{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,27]],"date-time":"2026-02-27T10:32:55Z","timestamp":1772188375223,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":55,"publisher":"BMJ","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,12,24]],"date-time":"2024-12-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1734998400000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":23,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Center for Material Culture Studies, University of Delaware","award":["N\/A"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["N\/A"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["bmj.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Med Humanities"],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2024,11,26]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2024,12]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>One of the tenets of a posthuman vision is the eradication of disability through technology. Within this site of \u2018no future\u2019, as Alison Kafer describes, the disabled body is merged with artificial intelligence technology or transformed into a prosthetic superhuman. These imaginative possibilities are materialised in a future-oriented mindset in contemporary technological innovation, including hearing aids and other devices\u2014such as vibrating vests to \u2018feel sounds\u2019 or sign language gloves, what design critic Liz Jackson defines as \u2018disability dongles\u2019\u2014designed to bypass deafness that simultaneously provide a \u2018cure\u2019 and create a \u2018post-deaf reality\u2019. Bringing together material culture with crip futurity, history of science, medicine and technology (HSTM), this paper investigates how hearing devices for deaf people have embodied futurity through design and technological features. While mid-20th century analogue hearing aids incorporated fashion through colour and style, 21st century digital hearing aids favour a sleek, industrial aesthetic borrowed from modern architecture, jewellery and automotive design. Yet discretion remains a persistent and common design feature, meant to diminish obvious symptoms of deafness. Applying what I refer to as the \u2018disabled gaze\u2019\u2014an autonomous claiming of identity that draws attention to, rather than camouflages, disability\u2014this paper attempts to understand how expanding the breadth of hearing aid design beyond discretion will open possibilities for imagining deaf futurity to radically disintegrate ableist stereotypes and transform how disabled people are represented in society.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1136\/medhum-2024-013011","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,12,24]],"date-time":"2024-12-24T13:20:24Z","timestamp":1735046424000},"page":"678-684","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/crossmarkpolicy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Deaf futurity: designing and innovating hearing aids"],"prefix":"10.1136","volume":"50","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1243-057X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jaipreet","family":"Virdi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"History, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"239","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,12,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"2026022701400706000_50.4.678.1","unstructured":"Advertisement . 1968. \u201c\u2018Soundfinder Micro Device Developed for Nerve Deafened.\u2019\u201d In The Sentinel"},{"key":"2026022701400706000_50.4.678.2","unstructured":"Advertisement . 1971. \u201cNew Help for the Hard of Hearing\u201d. 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