(Virtual) Hacking Disability: Accessible & Adaptable Tech

Via Zoom.

In 2015, after over a decade of programming, Dr. Naomi Saphra lost the ability to type. Confronted with a programmer’s worst nightmare, she began the slow process of learning to dictate code. While attempting to customize her environment, she was confronted with paternalistic attitudes towards disabled people, which framed accessibility as “accommodation.”

Often, accommodations and products for disabled people have a rigid model for their use – but the needs of the disabled are diverse, and disabled people are perfectly capable of improving on the technology that they are offered. Like the diabetic hackers, who discovered that they could hack into their insulin pumps to make the device smarter, and shared step-by-step instructions online for others.

In this Tech Talk, Dr. Saphra will talk about the intersection of technology and disability, and the need for accessible systems that are open and adaptable, to allow people like Dr. Saphra to improve the tools they use.

Please register HERE for the Zoom link.