Podcast - Critical Design Lab

Episode 61

Conversation 5: Takeaways with Aimi Hamraie, Jos Boys, Scar Barclay and Paul DeFazio

March 23, 2026

Each conversation featured in Disability Meets Architecture draws on a different productive friction and places two activists, architects, designers, writers or artists in dialogue. This one, on ‘takeaways,’ brings together themes and tensions arising over the series. It reflects on what worked with the format, the themes which arose and what questions we did not get around to. This episode features all of the people from The DisOrdinary Architecture Project and Critical Design Lab who coordinated this series. This includes Aimi Hamraie (they/them) who is a disabled designer, researcher and director of Critical Design Lab. Aimi works with Paul DeFazio (he/him[fluid]), a legally blind architect and artist who works for Critical Design Lab and the Institute of Human Centred Design. Next we have Jos Boys (she/her), who lives with a chronic condition, and is an architecture-trained artist, activist writer and founder of DisOrdinary. Jos works at DisOrdinary with Scar Barclay (they/them), a neuroqueer architectural designer and maker.

Episode 60

Conversation 4: Antifascism with Beatrice Adler-Bolton, Paul DeFazio and Scar Barclay

March 16, 2026

Each conversation featured in Disability Meets Architecture draws on a different productive friction and places two activists, architects, designers, writers or artists in dialogue. This one, on ‘anti-fascism,’ attends to the rise in right-wing, populist movements and their rhetoric. It asks what it means to continue to operate against the political pendulum, how to find gaps for resistance and how to fortify our movements in the face of erasure. It swings between the need to be legible to hold on to the basics of functional access versus a desire for illegibility and more expansive notions of access. This episode features Beatrice Adler-Bolton (she/her), a disabled and chronically ill writer and artist based in the U.S. who co-hosts the Death Panel Podcast with Artie Vierkant, Phil Rocco, Jules Gill-Peterson and Tracy Rosenthal. She also co-authored Health Communism (2022) with Artie Vierkant. This text sets out the history of the monetisation of health in the U.S. and identifies the necessity in a radical politics and approach which severs health from capital. Beatrice will be in conversation with both Scar Barclay and Paul DeFazio. Scar (they/them) is a UK-based neuroqueer architectural designer, whose work explores Disabled, neurodivergent, trans+ and queer ways of being. They have worked with The DisOrdinary Architecture Project since 2023. Paul (he/him[fluid]) is a legally blind architect and artist who works for Critical Design Lab and the Institute of Human Centred Design.

Episode 59

Conservation 3: Who Counts with Micha Frazer-Carroll and Samir Pandya

March 9, 2026

Each conversation featured in Disability Meets Architecture draws on a different productive friction and places two activists, architects, designers, writers or artists in dialogue. This one, on ‘who counts,’ explores which bodyminds are thought of as productive. We are thinking about histories of systemic ableism and racism and how to go about challenging architecture’s understanding of diverse identity and lived experience, so that Disabled lives and experience is rightfully valued. This episode features Micha Frazer-Carroll (she/her), a writer and journalist who is a former editor of gal-dem magazine and founder of Blueprint magazine. Micha authored MAD WORLD: The Politics of Mental Health (2023), a call for radical politics and a revealing account of the ever changing construct of health under capitalism. Micha will be in conversation with Samir Pandya (he/him), an architect, writer and educator who is Associate Head of College at the College of Design, Creative and Digital Industries at the University of Westminster in London. Samir’s edited book After Belonging: Architecture, Nation, Difference (2023) examines the relationships between architecture, spatial politics and identity.

Episode 58

Conversation 2: Care with Teeth with Anthony Clarke and Jeff Kasper

March 16, 2026

Each conversation featured in Disability Meets Architecture draws on a different productive friction and places two activists, architects, designers, writers or artists in dialogue. This one, on ‘care with teeth,’ takes its name from the expression “joy with teeth” in Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems and Meditations for Staying Human (2024) by Cole Arthur Riley. It considers the plurality of care, what it means to fiercely care and be cared for, care as a radical embedded practice and one which brings with it at times conflict and challenge. This episode features Jeff Kasper (he/him), an artist, writer, and educator working across public art, design, and social practice. Jeff’s project ‘Wrestling Embrace’ (2017-present) uses physical contact, guided contemplation and embodied practices to navigate consent, conflict and care in interpersonal relationships. Jeff will be in conversation with Anthony Clarke (he/him), Architect and Director of Austrailian architecture practice BLOXAS. BLOXAS has a radically empathetic and anti-hegemonic approach with their clients. Anthony is a co-editor with Judy Illes, Jos Boys and John Gardner of Neurodivergence and Architecture (2022).

Episode 57

Conversation 1: Access Washing with Karen Braitmayer and Natasha Trotman

March 9, 2026

Each conversation featured in Disability Meets Architecture draws on a different productive friction and places two activists, architects, designers, writers or artists in dialogue. This one, on ‘access washing,’ an expression coined by Stacey Milbern, considers the power dynamics in the design process and projects, where and how Disabled practitioners are involved, and to what extent ‘access’ is understood on a deep, systemic rather than superficial level. This episode features Karen L. Braitmayer, FAIA (she/her), a licensed architect and accessibility specialist who is a full-time wheelchair user with hearing loss. Karen founded Studio Pacifica, an access consultancy in Washington State which foregrounds Disabled practitioners. Karen will be in conversation with Natasha Trotman (she/they), a UK-based Neurodivergent and disabled international Equalities Designer and Researcher advancing inclusive, accessible, evidence-led design with neurodivergent, disabled, and underserved communities. Natasha is a frequent collaborator with DisOrdinary.

Episode 56

Intro: Round Tower with Jos Boys and Aimi Hamraie

February 16, 2026

Each conversation featured in Disability Meets Architecture draws on a different productive friction and places two activists, architects, designers, writers or artists in dialogue. This one, the introduction to our series, takes place at the Round Tower, Rundetårn, in Copenhagen. It was recorded just as we were planning the series when Jos and Aimi found themselves in the city at the same time. This tower, completed in 1642 for Christian IV of Denmark, features an equestrian ramp which would enable a horse and carriage to rise 34.8m to the observatory at the top. This ramp is not accessible under design guidance. However, it highlights how a design feature, often associated with access, is reimagined as desirable, going as far as displacing the staircase as the primary way to move vertically up this 17th C. tower. It shows how thinking differently about how we move through space, beyond the human, beyond the upright human, can create different forms of pleasurable architecture. This episode features Aimi Hamraie (they/them), founder and director of Critical Design Lab, a multi-disciplinary and multi-institution arts and design collaborative rooted in disability culture. Aimi is author of Building Access: Universal Design and the Politics of Disability (University of Minnesota Press, 2017) and host of the Contra* podcast on disability and design. They are a 2022 United States Artists Fellow, Canada Research Chair in Technology, Society, and Disability and Associate Professor of Social Science at York University. Aimi will be in conversation with Jos Boys (she/her), founder and co-director of The DisOrdinary Architecture Project with Zoe Partington. Jos was also part of Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative in the late 1970s and 80s in the UK. Through her work, Jos has co-authored and acted as editor/co-editor on a number of books including Disability, Space, Architecture: A Reader (2017), Doing Disability Differently: An alternative handbook on architecture, dis/ability and designing for everyday life (2014) and Making Space: Women and the Man Made Environment by Matrix (1984/2022). Jos is an Honorary Associate Professor at UCL (UK), and served as a Guest Professor at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen (2022–2025).

Episode 55

For Alice Wong

December 1, 2025

This episode celebrates Alice Wong, crip ancestor and disabled oracle, through her collaborations with the Critical Design Lab and Contra* podcast.

Episode 54

Contra* Season 4 Reflections with Aimi Hamraie and Kelsie Acton

May 14, 2025

On this episode, Aimi Hamraie and Kelsie Acton reflect on this season of Contra*, their work with the Remote Access Archives, and their hopes for how the archives will be used. They also share about their own experiences of finding remote access in their disability communities,and how they archived remote access with the Critical Design Lab team.

Episode 53

Contra* Remote Joy and Community with India Harville

May 7, 2025

This episode, we hear from India Harville, an African American, queer, disabled activist, consultant, public speaker, somatics practitioner, and performance artist. India details her own experience with remote access before and during the pandemic, and the ways that the disability community continues to innovate and experiment to find more ways to connect, find joy, and build community across space and access.

Episode 52

Contra* Sex and Intimacy with Brian Lobel

April 30, 2025

This episode, we hear from Brian Lobel, a white man who was diagnosed with cancer and co-founded of the Sex with Cancer project. Lobel takes us into the world of cancer, queer sex advocacy, disabled pleasure, and the role of hotlines and online spaces as essential remote access for anyone searching for answers to their most intimate questions.

Episode 51

Cripping Pandemic Learning

April 23, 2025

What has been the role of remote access before and during the COVID-19 pandemic for the disability community? In this mini-episode, Kelsie looks at Cripping Pandemic Learning, documents developed by Danielle E. Lorenz and Hannah Sullivan Facknitz to support access for disabled students to online learning. These documents highlight the collaboration and simplicity of access-knowledge sharing common to disability culture.

Episode 50

Contra* Childhood Joy and Education with Katie Goldfinch

April 16, 2025

This episode, we hear from Katie Goldfinch, a white, nonbinary person and solidarity worker with Touretteshero. Katie gives us insight into the disability arts scene in the UK, how Touretteshero navigates the pandemic, and how they are working hard to share collective joy, education, creativity, and curiosity with kids and teachers remotely.

Episode 49

Crips for eSims

April 9, 2025

What has been the role of remote access before and during the COVID-19 pandemic for the disability community? In this mini-episode, Kelsie looks at Crips for E-sims for Gaza, an effort by Alice Wong, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna Samarasinha and Jane Shi to encourage disabled people and their allies to donate to get eSims to people in Gaza. Kelsie reflects on the relationship between mutual aid, remote access and the importance of doing something, however small.

Episode 48

Contra* Fashion and Performance with Sky Cubacub

April 2, 2025

This episode, we hear from Sky Cubacub, a Filipinx, non-binary disabled activist, designer and educator, who founded Rebirth Garments. They discuss their journey to gender-affirming fashion, fashion newsletters, and navigating social media. And, they share their current project with kids – at the intersection of education, performance, and interdependence that is rooted in community care and trust.

Episode 47

Olmstead Quality of Life Survey

March 26, 2025

What has been the role of remote access before and during the COVID-19 pandemic for the disability community? In this mini-episode, Kelsie looks at the Olmstead Quality of Life Survey and reflects on the limits of remote access.

Episode 46

Contra* Remote Access Parties with moira williams

March 19, 2025

On this episode, we hear from moira williams, an Indigenous disabled artist. moira shares their experience with pre-pandemic and pandemic forms of remote access, especially as it pertains to joy, community-building, performance, nightlife and parties, visual protests and more.

Episode 45

Glitch Realm

March 12, 2025

What has been the role of remote access before and during the COVID-19 pandemic for the disability community? In this mini-episode, Kelsie shares a bit about Glitch Realm, a piece of digital art by Yo-Yo Lin and Kevin Gotkin, developed for one of the Remote Access parties and reflects on joy and access magic.

Episode 44

Contra* Environmental Illness and Remote Life with Susan Molloy

March 5, 2025

On this episode of Contra*, Aimi talks to Susan Molloy, a white disabled woman and environmental illness activist. Susan is a resident of a remote, disability community outside of Snowflake, Arizona. Susan shares how she found her way to remote disability advocacy, the barriers to remote access faced by folks with environmental illnesses, and how she and others in her neighborhood advocate, innovate, and design living spaces that fit their needs.

Episode 43

Communication First

February 26, 2025

What has been the role of remote access before and during the COVID-19 pandemic for the disability community? In this mini-episode, Kelsie looks at five documents sent to us by Communication First. Communication First works to advance the rights of people who cannot rely on speech. These documents highlight the need for some disabled people to have in person support, including in person support to participate in remote access.

Episode 42

Contra* Audio Descriptions with Thomas Reid

February 19, 2025

This episode, we hear from Thomas Reid, who is a Black disabled and blind man, podcast producer extraordinaire, and host of Reid My Mind Radio. Thomas discusses audio description and access, especially in the film industry, Blackness and disability, accessibility and blindness, and cross-disability community as he has navigated becoming blind as an adult. He also shares his reasons for hope in the audio description and narration industry, and how remote access has transformed his ability to connect with and grow his community.