Ableism, Technoableism, and Future AI

Ableism (discrimination in favor of nondisabled people and against disabled people1) impacts technological imagination. Like sexism, racism, and other types of bigotry, ableism works in insidious ways: by shaping our expectations, it shapes how and what we design (given these expectations), and therefore the infrastructure all around us. And ableism shapes more than just the physical environment. It also shapes our digital and technological imaginations - notions of who will "benefit" from the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the ways that those systems are designed and implemented are a product of how we envision the "proper" functioning of bodies and minds.