The “Disability Dongle”: Why Silicon Valley Hates Me and You

“残障适配器”：为什么硅谷讨厌我和你

Mood: Wanting to throw a $30,000 prototype into a lake. There is a feel-good genre of viral video that I call “The Inspiration Porn Industrial Complex.” You know the one. It usually features a college engineering team, a dramatic piano soundtrack, and a disabled person strapped into a machine that looks like a Transformer having a panic attack. The caption usually reads: “Students invent stair-climbing wheelchair! The future is here!” 心情：想把一个价值 3 万美元的原型机扔进湖里。有一种让人感觉良好的病毒式视频，我称之为“励志色情工业综合体”。你肯定见过这种视频：通常是一个大学工程团队，配上戏剧性的钢琴配乐，还有一个残障人士被绑在一台看起来像是在惊恐发作的变形金刚一样的机器上。标题通常写着：“学生发明爬楼轮椅！未来已来！”

I can’t roll my eyes hard enough every time I see one of these vapid videos. The machine—let’s call it the iClimb 3000—usually costs as much as a Honda Civic. It weighs three hundred pounds. It makes a sound like a blender digesting a brick. And watching the video, all I can feel is the phantom sensation of being strapped into that thing, suspended five feet in the air at a forty-five-degree angle, praying the gyroscope doesn’t glitch and toss me down a flight of concrete steps like a sack of potatoes. 每次看到这些空洞的视频，我翻白眼都翻不够。这台机器——我们姑且叫它 iClimb 3000——通常和一辆本田思域一样贵。它重达三百磅。它发出的声音就像搅拌机在搅碎一块砖头。看着视频，我只能感受到一种幻觉，仿佛自己被绑在那东西上，悬在五英尺高的空中，以四十五度角倾斜，祈祷陀螺仪不要出故障，把我像一袋土豆一样扔下水泥台阶。

This is what we call a “Disability Dongle.” A Disability Dongle is a piece of technology that is flashy, expensive, and technically impressive, but utterly fails to solve the actual problem it claims to address. It is engineering designed for the abled gaze, not the disabled body. It is designed to win design awards, not to be used. 这就是我们所说的“残障适配器”（Disability Dongle）。残障适配器是一种华而不实、昂贵且技术上令人印象深刻，但完全无法解决它声称要解决的实际问题的技术。它是为健全人的目光而设计的工程，而不是为残障人士的身体而设计的。它是为了赢得设计奖项而设计的，而不是为了被使用。

Silicon Valley loves these things. They love the idea of “solving” disability with hardware. It fits their narrative. If disability is just a bug in the human code, then surely they can patch it with enough servos and lithium-ion batteries. But here is the reality they refuse to accept: My disability is not a tragedy of biology. It is a failure of infrastructure. 硅谷热爱这些东西。他们喜欢用硬件来“解决”残障的想法。这符合他们的叙事。如果残障只是人类代码中的一个漏洞，那么他们肯定可以用足够的伺服电机和锂离子电池来修补它。但他们拒绝接受的现实是：我的残障不是生物学上的悲剧，而是基础设施的失败。

I don’t need a stair-climbing wheelchair that costs $30,000 and requires a maintenance crew. I need better doorknobs and or a ramp. But a ramp is boring. You can’t make investors have a hard on for a ramp that doesn’t connect to the cloud. You can’t give a TED Talk about a ramp. You can’t get venture capital funding for a slightly wider doorframe. Concrete is not “disruptive.” 我不需要一台价值 3 万美元且需要维修团队的爬楼轮椅。我需要更好的门把手或者坡道。但坡道很无聊。你无法让投资者对一个不连接云端的坡道感到兴奋。你不能就坡道做一场 TED 演讲。你无法为稍微宽一点的门框获得风险投资。混凝土并不“具有颠覆性”。

But a ramp works. It doesn’t run out of battery. It doesn’t require a software update. And crucially, it works for the parent with a stroller, the delivery guy with a hand truck, and the old man with bad knees. It is a universal solution. The iClimb 3000 is an individualist fantasy. It says, “We don’t need to change the world to fit you; we will turn you into a tank so you can conquer the hostile world.” 但坡道是有用的。它不会没电。它不需要软件更新。更重要的是，它对推着婴儿车的父母、用手推车的快递员以及膝盖不好的老人都有用。这是一个通用的解决方案。iClimb 3000 是一种个人主义的幻想。它说：“我们不需要改变世界来适应你；我们会把你变成一辆坦克，这样你就可以征服这个充满敌意的世界。”

Maybe, though, just maybe, I don’t want to be a tank. I just want to go to the library. I feel this disconnect every time a “Tech Bro” tries to sell me on the latest smart-glasses or haptic-feedback belts. I pick these things up, and they always feel the same. Cheap, clammy plastic. zero buttons except for the power button. They get hot against the skin after ten minutes. They hum with that constant electronic whine that gives you a migraine by noon. These solutions are nothing other than costumes, the height of “performative engineering.” 也许，仅仅是也许，我不想成为一辆坦克。我只是想去图书馆。每当有“科技兄弟”试图向我推销最新的智能眼镜或触觉反馈腰带时，我都能感受到这种脱节。我拿起这些东西，它们的感觉总是如出一辙。廉价、湿冷的塑料。除了电源键外没有其他按钮。十分钟后它们贴着皮肤就会发热。它们发出那种持续的电子嗡嗡声，让你到中午就会偏头痛。这些解决方案不过是伪装，是“表演性工程”的巅峰。

And while they are building these exoskeletons, the actual digital world—the one I live in—is rotting by the minute. I use a screen reader. It is a vital tool. It is my literacy. But half the websites I visit are built with such bloated, sloppy code that my screen reader chokes on them. I try to order groceries, and the “Checkout” button is labeled “Button_Graphic_v2_Final.” I try to read a news article, and an unlabelled pop-up ad traps my cursor in a loop. 当他们正在制造这些外骨骼时，我所生活的真实数字世界却在每分每秒地腐烂。我使用屏幕阅读器。这是一个至关重要的工具。它是我的读写能力。但我访问的一半网站代码臃肿、草率，导致我的屏幕阅读器在上面卡壳。我尝试订购杂货，“结账”按钮被标记为“Button_Graphic_v2_Final”。我尝试阅读新闻文章，一个未标记的弹出广告把我的光标困在循环中。

Silicon Valley will spend millions developing a glove that translates sign language into speech (badly), but they won’t spend ten minutes adding Alt-Text to their images. They will build a headset that describes the room to me (poorly), but they won’t use semantic HTML headings so I can actually navigate a webpage. Why? Because semantic HTML isn’t sexy. You can’t put “Used H1 Tags Correctly” on a pitch deck. 硅谷会花费数百万美元开发一种将手语翻译成语音的手套（效果很差），但他们却不愿花十分钟为图片添加替代文本（Alt-Text）。他们会制造一个向我描述房间的头戴设备（效果很差），但他们却不愿使用语义化的 HTML 标题，以便我能真正浏览网页。为什么？因为语义化 HTML 不够性感。你不能把“正确使用了 H1 标签”写在演示文稿里。

There is a profound arrogance in this. It assumes that the only reason I am excluded from society is because I am blind, rather than because society has made a choice to exclude me. The Disability Dongle promises that if I just buy enough gear, if I just encase myself in enough sensors and plastic, I can finally “pass.” I can finally participate. It’s a lie. 这其中有一种深刻的傲慢。它假设我被社会排斥的唯一原因是我是盲人，而不是因为社会选择了排斥我。残障适配器承诺，只要我购买足够的装备，只要我把自己包裹在足够的传感器和塑料中，我最终就能“过关”。我最终就能参与其中。这是一个谎言。

The most advanced piece of accessibility technology I own is my white cane. It costs, at the time of this writing anyway, before inflation, forty dollars. It has no batteries. It never crashes. It is a stick that extends my sensory range. It is elegant, simple, and honest. The second most advanced piece of technology I want is a society that gives a damn. 我拥有的最先进的无障碍技术是我的盲杖。在撰写本文时，在通货膨胀之前，它花费四十美元。它没有电池。它从不崩溃。它是一根延伸我感知范围的棍子。它优雅、简单且诚实。我想要的第二先进的技术是一个在乎残障人士的社会。

Keep your exosuits. Keep your ultrasonic echolocation visors. Keep your prototypes that feel like wearing a toaster oven on my face. Just fix your fucking code. Pour some concrete. And stop trying to upgrade my body when the problem is your design. 留着你们的外骨骼吧。留着你们的超声波回声定位面罩吧。留着你们那些戴在脸上像烤面包机一样的原型机吧。去修好你们该死的代码。去浇筑一些混凝土。当问题出在你们的设计上时，别再试图升级我的身体了。