Hey can we talk about the non-traditional ways digital devices can be disability aids? Like yes screen readers AACs digital health monitors all incredibly important, and I've heard far too many stories of how teachers and those in positions of authority over disabled people have confiscated, refused access to or damaged these devices, most famously that one person on reddit whose teacher cut the line for their insulin pump thinking it was earphone wires, but I also want to talk about the less traditional uses of digital devices like cellphones in aiding disability and how 'phone-free' areas like schools or exams or some crazy businesses and company offices, is terribly discriminatory.
Before fights break out in the comments people who use traditional digital devices and aids are allowed to still share their experiences, it is in fact encouraged, because while I do want to focus the discussion on how people use regular ol smartphones etc. to aid in managing their disabilities and why denying them access to said phones or shaming, harassing or assaulting them for using a phone in "inappropriate settings" to manage their disability, people who use things like AACs, smart watches and other monitors and digital insulin pumps etc. Are also affected by hard bans on the use of digital devices in certain settings because, as with the above example, insulin pumps can be mistaken for earphone cables and smart watches used for disabilities like pots can also be banned because they "make it easy to cheat on tests" etc.
So sound off in the notes. How do you use digital devices in a non-traditional way to help you manage your disability? And in what ways have being denied access to these devices impacted your health and well-being? The reason I want to have this discussion is because I want people reading the notes and reblogs to learn ways that they can use these devices to manage their own disabilities and conditions, work against internalized shame surrounding being dependent on devices and create conversation that will empower disabled and chronically ill people to advocate for the allowance of digital devices such as cellphones into spaces where they're explicitly banned because they are being used as disability aids. I mean allow devices because they're being used as aids not devices banned because they're used as aids.
