Disability or Max-ability?

This article comes to us via Inclusion Daily Express:

Developer Imagines “Disability” As A Thing Of The Past
(Scientific American)
October 1, 2010

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY– [Excerpt] Hugh Herr has made it his mission to eliminate the word “disabled” from our vocabulary when describing people who require assistance of some sort to perform the daily tasks that most people take for granted. Listening to Herr speak here Thursday at Idea Festival, it’s not hard to believe he’ll succeed.

Herr’s credibility comes mainly from two sources. As the director of the Biomechatronics Group in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (M.I.T.) Media Lab, he has pioneered the development of technologies such as advanced prosthetic limbs and exoskeletons for people with missing or damaged limbs. And as a double amputee, Herr is a prime candidate for testing many of his creations. “I’m basically nuts and bolts below the knees,” he pointed out during his Idea Festival presentation.

“I realized that technology has the ability to heal and, in my case, augment,” said Herr, whose legs were amputated 15 centimeters below the knee in 1982 after he spent four days stranded in deep snow on New Hampshire’s Mount Washington. “Imagine a world so advanced where amputees can run, jump and skip better than people with biological limbs.”

Entire article:
Biomechatronics aims to erase the entire concept of ‘disability’
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/2010/red/1001c.htm

Author: stevekuusisto

Poet, Essayist, Blogger, Journalist, Memoirist, Disability Rights Advocate, Public Speaker, Professor, Syracuse University View all posts by stevekuusisto