Episode 51: Cripping Pandemic Learning

The podcast introductory segment is composed to evoke friction. It begins with the sound of an elevator crunching as it goes up. A robotic voice says “floor two.” Then music with a mysterious tone comes on. A series of voices define Contra. Layered voices say:

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Contra is friction… Contra is texture… Contra is questions…Nuanced…Collaborative…Contra* is world-changing…Contra is innovation, messy, solidarity, interdependence…Contra is thinking about design critically. Contra is a podcast.

 

Throughout, there are sounds of typing, texting and Zoom being opened. 

Then an electric guitar bass note fades into the sound of a digital call ringing and starting. The intro ends with the sound of a Facetime call ringing and then picked up.

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Hi, I’m Kelsie Acton, the project manager for the Remote Access Archive. The Remote Access Archive contains oral histories, like the ones featured in this season of the Contra* podcast. But it also contains numerous, very cool documents. This is one of a series of mini-episodes to share some of those documents with you. Today I’m looking at Cripping Pandemic Learning by Danielle E. Lorenz and Hannah Sullivan Facknitz. 

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In Fall 2020 Danielle and Hannah realized that the turn to remote teaching was compounding many of the existing inequities of higher education. As disabled graduate students, they were very aware of the barriers that universities create. They were also convinced that there is a difference between crisis teaching - the teaching that took place in spring 2020, and online teaching. They’d hoped that universities and instructors would adopt strategies for online teaching in Fall 2020. They hoped that over the summer their universities would offer instructors opportunities to build their skills in online teaching, and specifically in online access and supporting disabled students. But they also knew that not all instructors are familiar with thinking about access. 

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So they created three, online collaborative documents, using Google docs. The first document is a list of questions to help instructors think carefully about the students, the material and its delivery before they design the course. The second and third documents are lists of resources that instructors can use to help them plan their courses or make changes. When Danielle and Hannah started these documents they used Twitter to share about the work and encourage other people to add to the lists of resources. 

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I’m drawn to this as an example of remote access for a couple of reasons. In many ways, disabled graduate students taking on the labour of trying to build resources and share knowledge that their institutions should be, but aren’t? That’s very much my experiences of access and disability culture in higher education. Hannah and Danielle know this too. They write at the end of the document, “We do not claim to have all of the answers, nor should we be tasked with providing them.” The reality is, the vast majority of the people doing access work are other disabled people. 

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There’s also something beautifully collaborative for me - and deeply disability culture about a google doc as a solution. Ashley Shew talks about this idea of technoableism - that technology will save, and ultimately eliminate, disabled people. Technoableism is often about the fancy technology that means non-disabled people don’t have to change anything they’re doing. It’s stair climbing wheelchairs, or the sign language gloves no Deaf person ever asked for, or VR, as treatment for a long list of diagnoses. And a google doc is kind of the opposite of that. There’s nothing slick or flashy about it. It costs very little in terms of money. Although there’s an enormous amount of time and disability knowledge put into it. It’s not going save us. But it might make the world just a little bit easier. 

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Thank you for listening. If this document touched you somehow - sparked your curiosity, made you angry, made you feel seen - you can find it in the Remote Access Archive at www.criticaldesignlab.com/project/remote-access-archive. Remember, remote access is disability culture.

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[Rhythmic pops. Strings ripple and play as Aimi speaks]

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Aimi Hamraie: 

You've been listening to Contra*, a podcast about disability design, justice, and the life world. Contra* is a production of the Critical Design Lab. This season's episodes draw on our recent project, the Remote Access Archive, created by a team of disabled researchers collaborating remotely. Learn about our projects, including the remote access archive at www.criticaldesignlab.com. 

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If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe on Spotify, rate and leave a review. 

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This season of Contra* is edited by Ilana Nevins. Kelsie Acton and Aimi Hamraie developed the episodes. 

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The Contra* Podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons attribution, non-commercial share alike International 3.0 license.That means you can remix, repost, or recycle any of the content as long as you cite the original source, aren't making money, you don't change the credits and you share it under the same license.

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[music fades out]

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