Imagining Access >> crip computing

Using disability desire as our guiding premise, we re/designed two undergraduate disability studies classes at the University of Michigan. Offered between 2023-2025, these courses were collaborative endeavors between the Digital Studies Institute and the Department of English Language and Literature.

Using responsible computing and design justice as throughlines, students charted histories of access at UM and in their local communities; students also conducted access observations of built and digital environments. Our curricular approach adopted a wide-angle view of technology, incorporating computational and physical infrastructures. Students were encouraged to consider material, architectural, and conceptual aspects of production, as well as systemic barriers embedded in design processes.

Our classes used desire as a starting point for conversations with the disability community leaders who visited our classes and spoke with us about topics ranging across digital inaccessibility, disability disclosure, design practices, tech industries, and voting. Visitors included representatives from disability nonprofits (Detroit Disability Power, Disability Network Washtenaw Livingston Monroe, and the Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network) as well as staff from U Michigan and Ann Arbor Academy (K-12).