Transreal tracing: Queer-feminist speculations on disabled technologies

Area of Science:

• Science and Technology Studies
• Disability Studies
• Queer Theory

Background:

• Current technologies often reinforce negative perceptions of disability.
• There is a need for empowering technological frameworks centered on disabled individuals.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore speculative assistive technologies that reframe disability as potential.
• To design queer-feminist utopias for disabled people using Barad's theories.
• To challenge dominant notions of disability and assistive technology.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing Karen Barad's "Transmaterialities" for theoretical grounding.
• Developing the concept of a "Transreal Tracing Device" as a speculative tool.
• Applying queer-feminist design principles to reimagine disabled bodies and technology.

Main Results:

• The Transreal Tracing Device reimagines disabled bodies as surfaces of possibility.
• Speculative design offers positive renegotiations of disabled bodies as malleable and desirable.
• The approach challenges existing paradigms of disability and assistive technology.

Conclusions:

• Shifting focus from support to appreciation, and from shame to pride in disabled technologies.
• Implications for self-determined and participatory design for disabled communities.
• Fostering kinship and celebrating the ontological indeterminacy of disabled bodies.