Merging Person and Technology

Katherine Ott (2014) describes disability as “unique in the extent to which it is bonded with technology, tools, and machines as a medium of social interaction” (p. 120). Indeed, the merging of disabled individuals and technology becomes immediately apparent when reviewing news reports of disabled medical professionals. Glancing over the images selected to accompany such stories, one’s eye is immediately drawn to the material objects that allow viewers to identify the subjects as disabled. A doctor may be photographed at an angle that foregrounds a cochlear implant, a video interview may be framed to reveal a white cane resting across a doctor’s lap, or—as in the story of Dr. Ted Rummel—the technology itself may assume central focus.

Dr. Ted Rummel, shown performing surgery from his power standing wheelchair in the Daily Mail.

This story, published in the Daily Mail in 2013, describes how Rummel beat “unbelieveable odds” by resuming work as an orthopedic surgeon after paralysis “thanks to [his] remarkable stand-up wheelchair” (The inspirational doctor, 2013). While the piece acknowledges the surgeon’s personal tenacity, it explicitly credits wheelchair technology for enabling him to perform his essential job functions. Rummel, therefore, is rendered inseparable from his chair in a manner that exposes how technology makes disability situational. The absence or availability of his wheelchair has the power to create or remove exclusion, marginalization, or disenfranchisement.