The Good Robot

Meryl Alper on 'Craptions', Assistive Technologies, and the Real Meaning of Accessible Technology

April 05, 2022 University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies
The Good Robot
Meryl Alper on 'Craptions', Assistive Technologies, and the Real Meaning of Accessible Technology
Show Notes

In this episode, we chat to Meryl Alper, Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Northeastern University. We discuss histories of technological invention by disabled communities, the backlash against poor algorithmically transcribed captions or ‘craptions’, what it actually means for a place or a technology to be accessible to disabled communities with additional socio-economic constraints, and the kinds of assistive augmented communication devices (AAC), like the one used by Stephen Hawking, that are being built by non-speaking people to represent different kinds of voices. 

This episode includes an ad for the What Next|TBD podcast.