Disability Arts Online

Lying in bed without my wheels, it occurs to me that I am semicyber, but being without them does not free me from their impact. And these times, out of the public gaze, have no impact on the way society views me. Cyborg or cyberbodied, in the public consciousness a chairborne entity is 'bound' to it's wheels.

Here in Japan where I have almost no Japanese, I am freed from any negative feedback regarding my wheelborne presence, by my own lack of understanding. In that way I am freer to create and express my own identity, to find my own eutopia/heterotopia.

With no way to penetrate the polite veneer of Japanese society, I have no access to the can of worms that must inevitably wriggle under its skin.

Nevertheless I retain my optimistic view of the Utopian. Japanese public, social interaction seems to function in a universal way, working for those lacking disability as well as for those with.

Is this why I'm finding it hard to find any real traces of Disability Culture here?

 

 

Over the Rainbow Bridge,

this time in the glow of

bright lights, Tokyo Tower

defying it's age, gleams

a juicy orange spike.

Tokyo Wheel, as it shrinks

into the past, colour

changes, pattern changes.

Tokyo winks and sparkles,

welcomes with no trace of

irony. The Universal

Design Museum is

closed. A power saving

measure.