GAAD 2024 - Keynote: Fortifying against technoableism - Ashley Shew

Ashley Shew

The ways disabled people talk and write about technologies often stands in contrast to the ways disability technologies are imagined or presented by most societal narratives. These societal narratives about technology often reflect ableist assumptions about what disabled people want or need. Disabled people often center different problems and raise different concerns than expected by many technologists. Professionals in disability services are situated at an important point of contact between worldviews, whether or not they are disabled themselves. Being an a11y to disabled people sometimes means working through a system premised on one worldview while trying to serve the interests of another, finding workarounds and serving as translator and informant. That's a tough position to be in, and this talk is aimed at fortifying ourselves against technoableism to work toward a future built without barriers.

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