Week 2:

Stella young
-​ Getting the perspective that being disabled is an achievement because they are able to
do things that we do
-​ Disabled people being praised for being “normal”/acting like the able-bodied

People with disabilities subscribed to people with a first language

-​ We need to affirm the person before the disability

Using “Blind”, “disabled”

-​ Highlights identity

Application of the social model

The social model
-​ Victor finklestein
-​ Black british activist
-​ “We will imagine a thousand or more disabled people, all wheelchair-users,
collected together and settled in their own village where they had full
management and democratic rights … They design their own buildings to suit
their physical situation … Soon it becomes standard practice to build doors to a
height of 5 feet and ceiling or rooms to a height of 7 feet 4 inches. Naturally, one
of the first things they noticed was the heights of the doors and [Link]
noticed this directly, by constantly knocking their heads on the door lintels …
Soon special aids were designed by the wheelchair-user doctors ... All the
able-bodied were given special toughened helmets (provided free by the village)
to wear at all times …”

Example: Jeremy the Dud

-​ We think that we are being considerate when they don't mind it
-​ We think that we are doing it for them (not embarrassing them etc)
-​ Having to slow down, tone down to “accomodate” to them
Dud: derogatory, an ineffectual person: "a complete dud, incapable of even hitting the ball"
-​ They talk to jeremy like a kid
-​ Kyle has a disability as well but he treats the girl as “blind” and tried to sneak out thinking
he wont see her

The social model of disability

-​ It makes a fundamental distinction between 2 concepts
-​ Disability and impairment
-​ “Disability is imposed on our impairments”
-​ What's the difference between the two?
-​ Impairment = in the body
 -​ Disability = outside the body
People who use the true social model will use “disabled people”
The true problem with inclusion is when we build stairs

The individual model is on treating/curing the person, instead of being inclusive in the social
model, which is to build ramps

“The social model is wrong”

It reduces and simplifies the situation of people's impairment
Critique: Impairment is already social (it is not just in the body), and impairment is biological
-​ What we know as impairment can also be socially constructive
-​ E.g., war is social (it is happening, people are injured)
-​ But these impairments are caused socially (war is social, creating disabilities)
-​ Access to water and food = requires impairments as they don't have access to
food
-​ Impairment is social

Inclusivity in Singapore
-​ How has the way we talk about disability changed?
-​ When MRTs first started, the wheelchair bound are excluded
-​ They said the doors close too fast so they cant use them
-​ As such there wasnt any lifts/ramps for them
PM Lee speech when sworn in
-​ Since getting sworn in, it has improved alot, more inclusive, throughout his reign, there
has been initiatives and inclusion.
-​ “We must also have a place in our hearts and our lives for the disabled, who are our
brothers and sisters”
-​ They have equal rights to be included in the society
-​ We must be inclusive because tehy are family, different from talking about it from
a rights perspective, its from a caring perspective

Example: Sunset on Earth (1981, finding of DPI)

-​ Getting disabled people to speak out for themselves
-​ A whole group of disabled professionals working in the rehabilitation international say
that disabled people must have a say
-​ They must make up 50% of the organisation
-​ People in winnipeg gathered and formed a new ornganisation so they have their own
say
This talked about how disabilities inclusion MUST happen
“Nothing without us without us”
UN Convention
-​ Because of disabled peoples own advocacy for the eradication of social barriers state
parties in mexico saw the need for conventions ont eh right of persons with disabilities
-​ Singapore has to go once every 10 years to update singapores progress

An era of inclusion
Singapore is different from a rights based inclusion
Activists say he way forward is to look at various acts overseas.
-​ we must have rights legislations to prove that we are being inclusive in a country
Comparing NYC where they have rights/legislations but their trains are not accessible, however
in singapore, we dont have legislations but we have accessible trains.

How can disability generate new forms of knowledge?

How does the social model change how society changed their way of seeing disabilities
-​ It is important to understand context
Week 3 reading
4 commitments of crip technoscience
Criptechnoscience - disabled people as designers and world-builders
-​ They know what works and
Week 4: ESCAP briefing
-​ Good practices
-​ Hire talent with disabilities
-​ Improve accessibility
-​ Source from entrepreneurs with disabilities

Key concepts:
Accessibility, accommodation
Timeline on (monthly) spotlighting various ways in the business sectors
-​ Linkedin, X, youtube, instagram, facebook, weibo
-​ These channels are used to disseminate the campaign
-​ To explain the message in an interesting and creative way
-​ To deliver them to their TA
-​ Different types of content to cater to the various platforms
-​ Adapt the message to the various platforms

Group project focus

-​ Digital inclusive employment and technology
-​ Core messages: Economic empowerment **
-​ Choose either technology, inclusive design or assistive technology
-​ But ultimately, how these tools can be used to eventually be economical, e.g.,
employment of assistive technology, including digital transection
-​ Digital inclusion in the business economy or the business sector
-​ Ideas that wont take up big amount of resources, something short and catchy, easy to
catch on social media

Lecture: How Disability is represented in the media

How the media portrays para-athletes
-​ ‘brave, ‘inspiring’ (e.g. patronizing terms) to being regarded as sportspeople in their own
right
-​ & celebrities – sexy, desirable, marketable, controversial etc

“Ablenationalism”
-​ How disabled people are expected to be in the nation
-​ They are expected to conform to demands in the market and normative expectations
-​ Supercrip: parasthletes “exceptional” overcoming, supporting themselves in the world
[Pistorius] reframed the way we thought
about the disabled body. He was the
ultimate supercrip. And we all love a good
“overcoming” narrative, don't we? We like
our disability stories nice and tidy. We’re
either heroes or victims, and we struggled
when Pistorius suddenly proved to be neither.
-​ Stella Young, “Disability and the Pistorius sentencing farce”, 2014

Discussion points:
“Yes i can” - pushing a narrative that people of disabilities need some sort of reasurance
Everyday scenes in the video, the everyday lives, highlight the juxtaposition between being
celebrated for getting up and brushing their teeth vs for overachieving (being an athlete)
“Yes I can” vs “yes we can”: moving from the “I” to the “We”

Cryptechnosciene
-​ Juxtaposition of the scenes, traditional insights
-​ Disability isnt just the plot but also means to generate music

Woo Young Woo

Having to take a breath before stepping in (problamatic)
-​ Its how they have to adapt to the space and not the space adapting to them

Conclusion
-​ Media as an aspect of technology—hence digital inclusion
-​ Negative and Positive Representations can both be problematic
-​ Media are crucial for how we come to understand & represent disability – and our bodies
& what’s normal
-​ Media raise issues of accessibility too – because, even with new digital technology, they
are often inaccessible
-​ So if we are striving for full cultural accessibility & social participation –– and digital
inclusion –– there is a lot to unpack & redesign & a fair way to go
Talk #2
Digital society
-​ Since the 1980s, social life has become technology-intensive
-​ Overlapping waves of technology: computer and networks, mobile phones and apps,
entertainment and culture
-​ Our social transactions are digital transactions
-​ Disability is a major part of digital society
-​ E.g., some languages may be lacking due to them being a minority (e.g., Malay
subtitles as compared to chinese or english)
-​ “Mobile AI”
-​ AI is designed for integrated into and associated with mobile technologies

Beyond digital inclusion

-​ Concepts and terminology
-​ Digital divide
-​ Digital inclusion
-​ Digital inequality
-​ Digital justice
Before these times, it has made some lives better, but there are definitely issues with access
and unintended exclusion
E.g., people on the spectrum may find it tough to differentiate what the risks are after seeing
things online

-​ Digital inclusion has had currency in policy and in general discourse and conversation
-​
-​ People with disabilities are now very often online, but still significantly excluded, a
strong association between inequality and social exclusion on one hand, and digital
exclusion on the other

Digital citizenship
-​ Membership of society
-​ entitlements and obligations, benefits and challenges
-​ Where digital technology is pervasive and often decisive in the equality OF
PARTICIPATION (ability to be connected, data protection,
Map of digital citizenship: New markets, new rights
Technology is associated with great promise (all the great benefits), especially for people with
disabilities
-​ However, this can also bring about injustice, oppression, and “automating inequalities”
-​ It is not about participation for everyone, but constraining people as well
Week 13: Designing for inclusion
Argument - core to essay, must be a strong and compelling position/perspective
-​ Don't need to do GP style (pros and cons), just make a position
-​ If you want to make a point, just go for it
Well researched, evidence and addresses questions/issues
Referencing - needs to be there
-​ If you use GPT to make references, check references

Model 3: centring disability in technology in comm

-​ Designing for/with disability

When it comes to inclusion, design is natural; it is fundamental

-​ E.g., why are chairs and tables designed in a way?
-​ E.g., the height, often taken for granted but essential
-​ What happens when we design for the disability? Do we design more or less?
-​ E.g., ramps, who does it benefit? If there is a lift, will you use the lift? If there is
an overhead bridge, will you use stairs or a lift?
-​ How do we centre disability in design?

IF we take this as the given, as the fundamental, then bodies/minds are the starting point for
inclusion. Everybody is different, and everyone thinks differently.
-​ Bodies and minds are important starting points for how you think of everything

This is where disruption happens. We can find lots of ways to disrupt (excess as friction).
-​ When we centre disability as generative knowledge, as embodiment, it is a starting point
to challenge existing norms we have.

Example:

-​ His office, spacious

-​ He made it wheelchair accessible in a way as well
-​ He wants to make it sensory-free as well
-​ Dim lights, cosy

-​ It is not dignified to just bring a random box

for people with disabilities to use; hence, she
created a short stature
 Critique
-​ Prosthetics are seen as restoring normalcy
-​ You need it to make you “normal”
-​ They made it high tech, cool, and
another perspective on how disability could look
3D Printing
-​ Makes things accessible
-​ There are online communities
where they post open access to 3D printed hacks
for IKEA items

What can design look like? What can design do? What are the functions of it?

PWDs as knowers and makers

This is a classic example of an inaccessible space for the

deaf.
-​ If you are signing, turning the corner is dangerous,
as you cannot see, so they made it curved instead

-​ Portraying prosthetics as beauty

 -​ Challenged the idea that prosthetics are ugly with gold and
fascinating features

People may criticise that people are commodifying disability in design, exploiting disability in
design
-​ But we can also see how disability is adding to design

As such, bodies are important in design.