LINK SOUFFLE: animal pictures, poetry about bad assistive tech design, and disability dongles

[jesse_the_k]

Comedy Wildlife Photo Contest

Thanks to NPR, this project absolutely delivers on its concept. I guarantee that browsing four years of 40-item finalist galleries will provide a brain vacation.

NPR’s own caption provides an elegant example of image description:

This squirrel in Sweden better have some wishes in mind — and fast — with the wind blowing those dandelion seeds like that.
Geert Weggen/Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards 2019

Sadly, the other 100+ images aren’t described at the Comedy Wildlife site.

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Best Plum Weirdness with Bonus Wheelchair

I was happy to read this revision of William Carlos William’s irresistibly remixable poem, "This is Just To Say,"

This is just to say

I have built
a massive wheelchair
in my lab
that can climb stairs

And which
You were probably
hoping
could be affordable or fit on a bus

Forgive me
the likes from abled people were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
Who rt'ed in here? (taylewd) August 31, 2019

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Liz Jackson and the "Disability Dongle"

The Girl with the Purple Cane Liz Jackson elizejackson writes about design and disability with clear insight and an acid tongue which make me happy.

A Disability Dongle is 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.

#disabilitydongle on Twitter generated lots of responses collated on Medium.

sesmith uses the disability dongle concept to critique the wrong-headed focus on cutting-edge assistive tech:

It’s not just impractical and unsafe. It’s also wildly expensive. Breakthrough technology can cost more than a midrange car and most insurers do not cover it. Insurers, including private companies and Medicare/Medicaid, make durable medical equipment (DME) coverage determinations on the basis of demonstrated need, and they are notoriously choosy.

Disabled people don’t need so many fancy new gadgets. We just need more ramps.

There’s many more megabytes of Liz Jackson worth perusing

I’ve been waiting for someone to dig deeper into the OXO universal design:

Betsey Farber, founder of OXO Cookware

Next time you’re in charge of opening a locked-shut jar, say thanks to Betsey. A talented former architect, Betsey helped revolutionize the kitchen utensil industry after she struggled to find tools that were comfortable to use with her arthritis. She went on to found OXO, the first line of ergonomic cooking tools, with her husband, Sam.

Despite being a key contributor to the brand’s accessible designs, she’s often credited only as Sam’s disabled wife and the ‘inspiration’ behind OXO. Made with a spare, minimalist aesthetic, the tools Betsey and Sam created together sported what would become the line’s distinctive hallmark: fat black handles of a soft plastic designed not just for cooks with hand problems, but all cooks — regardless of ability.

https://theblog.adobe.com/honoring-design-pioneers-diversity-inclusion

The Accessibility Rules podcasts offers a long interview:

• part one
• part two

Liz Jackson identifies the dangers of "pathological altruism": how the "things we radically fight for turn into the things that are empathetically done to us" in this speech for the Interaction Design Association audience on the topic "Empathy Reifies Disability Stigma."

""Empathy Reifies Disability Stigmas" Liz Jackson - Interaction19" (Watch on Vimeo)

Comments

[lilysea]

Comedy Wildlife Photo Contest

Thanks to NPR, this project absolutely delivers on its concept. I guarantee that browsing four years of 40-item finalist galleries will provide a brain vacation.

Oooh, thank you for these! ^_^

I had not heard of them before.

Glad to share

[jesse_the_k]

They're really soothing

[magnetic_pole]

I love those photos, thanks!

And I also loved the line Disabled people don’t need so many fancy new gadgets. We just need more ramps. Might put that one on the syllabus for the week we talk about the ADA. :) M.