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Disability Dongle by Liz JacksonLiz Jackson

Disability Dongles are contemporary fairy tales that appeal to the abled imagination by presenting a heroic designer-protagonist whose prototype provides a techno-utopian (re)solution to the design problem. Disability Dongle rhetoric instills in students the value of a quick fix over structural change, thus preventing them from seeking out, participating in, and contributing to existing inquiry. By labeling these material-discursive phenomena—the designed artifacts and the discourse through which their meaning is constituted—we work to shift the focus from their misguided concern about our bodies to their under-analyzed intentions and ambitions.

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Today’s young FOSS enthusiasts may not be aware of the SCO lawsuit, which 20 years ago launched an existential threat to Linux and kickstarted the age of copyright trolls. Back then it was a huge deal.

This post summarizes what happened, a cautionary tale worth reminding.

https://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/924577/75ae0a1538029fcc/

#linux #foss

—@amoroso

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We would like to sincerely thank Senator Ed Markey for calling Elon Musk to account regarding his firing of Twitter’s accessibility team, and while we obviously hope that Musk starts taking accessibility seriously and rehires that team, we won’t be disappointed if the accessibility team members find jobs with companies who actually appreciate them and accessibility. https://www.worldblindherald.com/senator-markey-demands-twitter-reinstate-accessibility-team/

—@worldblindherald

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Back in the 201x’s I set up a computer lab in a Detroit residential human trafficking shelter. I’d go by every few months, when the donated & scrap equipment died. We’d gotten it mostly stable in 2019.

March 2020, they went into lockdown. We agreed that I should stop visiting.

Got a call last night. The scrap gear has been ticking along, but suddenly nothing works. They’d like me to come back and troubleshoot.

I’m still in isolation. I’m an assortment of pre-existing conditions, and vaccination or no I don’t need long covid.

But the thought of using my skills to help folks who desperately need it is irresistible. And the lab will be empty when I show up, other than my contact. If they need replacement gear, what I don’t have my local contacts can provide out of their scrap-piles.

This work feels good.

—@mwl

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“Additional perks include access to hand-picked account recommendations for users to follow, and the “professionally-operated” stability of the me.dm instance. TechCrunch reports that Medium has its own Trust and Safety team directly handling moderation, and is running the instance on its own infrastructure.” This is super-cool. #Technology https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/7/23628642/medium-opens-mastodon-subscription-membership-twitter?utm_source=mastodon

—@ben