Disability Technologies: Ethical Pitfalls and Social Responsibilities

Abstract: People often talk about designing for disabled people as engineering in a humanitarian mode, and designers are lauded for their work to help people when it concerns disability technology. There is resistance to how this work is cast from the disability community. Our community often sees projects developed without rich engagement with the relevant communities and sees praised-projects that are commercial failures because designers don’t listen to disabled people or really understand the context they are working in. This talk works to elevate disability narrative — that is, the stories disabled people tell — about technologies to think ethically and more responsibly about design for disability. We should take disabled people as experts about disability technology, reorienting how we think about engagement, social responsibility, and ethical engineering practice.

Registration: http://bit.ly/shew2020