
My Time at Guide Dog School
Introduction A week ago, I returned home from a guide dog school in the American south with a terrific new black labrador named Jackson. This essay describes the process one goes through to retire an older dog and to get a new one and the emotional roller coaster ride I’ve …

Kanye West and Fake Disability Activists
In case you haven’t heard, at a recent concert, Kanye West told everyone in the crowd to stand up, “unless you got a handicap pass and you get special parking and shit.” He spotted two people who remained sitting, and one raised a prosthetic limb in the air, to which …

Why the Medical Model of Disability is Harmful
Over the years, many different models for looking at the impact and experience of disability have been collated. Some of these are accurate, and others, not so much. Few models, however, inspire such burning indignation as the medical model of disability. For those who are unaware, the medical model of …

On Identifying as Disabled
It might seem strange, but I went a long time without identifying as disabled. Let me start from the beginning. I got diagnosed with Arthritis in 2006, my hip was permanently damaged in 2007, and I got a diagnosis for Crohn’s in 2008. Those dates of course suggest nothing of …

Living In The Future, Part I: Applications for Reading Books
Introduction In the article I wrote introducing myself to Skeptability readers, I describe my long history in software and talk a lot about the miserable state of technological accessibility. The fact is, according to the UK’s RNIB, something on the order of 90% of all web sites (now considered by …

On being the squeaky wheel
As someone with a physical and cognitive disability, I find certain learning situations particularly challenging, the operative word being “situations” in contrast to “material.” I know from experience that sitting in a classroom on a hard chair with 60 other people for 3 continuous hours is very different from being …

The Blind Technologist
Hi, my name is Chris but some people know me as Gonz Blinko. I am an alcoholic and drug addict, no, stop, wrong meeting. I am a career software engineer and manager thereof, I’ve been making software since I was eleven years old back in 1971. I grew up with …