In this paper, I take up two important keywords for theory in Southeast Asia – disability (subject of this panel), and technology. Technology has been an increasingly important area of social and cultural life around the world. This is especially the case in relation to disability, where over the past 20+ years socio-technical developments have taken on great visibility with the ‘digital technology’ turn. We see, for instance, many innovations in social life and technology development associated with disability and increasingly unfolding with innovation driven by people with disabilities – such as web accessibility, inclusive design in smartphones, efforts to reframe AI from disability justice perspectives, connected cars and other mobilities, and so on. There has also been an overdue theoretical cross-fertilization across science and technology studies (STS) and critical disability studies, as well as areas such as disability sociology, disability histories, and disability media studies. Such theoretical efforts, thus far, have been largely shaped by European, North America, UK, Australian, and other contexts, imaginaries, and specificities. So: what of disability and technology theory in Southeast Asian contexts? What are the relationships among disability, technology, digital cultures, and so on, in Southeast Asia? What is specific about the histories, politics, and innovations of disability and technology in Southeast Asian societies – and what are their implications for doing technology-as-part-of-disability in this region?
Gerard Goggin is Wee Kim Wee Professor of Communications at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He has a longstanding interest in disability, technology, human rights, social justice, and design. Among his 24 books are Apps (2021), Routledge Companion to Disability and Media (2020), Disability and the Media (2015; with Katie Ellis), and, with Christopher Newell, Disability in Australia (2005), and Digital Disability (2003).
Day 3 – (May 29, Sat HK/SG time)
Panel 9: Disability, Discourses, Disruptions
1:30-3:30pm HK/SG / 6:30-8:30am BST / 7:30-9:30am CEST / 1:30-3:30am EDT / 10:30pm-12:30am PDT