I have not read the book, and so cannot really comment on it. I am, however, a quadriplegic. It happened two and half years ago as the result of a diving accident.
Technology is both life-saving, and frustrating. Without it I would never be able to continue with my dissertation (even with current technology, I would not have been able to complete the type of difficult courses I had finished before the accident). Without it I would be reading books and turning the pages one at a time, with a stick in my mouth. Quite honestly, without modern technology, I might've already driven my chair off of a high place.
That being said, there is much to be desired. Most equipment labeled "adaptive" is five years out of date, with a x10-x100 markup in price. I fully understand that there's a lot of tech, both hardware and software, that I will never be able to use. The frustrating thing is when a simple oversight renders something completely unusable. If a developer had, just for one minute, put himself in someone else's shoes it would have been completely obvious.
That is not to say I blame developers. The truth is, unless you or someone close to you is disabled, you're much less likely to see the disabled people around you. You will see them as they passed, but you won't remember them. I know, I was the same way.