The Double Bind of Disability

How Medical Technology Shapes Bodily Authority

Rebecca Monteleone

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English

University of Minnesota Press
18 November 2025

Disability: social aspects; History of medicine; Impact of science & technology on society

Exposing the ableism underlying medical innovation

As medical advancements continue to shape the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of disability and illness, technology is often presented as a pathway to autonomy. Challenging this assumption, Rebecca Monteleone shows how medical technologies contribute to a cruel double bind, forcing disabled people to be accountable for adapting to a world built by and for nondisabled people while dismissing their lived experiences in favor of medical expertise. Far more complex than simple progress, these technologies are more oppressive than liberating when they place the burden of care on individuals and perpetuate societal ableism that demands that bodies look, move, and function in certain ways.

The Double Bind of Disability examines the complex relationship between medical technologies and their users, highlighting tensions between personal responsibility and medical authority. Sharing the perspectives and experiences of users of three medical technologies (prenatal genetic screening, deep brain stimulation, and do-it-yourself artificial pancreas systems), Monteleone analyzes how users navigate the constraints of these systems and also imagine a new, more liberatory approach to healthcare.

Asserting a bold vision, Monteleone describes a future where medical interventions take seriously the lived expertise of disabled people to address ableist infrastructures rather than require the modification of nonnormative bodyminds. She calls for a radical reimagining of medical technology that moves beyond individualistic frameworks to embrace collective experience and embodied knowing.

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By: Rebecca Monteleone
Imprint: University of Minnesota Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 140mm, Spine: 10mm
Weight: 255g
ISBN: 9781517917685
ISBN 10: 1517917689
Pages: 216
Publication Date: 18 November 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Contents Abbreviations Introduction: Caught in the Double Bind 1. The Acceptable Bodymind in a Technologied World 2. Becoming Responsible with Prenatal Genetic Testing 3. Losing and Taking Control with Deep Brain Stimulation 4. Reimagining Agency with Do-It-Yourself Artificial Pancreas Systems Conclusion: Toward a New Embodied Knowledge Politic of Medical Technology Acknowledgments Notes Index

Rebecca Monteleone is associate professor of disability and technology at the University of Toledo. She is coeditor of Disability and Social Justice in Kenya, and her writing has been published in the journals Hypatia, Disability Studies Quarterly, and the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies.

Reviews for The Double Bind of Disability: How Medical Technology Shapes Bodily Authority

""The Double Bind of Disability is a generous, timely, and essential contribution to understanding the current politics that shape medical technology and disability in the context of neoliberal ableism. Rejecting the moral imperative to fix disabled bodyminds, Rebecca Monteleone instead advocates for a 'new embodied knowledge politic.' A book that I will be thinking-making-feeling with for many years to come!""--Laura Forlano, Northeastern University ""Smart and convincing, The Double Bind of Disability explores fascinating case studies of recent biomedical technologies. Rebecca Monteleone brings together critical disability studies and critical health and science studies, arguing that users of these technologies face a neoliberal double bind, their embodied experiences dismissed at the same time they are held accountable.""--Lisa Diedrich, author of Illness Politics and Hashtag Activism