For disabled people, improvements to ‘dumb’ technology should come before social media bans
THE British government is set to decide whether to ban under-16s from social media, after a public consultation on the issue closed this week.
This follows the introduction of a complete ban in Australia, which inspired other countries in Europe – most recently Spain – to consider bringing in restrictions of their own.
But while debating a ban of our own, do we risk leaving young disabled teenagers behind, by concentrating on the negative sides of social media and not talking about the good?
I’m a physically disabled woman in my late twenties, and while I am not a disabled teenager, I do have memories of what being a severely disabled teenager was like.
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For those of you who don’t know about me, I have been disabled since I was three years old in 2001, when I was left paralysed from the neck down, unable to move any part of my body other than my head.
And for that reason, I rely on technology to do pretty much everything I can’t do in the physical world.
Like every other 2000s kid, I have good memories of 2000s tech, which –........
