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3:31pm December 4, 2011
little-blackbook: read a fucking book Not that anyone should have to justify what technology they do or don’t use. But I was given my Kindle at a time when my arms were too weak to hold a book and turn the pages for the length of time it takes to read a book. I’m stronger now but I can easily get that weak again by using my arms too much – like by reading long books. The voice feature is more than just a cool addon if you’re visually impaired, dyslexic, intellectually disabled to the point of finding reading hard, or get migraines from the eye strain of reading. And this is just off the top of my head. Technology that seems frivolous to others can be life-changing for disabled people. I’m in bed close to 24/7 and having a way I can read without a backlight, while lying on my side and barely twitching a finger to change pages? It’s amazing. Having a way I can read without my eyes when I’m overly prone to migraines, or when my visual perception is shot to hell? Also amazing. Way easier than trying to surf the web with emacspeak with my eyes shut. People who make remarks about how pointless technology is rarely consider this angle. Of course – nobody should feel that they need to justify their reason for technology (and I even believe this about technology expressly made for disabled people and socially considered off limits to anyone else). People can use a Kindle for any reason they want up to and including laziness and I have zero problem with that. But the fact that people making these remarks never even consider that there are people who can’t read books or can only do so at risk to their health or pain levels… that irks me in a completely unique way. Despite collecting books I still do 99% of my actual reading on Kindle for exactly those reasons.

little-blackbook:

read a fucking book

Not that anyone should have to justify what technology they do or don’t use. But I was given my Kindle at a time when my arms were too weak to hold a book and turn the pages for the length of time it takes to read a book. I’m stronger now but I can easily get that weak again by using my arms too much – like by reading long books. The voice feature is more than just a cool addon if you’re visually impaired, dyslexic, intellectually disabled to the point of finding reading hard, or get migraines from the eye strain of reading. And this is just off the top of my head.

Technology that seems frivolous to others can be life-changing for disabled people. I’m in bed close to 24/7 and having a way I can read without a backlight, while lying on my side and barely twitching a finger to change pages? It’s amazing. Having a way I can read without my eyes when I’m overly prone to migraines, or when my visual perception is shot to hell? Also amazing. Way easier than trying to surf the web with emacspeak with my eyes shut.

People who make remarks about how pointless technology is rarely consider this angle. Of course – nobody should feel that they need to justify their reason for technology (and I even believe this about technology expressly made for disabled people and socially considered off limits to anyone else). People can use a Kindle for any reason they want up to and including laziness and I have zero problem with that. But the fact that people making these remarks never even consider that there are people who can’t read books or can only do so at risk to their health or pain levels… that irks me in a completely unique way. Despite collecting books I still do 99% of my actual reading on Kindle for exactly those reasons.

Notes:
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    for something that started so negative, this was strangely uplifting
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