The other day, @NatalyaD introduced me to the term #DisabilityDongle. Now I've just encountered #Gadgetbahn. And of course I'm well aware of the annual attempt by an eager design student (and occasionally Sir Clive Sincliar) to revolutionise the bicycle without any of that troublesome research. (Though that doesn't seem to have a specific term.)

Is there a general term for these kinds of #ImpracticalInnovations? Or do you know of one from another field?

Hacking in an ableist world: https://thebaffler.com/salvos/care-tactics-mauldin

#DisabilityDongle gets all over the media, but rarely are disabled people's own strategies and hacks published.

This article talks about crip-led info sharing and hacks (interim and final solutions) by disabled people for disabled people and the obstructions like long waiting times and healthcare funding that exist.

Following on from my thread on #DisabilityDongle yesterday (https://disabled.social/@NatalyaD/110005416668199560) which got some good discussion.

I found some more excellent links. So here's a refresh and new thread.

@bright_helpings @JessTheUnstill

Looking again at the Press Release-toot and indeed the webpage again some things (very common #DisabilityDongle negative things) that jump out at me:
1) Toot/presser/webpage doesn't mention any collab with VI folk.
2) Product webpage is barely zoomable small images with no ALT text, mouseover text "product image 1/2/3" = inaccessible.
3) £300. That's not entry level cost.
4) Mentions high lead-time, not sure this product exists except as fiction for clickbait.

@kim Yep, it isn't trendy and doesn't benefit the individual or org to place the responsibility for safe and enjoyable infra or usability onto society rather than cyclists/disabled people etc.

And saying "don't talk for..." gets you accused of being woke, or worse, 'cancelling' those in power. And of course, in rejecting #DisabilityDongle you're being UNGRATEFUL and not civilised (lots of Black women writers have covered 'civilility' in terms of power stuff).

@bright_helpings I didn't mind doing the explanation one time, he seemed to care and it's not well understood by hearing or deaf people, but then he made it all about him and his magic fix...

Loss of directional hearing is more disabling for deafened people, but #DisabilityDongle aint gonna fix that, it's just false hope, waste of time and clunky hassle.

This chess set for visually impaired people smells very like a #DisabilityDongle to me https://disabled.social/@bookhousegames@mastodon.gamedev.place/109996324419217574

I know a blind Master chess player. Don't think he had issues with usual pieces.

If this was just "a cool set" that'd be fine, but faux-inclusion makes me uncomfortable!

I have been thinking a lot about the term "disability dongle" that was coined in 2019 to describe those 'technical inventions for disabled people, usually by non disableds'.

Examples include: sign language gloves, overly-clever canes for blind people, many standing/magic wheelchairs.

https://blog.castac.org/2022/04/disability-dongle/ is a long article about the term, meaning and issues that #DisabilityDongle things bring up.

Have I been off-base? Or is this #accessibility fake news? Just a fun thing for Gizmodo to write about? Is Calibri 14-point font the new #DisabilityDongle?

I'm very interested in hearing from people with direct experience.

@TechNews https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/
#SignLanguage #DisabilityDongle
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/11/why-sign-language-gloves-dont-help-deaf-people/545441/

@jonielena @blindscribe @aral @peter @stevenbodzin @futurebird

https://blog.castac.org/2022/04/disability-dongle/

This reminds me of the #DisabilityDongle discussions and scholarship of Liz Jackson, Rua Williams, and Alex Haagaard.

"Disability Dongle: A well intended elegant, yet useless solution to a problem we never knew we had. Disability Dongles are most often conceived of and created in design schools and at IDEO."

@MerylEvans Has anyone used the #DisabilityDongle hashtag here yet? I would credit the person who coined it but my memory is so bad that I forgot their name.

Anyway, enjoy this old meme I copied from the bird site.

#Disability #Accessibility #ASL

Not enough people talk about this aspect of EM's work.

except of course for disabled ppl who have critiqued it as a #DisabilityDongle or "tryborg plagiarism of the cyborg mind" per @JillianWeise@twitter.com (& @alexhaagaard@twitter.com I thought I remembered writing about this but not sure)

people REALLY do not connect this in enough
(note this is also a major #DisabilityDongle as @alexhaagaard@twitter.com has discussed)

RT @KBAndersen@twitter.com

BTW complaints about Dr. Fauci’s supposedly evil tyrannical medical schemes are especially rich coming from a guy with a business based on implanting “ultra high bandwidth interfaces” in our brains to connect us directly with computers. 3/3 https://neuralink.com/

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/KBAndersen/status/1602322454080356352