Schedule of Readings
Class starts Tuesday, January 16th. More updates before then. Our first in-class readings: Harriett McBryde Johnson’s p. 38-41 from Accidents of Nature, Emily Ladau’s “The Complexities of Curing Disabilities,” Stella Young’s TEDx Talk
January 18: Judith Butler’s Walk with Sunaura Taylor, Sylvia Yee’s “People with Disabilities Should Not Be Defined by Technologies They Do or Don’t Use,” + Harriet McBryde Johnson’s_Too Late to Die Young Last Chapter
January 23: Infrastructure and Identity: Rose Eveleth’s The Limits of Empathy + Bess Williamson’s “Electric Moms and Quad Drivers” (CANVAS > FILES) + Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s “Becoming Disabled”
//If you want to read a bit more about ADAPT, which we touched on briefly on Jan 18, David Perry has a great new interview with long-time ADAPTer Anita Cameron.
January 25: Infrastructure and Identity: Corbett O’Toole’s Fading Scars Chapter 9 (CANVAS) + Bill Peace’s Letter #3 + Stephen Kuusisto’s Letter #4 + Imani Barbarin’s “Things I’ve Learned in this Black Female Body.”
//New article on Access + Ability Exhibition that might be of interest.
January 30: Exoskeletons: Zoltan Istvan’s “In the Transhumanist Age, We Should Be Repairing Sidewalks, Not Disabilities” + Replies to this article – students should pick one of these to read: Rose Eveleth’s “The Hidden Burden of Exoskeletons for the Disabled” + Kim Sauder’s “When Celebrating Accessible Technology Reinforces Ableism” + Emily Ladau’s “Fix Discriminatory Attitudes, Not Sidewalks”
February 1: Being Looked At: Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s “Hands” (CANVAS) + Lynn Manning’s “Magic Wand”
February 6: Guest Visit from Pam Vickers, VT ADA Director + Please peruse ADA Title II Primer + Read Bill Peace’s Letter #4
//Wednesday, Feb 7: Talk that might be of interest: Jonathan Hsy, A Cultural History of Eyeglasses: Invention and Social Transformation from the Middle Ages to Today, Feb. 7, 4-5:30pm, Shanks 370/380.
February 8: CANCELLED DUE TO ILLNESS – Things moved around in the next week. My apologies.
February 13: Guest Visit from Mike Kutnak, ADA Specialist + David Lepofsky tours new Ryerson buidling
February 15: Meet in the lowest floor of the library; we will gather at the top of the ramp that leads out of the coffeeshop toward seating. FIELD TRIP TO MEASURE BATHROOMS IN THE LIBRARY + ADA Checklist for Existing Facilities
Feb 15: Last day to turn in Adventure Plans (See CANVAS to submit)
February 20: Guest lecturer: Josh Earle, PhD STS student. Read: Adam Cohen’s Imbeciles Intro and Ch 1 (CANVAS) + Margaret Sanger’s Ch 5
February 22: Eugenics and Audism: Nathaniel Comfort’s The Science of Human Perfection Epilogue (CANVAS) + IEET’s “Ban Baby-Making Unless Parents are Licensed”
February 27: Documentary on Cochlear Implants + “Stop Sharing Those Feel-Good Cochlear Implant Stories”
March 1: Hearing and Deafness: Harlan Lane’s “The Construction of Deafness” (CANVAS) + Brenda Bruggeman’s “On (Almost) Passing” (CANVAS)
//There a set of really interesting panels on GATTACA that are not here, but the reading list at the bottom of the event info looks EXCELLENT if might be interested in some out of class entertainment.
DISABILITY AND SPORTS
March 13: MURDERBALL Documentary (trailer here) + Read Corbett O’Toole’s “Court Crips” (CANVAS)
//Additional resources: Another article that might be of interest about using Murderball in Rehab and an Interview with the documentarian.
//ADAPT on the Judge Rotenberg Center and ADAPTers are tweeting with the hashtags #stoptheshock and #ADAPTandRESIST.
March 15: Presentation on History of Paralympics + Sports coverage: watching of clips and short articles about paralympics and other disability sports. A sampling here: We’re the Superhumans (Rio 2016), Rights Not Games Response, Adweek Coverage with Clips form individuals in the video. Also check out recent Toyota ads.
March 20: Sports: Guest visit from Dr. Karen DePauw, Graduate School Dean + “Disability, Sport, and Physical Activity” + Karen DePauw’s “(In)visbility in Disability”
PROSTHETICS, REPLACEMENTS, and FIXING
March 22: Presentation on 3D Printed Hands + Prosthetics: Raman Srinivasan’s “Technology Sits Cross-Legged” (full paper posted on CANVAS) + Catherine Campbell’s “Giving up a 3-D Printed Prosthetic for a Different Vision of Perfect” + Donna Walton’s “What’s a Leg Got to Do With it?”
March 27: FIXED Documentary + Bill Peace’s “The Paralyzed Bride Draws My Ire”
//We talked about this in class: #AutisticWhileBlack The Sacrifice of Andre and Cheryl McCollins
March 29: Presentation on CRISPR-CAS9 Genes: Alice Wong’s MEDx talk + HMJ’s “Unspeakable Conversations” + Katie Booth’s “What I learned…”
//Additional non-required readings for your interest: James C. Wilson’s “(Re)Writing the Genetic Body Text”
ASSISTIVE TECH LAB TOURS WEEK – PLEASE NOTE UNUSUAL PLAN FOR THIS WEEK
April 3 and 5: Half the class field trips to the Assistive Tech Lab (in Torg 1180) on Tuesday and half of the class on Thursday; the half of class remaining in class for each day will have a smaller group discussion of David Perry’s “We’re Failing Our Test Run” + Peter-Paul Verbeek’s Obstetrical Ultrasound article excerpt (CANVAS) + Chris Kaposky’s “Do We Really Need An Even Better Screening Test for Down Syndrome?” + April 5: presentation on assistive tech for blind people.
//Additional non-req’d readings for your interest on CANVAS: Rachel Adams’s “Choices” + Ruth Hubbard’s “Abortion and Disability: Who Should and Should Not Inhabit the World?”
CLASS PRESENTATIONS
April 10: Graduate Student Presentation on Phenomenology
April 12: Presentations (1) on Somatosensory Tech and (2) on Dyslexia and (3) start of presentation on sit-ski
April 17: Presentations (1) on Hearing Aids and (2) on Gastrointestinal Disability Tech and (3) other half of presentation on sit-ski
April 19: WORK DAY – There is no formal class meeting on this day: this is a day for you to schedule your group meetings or work independently on your chosen research/writing/adventure.
April 24: Presentation on History of Disability Activism + TBD Presentation on Classroom Assistive Devices
April 26: Presentations (1) on Cerebral Palsy and (2) on Autism-specific Technologies
Friday, April 27: ***STS Undergraduate Research Day****: UG students in this class are invited to give presentations as part of STS Undergraduate Research Day. The event will take place in the Athenaeum (Newman Library 124), 1-4pm.
May 1: Presentations/Last Day of Class: Presentation on workplace accommodations for psychiatric disabilities + Verbal reports from class members about ADA Surveying (for those who have chosen to survey. I will also ask that class members who haven’t presented on their research tell us what they have been up to, 5 minutes each.
Technology and Disability 