Censoring cyberbullies and exploring adaptive clothing
Censoring cyberbullies, adaptive clothing, and some visual vibes
IN THE MARGINS
Fuck Pepsi
AAPI Heritage Month (Asian American and Pacific Islander). Mental Health Month. Small Business Day…. Just a few of the things I wanted to shout-out on social but didn’t. Why? It felt performative. (Although, in regards to small biz, I do want to say FUCK PEPSI).
I try to support communities in my day-to-day life and will absolutely speak up when I feel my voice can add value or clarity. There are amazing people putting in the work on the daily: supporting and creating initiatives, de-stigmatizing disorders, giving small business owners the skills they need to survive and thrive, and so much more. While discussion can be good, at some point you have to turn awareness into action. So keep your ears and eyes open during these themed months and days but then think of ways to incorporate them into your life beyond that.
ACCESSIBILITY
Adaptive Clothing
When I saw “No Limbits”, which makes adaptive pants specifically for amputees, I really got to thinking… Even with my hearing loss, I consider myself an able-bodied person. I rarely have to consider needing to get dressed in any way other than I currently do and yet there are so many that need clothing accommodations - whether that’s due to age, mobility challenges, or maybe being a wheelchair user.
Adaptive clothing is designed with the needs of older adults, people with disabilities, and caretakers in mind. Some companies have redesigned certain garments to be more user-friendly with features such as:
Velcro-type closures or magnetic fastenings instead of buttons or shoelaces
Zippers with easy-to-grasp pull tabs
Pants with side zippers
Slippers that adjust in width to accommodate swollen feet and ankles
In fashion it seems that form and function are mutually exclusive - as if something useful or inclusive can’t also look good. Case in point: clothing for anyone not built like me aka Jack Skellington. Clothing for larger bodies tends to be bland, blocky, or straight up doesn’t make the person feel confident or comfortable. The adaptive clothing I’ve seen had a similar issue: mostly looking like loungewear or poor tailoring.
DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
Censoring Cyberbullying
The Polite Type is an open-source font that recognizes discriminatory, hurtful, and/or offensive English-language words words then replaces them with more inclusive or neutral, inoffensive word words. For example, "you're worthless" gets replaced with "you matter". The font is meant to be used for educational purposes, at schools, or by parents and has been developed in close collaboration with a diverse team with wide-ranging backgrounds in anti-racism work, gender research, and D&I consulting.
My hot take: The font claims to be "disarming bullies one word at a time". I wonder if these initiatives actually have long-lasting or permanent positive impact or if they are just surface-level and ‘feel good’. It seems like we need to get to the root of the bullying instead of slapping some cute censoring on it. Hurt people hurt other people so let’s focus on healing.
If it’s used in an educational setting, why are we so afraid to use the words that students hear in real life? Wouldn’t it be more constructive to use them in a more ‘controlled’ setting? Where we can explain context and implications of using that language?
Off my Negative Nancy perch, the positive side to this is individuals, developers and companies worldwide can further develop the font by contributing to the hate speech database - which means, there are discussions happening around defining what language is harmful. The project is also aiming to use the help of machine learning so that it can be taught to understand and recognize broader contexts. (Although I’m wary of artificial intelligence but I won’t get into my sci-fi Black Mirror fears here haha)
ART & DESIGN
Visual Vibes
I just want to share some things that have been a whole ass vibe for me lately
Top Left // Top Right // Bottom Left // Bottom Right
Signing off from the Starship SBLTN,
Laneen (Pronouns: she/they)
🎧 Listening - Say Your Mind podcast by Kelechi Okafor
💬 Quote - "Just because it’s adaptive doesn’t mean it can’t be chic."
👀 Watching - "How Adaptive Clothing Empowers People With Disabilities" TedTalk by Mindy Scheier
✔️ Random Fact - Jack Skellington is the "Pumpkin King" of Halloween Town