Several members of the ACCESSTECH team participated in the 10th conference of the Gender Studies Association Austria (ÖGGF) which took place in Graz, 18-20 September 2024. The transdisciplinary conference focussed on the theme of “Humans – Machines – Environments” and addressed critical questions around the roles of gender in technology, the interaction between humans and machines, and biases in artificial intelligence.
ACCESSTECH contributed two talks: On Thursday, Katta Spiel talked about “Digitalisiertes Schlangenöl: Automatisierte Ansätze in der Gendermedizin” (Digitized Snake Oil: Automated Approaches in Gender Medicine).
On Friday, Janis Lena Meißner and Ekat Osipova shared reflections on “The Risk of Materialized Cultural Reproduction in and through Online 3D-Model Databases” and presented work they have conducted together with Kay Kender and Naemi Luckner.
Last week, we had special visitors: ‚die Maus‘ came for a visit along many small and ‘big’ children. Under the theme ‘Technology for an inclusive future’, we set up four interactive stations as part of #TürenAufMitDerMaus2024, where young and old could playfully
explore 3D printing,
immerse themselves in Austrian sign language,
learn about how circuits and LEDs work, and
reflect on what solidarity actually means.
Impressions from the “ZusammenTun” (collaborating) with the Maus.
Many thanks to our curious visitors, who participated wonderfully and with great interest at each station. We look forward to seeing you again next year!
ACCESSTECH had a strong presence at this year’s „Mensch und Computer“ (MuC) in Karlsruhe, Germany. Founded in 2001, the MuC conference is the largest conference series on human-computer interaction in Europe.
Almost the entire ACCESSTECH team was on site to present our work and goals in various workshops, paper presentations and panel discussions to an interested audience of experts.
Oliver then took part in a panel discussion on the topic of ‘The State of (In)Accessibility in Academia’ and used their own experiences to argue that the removal of barriers is a continuous process and can only be successful if it is actively driven forward by all parties involved (with and without disabilities). With these comprehensive contributions and a dazzling appearance (see photo below), we have evidently succeeded in giving visibility and publicity to our concerns among a (partly somewhat traditional) audience.
All in all, it was a very successful conference which, in addition to the professional aspects, also offered an excellent supporting programme with a festival atmosphere and cultural evening events in an impressive setting. We would like to thank everyone involved in the organisation and implementation and congratulate them on a fabulous MuC24!