I held a lecture at University of Bergen

"To be human is to be disabled" 

Today I had the honour of being a guest lecture at Universitetet i Bergen (UiB), to talk to students studying digital technology, accessibility and gaming, and I wanted to share with you what I told them, as I think this is something we can all learn from! 

"To be humans is to be disabled. Maybe not for you in the audience right now, but the difference between a disabled and non-disabled person, is just the matter of a second, a minute, an hour or maybe it’s a day. It is the difference between a mistake, an accident, an injury or an illness, or more typical it is the difference between age. 

Because hopefully everyone in here will grow old enough one day, so that you also experience being disabled, either it will be situational, temporary or permanent. 

Eyesight, hand coordination, strength, memory, all things that are normal to be reduced with age. The reality is that if we are lucky enough to grow old, we will all experience some kind of disability.

And this is not because life is unfair, but because to be humans, is to survive. We don’t give up. We do everything in our power to continue, to survive, and to adapt. 

If I was born 20 years before I did, I would most likely not survive, but because of modern medicine and technology, I did. Though I am left with a lifelong disability due to late-term effect of the procedure, it is not because life is unfair, but because I was luckily enough to survive.

New technology is an everyday occurrence, and with that comes new barriers, comes new problems, comes new need for accessibility, because what it all boils down to is that we are all humans…

And to be humans is to be disabled, so make sure you design an inclusive world for us all."

Thank you so much Kristian Bjørkelo and Daniel Jung for inviting me!