My pet peeve with disability aids is they cost money, that’s it, they should be free, there’s no “nuance” to this, they should be free
that's true but i somewhat disagree with the no nuance part only because i don't think it ends at being free to obtain. disability aids need maintenance, and sometimes that maintenance will need a special part or a specialist service. and the financial burden of those things shouldn't fall on the disabled person either. sometimes they need to be cleaned and if the disabled person can't clean the aid themselves there should be a cleaning service. other necessary services too. and a disability aid backup, so as to not rely on a single piece of equipment for a necessary function. i think disabled people should have the right to make choices about their aids even if they're free. i'm not only talking about appearance, but also having a say in how it functions, what auxillary components it should have, and what types of terms and conditions they must follow in order to use this device that they need. like if your CGM is free but they're selling your data, that's exploiting people who don't have a choice. if a prosthesis is free but it's built on proprietary software or hardware and you don't have the right to fix, modify, or refuse updates for something that's literally attached to your body, it's exploiting people who don't have a choice. if a company stops supporting the technology for someone's disability aid it should be able to be picked up by someone else (or indeed government covered) without people being forced to abandon that disability aid.