A remarkable experiment in assistive technology, known as PODD, draws on and challenges mainstream understandings of communication in the US. To engage disabled people in conversation, caregivers turn to PODD books, which are binders of laminated sheets that display icons. As caregivers use these books, they act as “operating systems,” listing directions as they navigate from page to page, then animating the selected utterance in an enthusiastic tone. PODD plays on the language ideology that underlies most communication systems, which are designed to liberate speaking subjects trapped by the limitations of their bodies and minds. But PODD also confronts its users with aspects of communication that set aside the question of meaning. Drawing on interviews and participant observation in trainings with my nonverbal daughter, I show how caregivers struggle to inhabit a community of sign use in which referential meaning is both longed for and beside the point. [disability, communication, language ideology, personhood, ethics, affect, United States]

中文翻译：

---

成为操作系统

一项名为 PODD 的辅助技术卓越实验借鉴并挑战了美国对通信的主流理解。为了让残疾人参与对话，护理人员求助于 PODD 书籍，这些书籍是显示图标的层压板的活页夹。当护理人员使用这些书时，他们充当“操作系统”，在他们从一页导航到另一页时列出方向，然后以热情的语气为选定的话语制作动画。PODD 在大多数交流系统背后的语言意识形态上发挥作用，这些系统旨在解放被身体和思想限制所困的说话对象。但 PODD 也向用户提出了搁置意义问题的交流方面。在对我的非语言女儿的培训中利用访谈和参与者观察，我展示了看护者如何努力融入一个符号使用社区，在这个社区中，指代意义既渴望又不重要。[残疾，交流，语言意识形态，人格，伦理，情感，美国]