When Assistive Tech Becomes Self: Disability and Liberation Through Hybridity
Generally and especially in the past, people have always been judged by how closely their bodies match certain ideas of what is “normal,” and anyone who did not fit the standard was often seen as not normal. We all know that technology has become connected to daily life and is not just a separate tool. It is also seen as something that shapes how people move, communicate, and express themselves. Because of this, the line between “just a body” and “a machine” is not as clear as it used to be, which connects to the ideas of hybridity and boundary-breaking we discussed in class. Disabled people who use assistive technology show this shift very clearly. Devices like wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs, implants, screen readers, etc. are usually described as medical aids that fix a problem. But for many users, they are part of how they live to gain independence. When assistive tech is seen and claimed as part of the self instead of something to hide, it challenges ideas about what a “whole” or “real” body should look like.
This example also connects to Haraway’s idea of the cyborg. She refers to the hybrid as an organism and machine that breaks boundaries like human/machine or natural/artificial. Disabled people's bodies are not purely biological, but also not “less human.” They show that identity can be fluid and shaped through technology. With that, hybridity can become a form of liberation.
The article Assistive Technologies and Autonomy in a Cyborg World supports this idea. The authors explain that assistive technologies are connected to a person’s identity and everyday life. For people with visual impairment, devices like mobile phones or screen readers are described as extensions of the body. One participant even says that their whole life is built around their phone (Chandra & Jones, 2015). This shows that technology becomes part of how someone experiences the world. But the article also notes that this close connection can become a way to regulate and control users if access is limited or systems are designed without them in mind (Chandra & Jones, 2015).
We see this same idea in Monáe’s The ArchAndroid. The android body is something to be claimed rather than escaped. Monáe suggests that for people whose bodies have been targets of oppression, trying to escape into a non-physical or "pure" state would just be another form of erasure. By claiming the mechanical body, the other person takes control of their own story. Looking into the future, it is possible that even more people will live as hybrids of body and technology. Advances in prosthetics, implants, and digital communication tools may make technological integration more common in health care and everyday life. Some researchers who study posthumanism for example, believe that the boundary between human and machine will continue to blur as enhancement technologies become more normalized (Miah, 2008). If society becomes a little more accepting of these hybrid identities, the idea of a normal body may continue to change. Liberation through hybridity will only be real if these technologies are available and not controlled in ways that create new inequalities.
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AI was not used for any part of this assignment.
References Chandra, P., & Jones, J. (2015). Assistive technologies and autonomy in a cyborg world. 15, 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1145/2737856.2737905
Miah, A. (2008). A critical history of posthumanism. In B. Gordijn & R. Chadwick (Eds.), Medical enhancement and posthumanity (pp. 71–94). Springer.