Expressive haptics for enhanced usability of mobile interfaces in situations of impairments

Designing for situational awareness could lead to better solutions for disabled people, likewise, exploring the needs of disabled people could lead to innovations that can address situational impairments. This in turn can create non-stigmatising assistive technology for disabled people from which eventually everyone could benefit. In this paper, we investigate the potential for advanced haptics to compliment the graphical user interface of mobile devices, thereby enhancing user experiences of all people in some situations (e.g. sunlight interfering with interaction) and visually impaired people. We explore technical solutions to this problem space and demonstrate our justification for a focus on the creation of kinaesthetic force feedback. We propose initial design concepts and studies, with a view to co-create delightful and expressive haptic interactions with potential users motivated by scenarios of situational and permanent impairments.Comment: Presented at the CHI'19 Workshop: Addressing the Challenges of Situationally-Induced Impairments and Disabilities in Mobile Interaction, 2019 (arXiv:1904.05382

Social access: role of digital media in social relations of young people with disabilities

Digital media have enabled people with disabilities (PWDs) to connect with each other, but online relations and gaming have been found escapist. We propose the analytical lens of social access to examine how the role of digital media in PWDs’ social relations is shaped by (i) affordances of digital media, (ii) mixedness of relations, and (iii) interaction of online and offline worlds. This paper presents an ethnographic study in a school for young PWDs and highlights two observations. First, visual profiles on social media platforms could aggravate the social exclusion of young PWDs online and offline, marked by intra-disability and intersectional differences. Second, the co-presence afforded by digital media enabled young PWDs to resort to digital interactions in unwelcoming offline environments without changing the latter. Social access underlines the importance of studying how digital media interweave with offline social relations and inequalities, rarely altering but sometimes augmenting and ameliorating them

Touch Screen Theory

Technology companies claim to connect people through touchscreens, but by conflating physical contact with emotional sentiments, they displace the constructed aspects of devices and women and other oppressed individuals' critiques of how such technologies function. Technology companies and device designers correlate touchscreens and online sites with physical contact and emotional sentiments, promising unmediated experiences in which the screen falls away in favor of visceral materiality and connections. While touchscreens are key elements of most people's everyday lives, critical frameworks for understanding the embodied experiences of using them are wanting. In Touch Screen Theory, Michele White focuses on the relation between physically touching and emotionally feeling to recenter the bodies and identities that are empowered, produced, and displaced by these digital technologies and settings. Drawing on detailed cases and humanities methods, White shows how and why gender, race, and sexuality should be further analyzed in relation to touchscreen use and design. White delves into such details as how women are informed that their bodies and fingernails are not a fit for iPhones, how cellphone surfaces are correlated with skin and understood as erotic, the ways social networks use heart buttons and icons to seem to physically and emotionally connect with individuals, how online references to feminine and queer feelings are resisted by many men, and how women producers of autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) videos use tactile strategies and touchscreens to emotionally bond with viewers. Proposing critical methods for studying touchscreens and digital engagement, Touch Screen Theory expands a variety of research areas, including digital and internet cultures, hardware, interfaces, media and screens, and popular culture

Social access: role of digital media in social relations of young people with disabilities

Digital media have enabled people with disabilities (PWDs) to connect with each other, but online relations and gaming have been found escapist. We propose the analytical lens of social access to examine how the role of digital media in PWDs’ social relations is shaped by (i) affordances of digital media, (ii) mixedness of relations, and (iii) interaction of online and offline worlds. This paper presents an ethnographic study in a school for young PWDs and highlights two observations. First, visual profiles on social media platforms could aggravate the social exclusion of young PWDs online and offline, marked by intra-disability and intersectional differences. Second, the co-presence afforded by digital media enabled young PWDs to resort to digital interactions in unwelcoming offline environments without changing the latter. Social access underlines the importance of studying how digital media interweave with offline social relations and inequalities, rarely altering but sometimes augmenting and ameliorating them

Deconstructing Orthorexia in an Age of Healthism and Social Media

Orthorexia, a pathological fixation with healthy eating, has recently emerged as a construct of interest in the field of clinical psychology. Despite its growing recognition, the origin of this construct remains unclear. This dissertation aims to contribute to the understanding of orthorexia by examining its emergence and contextual factors through a constructivist lens. The study found that the cultural, economic, and moralistic landscape of healthism and social medially have played a role in the development of orthorexia. The dominant clinical perspective of orthorexia was also deconstructed, revealing potential biases that may lead to pathologizing the experiences of those who demonstrate orthorexic behaviors. The study highlights the need for careful consideration of the risks and vulnerabilities associated with the integration of orthorexia into diagnostic and clinical models. However, it also acknowledges the reality of individuals expressing suffering in the form of orthorexic behavior and provides treatment considerations to honor their experiences and desire for relief in a clinical setting. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu)

“We Ain’t Playing F*Cking Nice…”: Reactionary Fandom, Playful Platforms, and the White Masculine Crusader Fan Identity

This dissertation will explore the role of brand culture, digital platforms, and fan play in the development of a reactionary fan identity that I call the white masculine crusader (WMC). By interrogating the playful affordances of digital platforms and how people adopt fan practices in reaction to contemporary politics, I reveal three distinct (yet interconnected) fannish and playful embodied expressions of reactionary politics and white supremacy conspiracy theories (the tactical body, the fit body, and the spiritual body). The following chapters highlight how fan communities not only seek and spread reactionary content but often poach brands to play out fantasies of fighting back against a world corrupted by secularism, multi-culturalism, and progressive politics. This dissertation is designed to show how our current media environment, through playful and preparatory practices, enables the persistence of white supremacy and the growth of far-right extremism