IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2020 - 50

Designing technologies without
consulting their user base is the
ultimate in dis-empowerment.

people. But we cannot do either if we continue to design
technologies that reinscribe the "cure" or normalization of
individual disabled bodies and minds instead of making
worlds more conducive to our existence.

Acknowledgment
The author thanks Hanna Herdegen and Heath Sledge
for their editorial comments on various drafts of this
paper. The thoughts presented here have benefited
from conversations with many people, including Joshua Earle, Damien P. Williams, Hanna Herdegen, Mallory
Kay Nelson, D.E. Wittkower, and many students who
have taken my Technology & Disability course.
This material is based upon work supported by the
National Science Foundation under Award Number
1750260. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of
the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the
National Science Foundation.

Author Information
Ashley Shew is Assistant Professor, Science, Technology,
and Society, at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA. Email:
shew@vt.edu.

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