technology. These reductions, along with the term’s propensity
> in science fiction, feed stereotypes that technology may “fix” disability
> and that people with disabilities are subhuman, in particular, lacking
> warmth and human complexity.
>
> For others, like me, who could use more education on the topic, here are
> some resources I found that nuance the potential harms and limitations of
> reclaiming cyborg terminology. Importantly, this discussion is complex and
> ongoing and some disabled activists have made clear that cyborg is not a
> term nondisabled people should use in reference to people with disabilities.
>
>    - Cyborgs, Cripples and iCrip: Reflections on the Contribution of
>    Haraway to Disability Studies
>    <https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137023001_6> by Donna
>    Reeve talks about why the cyborg figure hasn't been more utilized in
>    disability studies.
>    - The Cyborg and the Crip chapter in Feminist, Queer, Crip
>    <https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=F4X6yaiCNOcC&oi=fnd&pg=PP2&dq=alison+kafer&ots=n8tOGO2UOe&sig=nA24II_goyKkeAvN1s3Okla_Va8#v=onepage&q=alison%20kafer&f=false>
>    by Alison Kafer has this great quote in reaction to Donna Haraway’s Cyborg
>    Manifesto: "The "cyborg" concept thus serves to perpetuate binaries of
>    pure/impure, natural/unnatural, natural/technological; rather than breaking
>    down boundaries, it buttresses them" (109).
>    - The intro of Building the Normal Body: Disability and the
>    Techno-makeover <https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/125966> by
>    Emily Smith Beitiks similarly breaks down how usage of "cyborg" has been
>    traditionally ableist, from Haraway to Chris Hables Gray to John
>    Hockenberry.
>    - The Dawn of the 'Tryborg'
>    <https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/30/opinion/the-dawn-of-the-tryborg.html>
>    by Jillian Weise, where she argues only disabled people should call
>    themselves cyborgs since only disabled people depend on integrated
>    technology.
>
> These different essays, perspectives, and bits of lineage are so
> important, and I hope we can continue discussing this nuance as a group.
> For instance, while Jillian Wiese uses a bionic leg and strongly identifies
> with the term cyborg, Laura Forlano, who uses an automatic insulin pump for
> type 1 diabetes does not. In both of their firsthand testimony, these
> authors detail the labor it requires to make their assistive technology
> work. I recognize that Zoltan Istvan’s controversial article is a troubling
> counterpoint to their perspectives, as it is 1) a blatant misunderstanding
> of the capacity of assistive tech, and 2) an insidious ideology that has
> influenced policy. In pairing it with Wiese and Forlano, I was hoping to
> draw out this historical tension between techno-solutionism and disability
> rights in our Thursday discussion. I apologize for not initially
> characterizing the harm perpetuated by Zoltan’s ideology -- especially as
> it concerns the term “cyborg.”
>
> On Mon, Mar 29, 2021 at 4:06 PM Sara Kingsley <skingsle at cs.cmu.edu> wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> I request that we not refer to everyone living with medical assistive
>> technology as a "cyborg." For many of us, it is extraordinarily derogatory,
>> ableist, and those terms have been used by non-disabled people to harass
>> and commit acts of violence against disabled people. I also ask that we
>> consider reading about the history of diabetes technology, the broader
>> community whose lives depend on it before engaging in a discussion of type
>> 1 diabetes.
>>
>> Thank you, Sara
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Mar 29, 2021 at 6:33 PM Franchesca Spektor <
>> fspektor at andrew.cmu.edu> wrote:
>>
>>> 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" 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
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Accessibility-lunch mailing list
>>> Accessibility-lunch at lists.andrew.cmu.edu
>>> https://lists.andrew.cmu.edu/mailman/listinfo/accessibility-lunch
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> *Sara Kingsley*
>> PhD student, Human-Computer Interaction Institute
>> School of Computer Science
>> Carnegie Mellon University
>> Pittsburgh, PA, USA
>> website: www.sarakingsley.info
>> Pronouns: she/her
>> Create Safe Spaces for Students, Denounce Ableist Language:
>> https://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html
>>
>> *want to chat about research, projects or coursework?*
>> please feel free to schedule time to meet with me at this link, thank
>> you: https://calendly.com/sarakingsley/sara-schedule
>> <https://calendly.com/sarakingsley/schedule>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>
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