The personal and cultural influences that drive these reactions and their evolution over time are surely complex. But one common theme is our reaction to relying on devices to do what we want in life.

In that context, it is worth noticing that humans everywhere depend, in different ways in varying degrees, on the fruits of our species’ inventiveness and industry. Our inventions let us do what we want to do and need to do. More importantly, we (in the developed world) do not feel that we are less than independent because our knee extensors are too weak to maintain a sitting position without chairs; or too easily fatigued to run the ten miles to work in between breakfast and 9:00AM – necessitating bikes, buses and cars; or because the limitations of mammalian eyes require that we cut windows in our walls to be able to see what’s going on outside.

Despite the use of these commonplace manufactured aids, those of us without conventionally defined disabilities see ourselves as “able-bodied” and “independent”.