ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the relationship between disability, technology, and health. We explore the demands of Industry 4.0: our social, economic, and political times in which technological advancements are at the heart of the fuelling and advancement of capitalist societies. We situate a discussion of Industry 4.0 against a backdrop of disablism: the widespread exclusion of disabled people in wider society. We argue that any consideration of the place of disabled people in advanced capitalist societies must be mindful of the systemic realities of discrimination experienced by disabled people. Health and wellbeing therefore have to be mindful of these realities. We demonstrate how critical disability studies scholarship provides the necessary conceptual resources to offer a much needed socio-political excavation of health in the lives of disabled people. We then move to a discussion of technologies in the lives of disabled people (assistive technologies, robotics and automation, and DIY makerspaces). We conclude with an appeal to the development of a critical posthumanities that puts disabled people at its centre.
