How is technology as a freedom tool and an ambiguous concept for disabled users? Technology has been dominantly viewed as a means to save and cure disabled body-minds. A disabling society is one where the built environment rejects disabled bodies. The current dependence on technologies upholds the glorification of normalcy of the body. Alice Wong describes how the concept of technology for disabled people is fluid. When technology breaks down it exposes that the once provided freedoms were reliant on technology and are now no longer accessible for disabled people. Disabled people have been silenced in their relationship with technology by dominant media images. This study counters oppressive societal structures and instead views disabled people as users, experts, and creators of technology, offering a radical vision of the future where disabled people are actively incorporated into the public discourse surrounding technology.

In examining the first-hand narratives of disabled people through memoir, blogs, poetry, and more we find that: 1) how disabled people use and access technology as a freedom tool is dependent upon their built environment 2) disabled people’s relationship with technology as a freedom is culturally influenced. 3) Universal design actively breaks down some disabling facets of society.