Technology is ubiquitous with our conceptions of disability.
Wheelchairs, hearing aids, glass eyes, prosthetic limbs, and canes are objects that we frequently identify as technological prostheses and assistance for disabilities. Other types of technologies color the interactions of a person with disability and their social environment: ramps, specialized telephones, audiobooks, and Braille signs.
What about the users of these technologies?
What motivates their decisions to select particular technologies to aid their interactions with the world? What roles do users play as shapers, collaborators, and manipulators of their technologies to better assert autonomy over their bodies?
Objects of Disability: Material and Design Histories is a collaborative project led by Dr. Jaipreet Virdi (University of Delaware) and Dr. Coreen McGuire (Durham University) combining research into the material history of accessibility and prosthetic technologies with a historical exploration of how disabled people played a role in the construction, design, and functionality of these technologies. After all, how users interacted with their objects of disability can divulge much about how these objects played a crucial role in identity construction.
This collection aims to deepen our understanding of the lived experiences of disability through material culture, to shape public education of health care and technology, and to provide a unique insight into disability history.
Header Images:
- Dallas County Judge Quentin D. Corley with his patented prosthesis for driving, 1916. U.S. Library of Congress.
- Mr. Swift, a blind librarian, c.1913. City of Toronto Archives.
- Dorothy Brett with an electric Marconi hearing aid, 1922. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.
- Aulaqiaq, who is blind and learned to thread the needle and sew, c.1946. Library and Archives Canada.