Reviews with content warning for Genocide - Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement

Against Technoableism is short but filled to the brim with insight. As Shew shares in the introduction, she uses the term technoableism to describe “a belief in the power of technology that considers the elimination of disability a good thing, something we should strive for. It’s a classic form of ableism — bias against disabled people, bias in favor of non-disabled ways of life. Technoableism is the use of technologies to reassert those biases, often under the guise of empowerment.”

Shew discusses how technology has and can be used to help people with disabilities and the limits of technology— lack of access (prohibitive costs, only available to or capable of helping a small subset of the disabled community it is supposedly for), design flaws (especially when tech is created by non-disabled people to “solve” the “problem” of disability rather than created in conversation with people with lived experience about what tools or tech would make their lives easier), the weaponization of technology against disabled folks, and the unhelpful narratives and stereotypes frequently reinforced in discussions of disability tech.

Against Technoableism is so much more than a discussion about technology, though. It challenges readers to examine the ways we think and talk about disability, discusses the history of disability as a concept and the historical treatment of people with disabilities, and introduces readers to a wealth of concepts in the disability rights space.

Some of the information between essays is repeated, because as Shew explains in the introduction, she wanted the essays to be able to be read in any order or as standalones from the others, but I think the information is valuable enough that it bears repeating and rereading anyway.

I learned a lot reading this book, despite how short and “easy” it was to read. Highly recommend reading it.

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heykindfriend's review

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hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

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sleeping_roses's review

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hopeful informative lighthearted reflective slow-paced

4.5

I love the way Shew writes about disability, a respectful approach that is all too uncommon from other authors if they don't have a personal lens on disability.

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nautilus18's review

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informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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abitbetterbooks's review against another edition

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challenging funny informative reflective fast-paced

4.0

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