Category: Uncategorized

A lot is happening this semester, so I wanted to make a quick blog post. Technology & Disability: A Textbook Our group’s work on open access pedagogical materials (through the CAREER grant) is really coming along very nicely. We have the content with students working on layout and finishing touches, as well as working in…

The Mellon Foundation is funding a project on Just Dis Tech Futures to “support the creation of a Disability Community Technology Center that provides guidance for developing disabled-led technology and disability-forward technological futures through humanities-based scholarship and arts outreach.” This project runs Jan 2023-Dec 2025, and will mean many exciting things for the disability community…

It’s nearly time for The College Faire! (Friday – Saturday, July 29 -30, 2022) For 2 days, our Tech & Dis research group will be partnering with the VT Libraries gaming squad to explore a more magical version of Virginia Tech online through a synchronous RPG experience. During this quest, we’ll learn about navigating accommodations…

Our Tech & Dis research group + the gaming crew from VT Libraries will be hosting a 2-day live online event, The College Faire (Friday-Saturday, July 29-30, 2022), that includes sessions on navigating accommodations in college, disability history and culture, a student panel to share personal experiences, accessible technologies, along with social components in a synchronous online role-playing game centered around…

Liz Jackson, Alex Hagaard, and Rua Williams shared an article this week about the history and use of the hashtag and term #DisabilityDongle. Disability Dongles are technologies/”solutions” created for disabled people by possibly-clueless non-disabled people who mean well. Their description is better than mine here. 😀 Link to #DisabilityDongle Article on Platypus.

I am currently teaching STS 3284 during Fall 2021, and my department will have a Wintermester session taught by Dr. Joshua Earle and a Spring 2022 session taught by Damien Williams. We’re so excited that the demand for this class warrant these additions to the schedule. WE also are welcoming three new undergrad researchers this…

A colleague asked the readings I’d recommend for newly disabled people or those who are just coming into understanding themselves as disabled people. Here’s my quick list for that. My goal, if a newly disabled person is asking me about what I suggest they read, is to show them that there’s a community and a…

In the midst of a pandemic, I’m committed to serving my students and colleagues best – in their health and lives and community – by teaching online for Fall 2020. I’m encouraging other instructors to do the same, when their universities allow (and to protest with them when their universities do not). There are lots…