iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jaipreet Virdi @jaivirdi.com · 29/09/2026

Morning coffee scene: puppy cuddles achieved (can you spot Maya?) which makes it difficult to actually get up and start my workday.

Scene from a couch in front of a window. Jai is sitting, her leg covered by a blanket. Maya, a black lab, is resting on her covered feet. Lizzie, a small white dog, is sleeping on the top of a sofa cushion. The window out shows a grey rainy day

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Yolande House @healthruwriting.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Thanks to The Fiddlehead for including my book review of Jaipreet Virdi's book Echoes of Care: Deafness in Modern Britain in their disability issue. The print issue is delayed, but you can check out my review on their website now: thefiddlehead.ca/content/yola...

thefiddlehead.ca

Yolande House Reviews Echoes of Care: Deafness in Modern Britain by Jaipreet Virdi | The Fiddlehead

Medicalization is Not CareEchoes of Care: Deafness in Modern Britain, Jaipreet Virdi. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2025.

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Leigh Ann @leigh-ann-cowan.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Science, language, what’s the difference?

Science. Three book covers featured: Turn on the Words! by Harry G. Lang, with two blue-hued photos. The top photo shows a protest and people marching with signs. The bottom photo shows schoolchildren watching a film projected onto a screen. A Phone of Our Own by Harry G. Lang. Photo on the cover features a white man posing with a bunch of 1960s and 70s-era electronics. Hearing Happiness by Jaipreet Virdi. A bright yellow cover with red text, featuring a black and white portrait of a smiling woman wielding a hearing trumpet. Decorative elements include two halves of a gear on either side of the bottom and transparent binary code in the background.

Language. Three book covers featured: The Hidden Treasure of Black ASL by Carolyn McCaskill, Ceil Lucas, Robert Bayley, and Joseph Hill, with a primarily blue-green cover and a black and white photo of a group of Black people seated in a circle having a signed conversation. I See a Voice by Jonathan Ree, an old parchment/papyrus-esque cover with a central square showing a raised hand, palm facing the viewer. Forbidden Signs by Douglas C. Baynton, a blue-hued photo of a white woman in a light-colored frilly dress from the early 20th century, in the midst of signing a song. Decorative elements include an illustration of a person signing the phrase "sign language" in the top left corner, and two lilac-colored handprints.

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geneticsandsociety.bsky.social @geneticsandsociety.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Jaipreet Virdi points out that gene therapies risk reinforcing the idea that deafness is “a problem in need of eradication, and that the only solution for disabled people to fully assimilate into society is through a medical intervention.” www.npr.org/2026/04/23/n...

npr.org

The FDA gives the green light to the first gene therapy for deafness

The treatment, developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, is for a very rare form of deafness. But it represents a medical milestone.

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History Workshop @historyworkshop.org.uk · 10/09/2026

"Designed to provide access to public toilets for disabled people, the Radar Key reflects more than a material tool: it showcases wider debates around access, design, and spatial politics in modern Britain." Kirstie Stage on the radical nature of the Radar Key.

historyworkshop.org.uk

Radical Object: The Radar Key

The Radar Key is a small but crucial part of the history of disabled people demanding rights and independence in modern Britain. Kirstie Stage explores the little-known history of this radical object.

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Jaipreet Virdi @jaivirdi.com · 21/08/2026

Dear World, May I introduce you to Maya, our 8 week old Labrador x Retriever mix? She's a survivor of BC wildfires, rescued by the humane society, and is now in her forever home, being spoiled by love.

A black lab puppy with white chest markings lying on a patio, looking sheepishly at the camera.

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Jaipreet Virdi @jaivirdi.com · 21/08/2026

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Robert McNees @mcnees.bsky.social · 24/05/2023

Dr. Taussig lost her hearing around the time she graduated from med school. She used lip-reading and hearing aids with patients, and her fingers in place of a stethoscope. Colleagues said that her touch was sufficiently sensitive to detect some heart irregularities. Image: AMC Med. Archives / JHU

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Dr. William Horne @wihorne.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

What if we just let Canvas die?

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Aeon Magazine @aeon.co · 13/04/2026

It is surprising how so few of the many histories of eugenics centre the voices of disabled people. Uncovering these perspectives contradicts all previous narratives of eugenics in interwar Britain

buff.ly

Why did disabled people support eugenics in the 1930s? | Aeon Essays

In the story of eugenics, disabled people are often depicted as passive victims. But for some it seemed an opportunity

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Ben Gross @bhgross144.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

"We think of the eugenicist and the disabled person antagonistically, as perpetrator and victim. But it turns out their aims and interactions have long been entangled." Today's #histSTM lunch read: @coreenanne.bsky.social & Alex Aylward's @aeon.co essay on disabled views of #eugenics in the UK 🗃️📜

aeon.co

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Aeon Magazine @aeon.co · 18/04/2026

In the story of eugenics, disabled people are often depicted as passive victims. But for some it seemed an opportunity. An Essay by @coreenanne.bsky.social & Alex Aylward

aeon.co

Why did disabled people support eugenics in the 1930s? | Aeon Essays

In the story of eugenics, disabled people are often depicted as passive victims. But for some it seemed an opportunity

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Ashlee 🤟🏻 @ashleemboyer.com · 28/04/2026

I think it sucks this nearly 1,000 word article includes only one critical viewpoint. 85 words, one paragraph, at the end. I'm glad it's @jaivirdi.com's viewpoint. And there should be so many more too! There is NO shortage of similar viewpoints from DHH people. They should be amplified!

Snippet from the linked article.

But some worry the focus on reversing deafness could further stigmatize deaf people.

"These kind of genetic therapies seem to reinforce this idea of deafness being a problem in need of eradication, and that the only solution for disabled people to fully assimilate into society is through a medical intervention," says Jaipreet Virdi, who studies the history of medicine, technology and deafness at the University of Victoria in Canada and is herself deaf. "We're saying: 'Oh, deafness is a problem and we must fix that.'"

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Okka (Khairani Barokka; she/her/dia) @mailbykite.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Proud to announce Spring 2026’s What Is Research Now? from Paul Mellon Ctr, co-convened by Sria Chatterjee, Kenny Fries, & myself. DISABLED LEGACIES: BEYOND ACCESS AND INCLUSION www.britishart.ac.uk/about/news/w... 26-28 Feb & 26-28 Mar 2026 @jaivirdi.com @syrusmarcusware.bsky.social many more ✨

Against an abstract backgeound of blue and white, an artwork by Resting Museum, pink/purple text against pink/purple background says ‘Disabled Legacies, Beyond Access and Inclusion | 26-28 February and 26-28 March, Central London | Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art | What is Research Now?’

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Ben Waber @bwaber.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

Last was "Hearing Happiness" by @jaivirdi.com, who brilliantly illustrates the history of deafness "cures", showing how quack cures seamlessly blended with science and the ableism/techno-solutionism underlying them Highly recommend Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/... (6/6)

press.uchicago.edu

Hearing Happiness

Weaving together lyrical history and personal memoir, Virdi powerfully examines society’s—and her own—perception of life as a deaf person in America. At the age of four, Jaipreet Virdi’s world went si...

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Jaipreet Virdi @jaivirdi.com · 11/08/2025

New update! I'm a #deaf historian of #histSTM and #DisabilityHistory at the University of Victoria. I think & write about disability technologies & medical/scientific authority. Latest book: Echoes of Care (‪@mcgillqueensup.bsky.social‬) www.mqup.ca/echoes-of-ca...

jaivirdi.com

Dr. Jaipreet Virdi

historian of medicine, technology, and disability

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Hari Kunzru @harikunzru.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

Eight hours work, eight hours rest, eight hours for what you will. Happy May Day.

Walter Crane engraving of workers labeled with the names of the continents joining hands around a globe

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Sarah May @sarahmay1.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

I would add that they don't actually understand that HE is an industry, that it can actually collapse, that academic jobs are real jobs, that actual people will be unemployed, and will struggle to find alternative employment. That a shuttered uni takes down a city the same as a shuttered factory

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Brian Lyman @brianlyman.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

Just thinking of all the people I’ve seen targeted by Alabama legislators over the years — undocumented immigrants, transgender Alabamians and their families — who still walked into the Statehouse, looked lawmakers in the face and told them they were wrong.

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Kelly Barnhill @kellybarnhill.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

Dear scholars, scientists, doctors and advocates - we need your voices and expertise more than ever. If there was ever a time to bring the Ivory Tower right into the middle of the Public Square, it's now.

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Ryan Cordell @ryancordell.org · 10/04/2025

There has been so much devastation, but for my communities this is especially devastating. I cannot overstate how much we owe to the Office of Digital Humanities & the incredible people who have worked there. The work won’t end, but it will be severely curtailed

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Saeed Jones @theferocity.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

I wrote about this a bit in my last book but it really shakes me that a defining feature of this catastrophic era is that we just keep going to work. We work through pandemics, we work through natural disasters, we work through economic calamity, we work through coups, we work, we work, we work.

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Christopher Mims @mims.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

I don’t understand how we so quickly forgot the supply shock lessons of Covid. Do people not remember what it was like to just not be able to get ahold of stuff required for daily existence? I am telling you, manufacturers that can’t absorb these tariffs are going to simply stop assembly lines.

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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

This! Research shows that protests 1) raise awareness, 2) empower people (especially the disadvantaged), and 3) exert pressure on elites. Anyone saying they don’t work is unfamiliar with the research and the history of movement building.

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I Travel Like Sound Dog @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 06/04/2025

“Tubman’s photograph is now gone. In its place are images of Postal Service stamps that highlight “Black/White cooperation” in the secret network and that feature Tubman among abolitionists of both races.” wapo.st/4jdXL8m

wapo.st

Amid anti-DEI push, National Park Service rewrites history of Underground Railroad

Since Trump took office, the park service, an agency charged with preserving American history, has changed how its website describes key moments from slavery to Jim Crow

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Ida Bae Wells @nhannahjones.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

Can we get more of this? “The Japanese American National Museum will ‘scrub nothing,’ Fujioka said, and instead will highlight the importance of DEI. “Our community is based on diversity, equity is guaranteed to us in the Constitution, and inclusion is what we believe in,” Fujioka said.

latimes.com

Japanese American National Museum takes a stand against DOGE cuts to NEH

The National Endowment for the Humanities warned museums across the country that it was slashing funding, including money previously pledged to places such as LACMA and the Japanese American National ...

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Musa Okwonga @okwonga.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Absolutely tired of the psychodrama of one country being the problem of the entire planet.

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Jaipreet Virdi @jaivirdi.com · 26/03/2025

My sweet, precious Bennie boy, my little deafie shadow...always in my arms. I miss you.

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Jaipreet Virdi @jaivirdi.com · 26/03/2025

We lost our sweet Ben. There are no words to express our heartbreak.

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Jaipreet Virdi @jaivirdi.com · 26/03/2025

We lost our sweet Ben. There are no words to express our heartbreak.

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elynxabeth holmes ⎔ @freyja-lynx.dev · 20/03/2025

any author who gets on the side of “libgen is bad” goes on my “i will pirate you even when i have a job” list

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Charlotte Moore-Lambert @charlottereads.com · 22/03/2025

being an indie bookseller in the helltimes has felt both very stable and very stabilizing, and part of me wishes everyone could be on my side of the counter for a little while, because I think it would help some of you be a little less cynical and doomy right now. so here is my VERY anecdotal data:

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Jaipreet Virdi @jaivirdi.com · 13/03/2025

"Americans are often very well aware of activists such as Fredrick Douglas, Martin Luther King Jr., and Susan B. Anthony, yet one of the most influential and outspoken activists in the last 150 years is largely relegated to being remembered as a ‘miracle’, and recently even as a hoax."

newsrecord.org

Opinion | The legacy of Helen Keller: a sanitized radical

In our current social and political climate, discourse around diversity is ever present. These debates, despite what some may have you believe, are not a new point of discussion. Americans

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Coach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Uses the word "proudly" in the first sentence. Says it is the "first arrest of many to come" in the second sentence. If you think this ends with "Hamas Students" you are not paying attention

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JL Oakley~Historical fiction author @jloakley.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Nice to meet you. I write about the Deaf Church in Norway during WWII. The minister for the deaf was high up in the resistance and some teachers were in the resistance.

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Jaipreet Virdi @jaivirdi.com · 19/11/2024

Finally able to introduce myself properly to @bsky.app ! Hi all, I'm a #deaf historian of #histSTM and #DisabilityHistory at the University of Delaware. I think & write about disability technologies, disabled perspectives, and medical/scientific authority. Hearing aids are my niche topic

jaivirdi.com

Dr. Jaipreet Virdi

historian of medicine, technology, and disability

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Wendy P @petuniasmama.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Clearly. Same with Seffy.

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Jaipreet Virdi @jaivirdi.com · 08/03/2025

Lizzie climbed on my lap, forcing me to put my laptop down. Clearly this means no work is allowed, only cuddles.

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Jaipreet Virdi @jaivirdi.com · 02/03/2025

I got the flu shot in October but the virus circulating now (in northern DE) is a nasty one. Experiencing the worst case of flu in years, 4 days and counting. Be careful out there.

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Jaipreet Virdi @jaivirdi.com · 18/02/2025

Discount code available for non-North American shipping!! 30% Discount Code: FSS25 Order online at combinedacademic.co.uk (Valid only for orders shipping to the UK, EMEA & APAC)

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Jaipreet Virdi @jaivirdi.com · 16/02/2025

Folks who have joint issues / frozen shoulder: what bags are you carrying to work? I can't do backpacks (worsens my hip pain) and it's annoying carrying a briefcase in my hand all the time.

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Jaipreet Virdi @jaivirdi.com · 11/02/2025

From an idea in 2008 to a book in 2025, ECHOES OF CARE: DEAFNESS IN MODERN BRITAIN has been published by @mcgillqueensup.bsky.social ! It explores how changing perceptions of deafness intersected with healthcare, disability, and eugenics in 19th-century Britain. www.mqup.ca/echoes-of-ca...

A book standing upright on multiple copies, which are laying next to a 1920s Underwood typewriter. The book cover is a faded and blurry background, with a photo of a person’s ear horizontal on the bottom, and text emitting from it to represent sound. The text in large font says “Echoes of Care” followed by “Deafness in Modern Britain” and the author’s name, Jaipreet Virdi.

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