Interdependence as a Frame for Assistive Technology Research and Design

In this paper, we describe interdependence for assistive technology design, a frame developed to complement the traditional focus on independence in the Assistive Technology field. Interdependence emphasizes collaborative access and people with disabilities' important and often understated contribution in these efforts. We lay the foundation of this frame with literature from the academic discipline of Disability Studies and popular media contributed by contemporary disability justice activists. Then, drawing on cases from our own work, we show how the interdependence frame (1) synthesizes findings from a growing body of research in the Assistive Technology field and (2) helps us orient to additional technology design opportunities. We position interdependence as one possible orientation to, not a prescription for, research and design practice--one that opens new design possibilities and affirms our commitment to equal access for people with disabilities

515 clues

A collection of interconnected short stories exploring moments of trauma and transformation in the lives of a handful of girls, queers and trans-people who communicate through bird song and candlelight, travelling through boundaries of time and reality to save each other. This combination of fiction, memoir, and graphic storytelling weaves a lineage of witchy magical Jewish survival through waking dream, myth, and the illumination of deep dark memory

Learning from Our Survival

Patty Berne (executive director/artistic director) and Nomy Lamm (creative director) discuss the work of their performance collective and disability justice advocacy group, Sins Invalid. They address their company’s attempts to implement the principles of disability justice within their own collaborative processes and how theaters might cultivate a culture grounded in care work. Reflecting on the lack of support for queer, POC, and disabled artists in US commercial theater, they discuss the ways that Sins Invalid’s work challenges those institutional paradigms. Finally, they consider what the company—and theater in general—has learned from the COVID-19 pandemic: namely, the challenges and possibilities of producing work online and that addressing accessibility presents rich opportunities for artistic discovery.</jats:p