Year: 2025
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: We propose to rethink participatory technology design from the perspective of “Aesthetics of Access”, a concept emerging from disability-led cultural practices. Based on a collaboration between educators and researchers, students, and cultural experts representing diverse dis/ability perspectives, we reflect on the potential of designing accessibility not as a technical obligation, but as a situated, co-creative process. Using the concept of infrastructuring, we show how Aesthetics of Access reframes access as new aesthetic vocabularies, forms of collaboration, and knowledge production. Integrating this approach into technology and design education will enable transformative encounters, but requires a commitment to infrastructuring access as both technical and aesthetic expertise.
Authors: Laura Popplow, Hannah Baldauf, Lasse Scherffig, Nils Rottgardt, Lisette Reuter
Institution: TH Köln - University of Applied Sciences
Language: English
Subfield: Safety Research
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W4413844207