Friends, I’m so happy to say that my first book is under contract with Riverhead/Penguin! I’m just thrilled—I can’t even tell you. The book is about the unexpected places where disability is at the heart of design, from everyday household objects to architecture, street and city planning, pointing to larger systems design questions at the end. It … Continue reading
Author Archives: ablerism
an introduction to disability studies for engineers
I’m sitting on the thesis committee for a graduate student in biomechatronics—a PhD project that will be entirely technical. This student reached out to me to ask about placing engineering for disability in a larger social context, and I’m glad for the opportunity to think about what’s an essential primer in disability studies, appropriate for … Continue reading
ramps in seoul
There’s much more detail to come on this, but you can see here some images from Slope : Intercept’s most recent iteration, a collaboration with dancer Alice Sheppard. MediaCity Seoul invited me last year to design some ramps for the biennial that opened last month (September ’16), and in the meanwhile, my lab worked with … Continue reading
introducing a plus a
Finally live: aplusa.org! A + A is the Adaptation and Ability Group, my lab at Olin College. It’s the first of a three-in-one site designed to keep distinct the work of the lab, the ongoing Abler archive that points to other people’s work, and then my own site for personal projects, essays, and the like. … Continue reading
my first commencement speech
Readers, there’s a brand new site coming soon: a 3-part site, with lots of overdue documentation of new work, my lab, teaching, writing. The featured image is from a collaboration with Alice Sheppard that I’ll tell you all about. I can’t wait! But for now—a commencement speech I gave for Olin’s 2016 class. My first: … Continue reading
3, 2, 1 at Eyeo
I’m so pleased my talk at Eyeo is now online, with closed captions available, and another version with audio description. Eyeo folks are super to work with, and I’m grateful to have had the chance to look back at my last ten years of work and identify the big themes and turning points. I tell … Continue reading
carmen papalia at olin, 9/25-29, and more collaborations
This fall’s version of Investigating Normal will include several dream collaborators: Lacy Gillotti of NEADS, a service dog training organization, Alex Geller of Fathom Info, with whom we’ll be exploring disability and the school-to-prison pipeline, Mel Chua, a postdoc at Olin who is deaf, has spent her life “passing” as hearing, and will be getting a cochlear … Continue reading