onehanded

SHOKZ, ACCESSIBILITY
SHOULDN’T BE MY JOB. 💎

Today I got angry at a pair of lightweight Shokz headphones I just paid over $200 for. Not because the headphones are bad. They’re actually rather good. I got angry because I had to charge them. I am 70 years old. I had a major stroke many years ago. I am paralysed on my left side, and I have the use of only one hand.

So something as ordinary as plugging in a charging cable can become a bloody engineering project, and then I have to admit that I just can't do it. The cable falls. The plug turns the wrong way. The socket is designed for two hands, good eyesight, good balance and fingers that work independently of each other. And suddenly, an object that is supposed to make my life easier is asking me to adapt to it. Again. That was what made me angry. This isn't really about Shokz. And it isn't really about a charging cable.

IT IS ABOUT THE THOUSANDS OF TINY BARRIERS PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES ARE EXPECTED TO QUIETLY ABSORB EVERY DAY.

A door handle. A package. A keyboard. A bottle top. A heavy door. A charging cable. A shower. An article of clothing. A knife. None of these objects looks like discrimination. Nobody deliberately designed them to exclude me. But they, along with several thousand other objects, do.

They simply designed them without me or anyone with a disability in the room. And then I am expected to solve the problem. Not only pay for the item, but also come up with the disability fix so that I can use the bloody stupid thing.

For most of my life, I could solve these things. Before my stroke, the physical world largely worked for me. I didn't have to think about how many hands something required. I didn't notice where the socket was. I didn't examine a packet and calculate how I was going to hold it still while opening it.

NOW I NOTICE.

And after decades of noticing, occasionally I get fucking angry. Not because I am incapable. Because I am capable, and I am tired of wasting that capability fighting stupid little barriers that never needed to exist. Accessibility isn't a special favour for a small, unfortunate group of people.

IT IS GOOD DESIGN.

And sometimes the difference between independence and dependence is something as ridiculously small as where somebody decided to put the bloody plug.

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