The key ideas presented in this book start from the premise that there are fundamental misfits between the body and the world, some of which are considered disabilities. Each chapter of the book looks at these misfits at different scales, examining how people and communities adapt themselves and how they make the built environment bend to their bodies. Through these stories, she makes the argument that our bodies are produced by the social, material world.

Through these narratives, Sara Hendren introduces key questions at the intersection of disability, technology, and design, asking what counts as technology, who counts as normal, and what does independence mean?

She asks us to look closely at how tools-in-use have a social significance by thinking from a use-centered perspective of technology to understand and reflect on these questions. As approaches to design, she introduces the ideas of universal design and adaptive or diffuse design.

Finally, the book closes on important ideas about what a life worth living looks like, challenging normative ideas of productivity, efficiency, and capitalism through a deep and personal exploration of crip time.

Evergreen

• our bodies are produced by the social, material world
• disability is a misfit between the body and the world
• statistical thinking led to the emergence of normal
• independence as self-determination, related to dependency
• adapting to the world or the world adapting back to us
• tools and technologies define and are defined by cultural values
• tools-in-use have a social significance
• designed artifacts are ideas made real in things
• critique of design as styling and obsolescence

Sprouts

• the clock as a measure of productivity
• crip time
• the world of the cyborg
• use-centered perspective of technology
• parts and systems perspective of technology
• innovation centered perspective of technology
• what counts as technology
• the importance of relationship building in design
• mechanical disposition
• material qualities of cardboard

Definitions

• definitions of design
• the design brief
• disability
• engineering
• universal design
• adaptive or diffuse design
• adaptive technologies rather than assistive technologies