Paper Alert: Experiencing Deaf Tech

Robin Angelini, Katta Spiel and Maartje De Meulder just published a paper on Deaf Technology! Curious what it’s all about? We’ve got a quick overview for you in these slides!

👉 Their research dives into how current tech often requires deaf users to adapt, rather than being designed with their needs in mind. 💡 

👉 What if technology was specifically created with deaf perspectives as a priority? This paper explores that idea through a case study called Deaf Watch — a concept imagined by deaf participants to better serve their everyday experiences.

Plus, Robin explains the paper’s main points in International Sign (IS).

Open doors with ‘die Maus’

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.
Children, a mother and researchers at the four stations. 3D printed mice and coins, glowing mouse hand puppets are made, a story is read aloud, and learning sign language is prepared.
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!

More information about the event can be found on the ‘Türen auf mit der Maus’ Website

You can also find further impressions on our new Instagram channel.

Dazzling contributions at MuC24

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.


Our first contribution from Kay and Janis was to co-organise and run the workshop Can’t Touch This? Is This Touch? It’s So Fluffy I’m Gonna Die! — Material and Tangible Research Methods in HCI‘. Together, they created a zine with the catchy name ‘Touchy Feely’, which was duplicated in an overnight action and published directly at the conference the next day. We announced the workshops here on this website in April.

A zine double page with drawings and text.
Scribbles of the Zine centering quotes around a human figurine.


On the second day, Katta gave a prominent keynote speech in the workshop ‘Bedürfnisse sind unterschiedlich und verändern sich, Methoden auch? Umdenken bei Forschungsmethoden’ and used their own practical examples to show how research with the mindset of “being consciously non-helpful” can lead to a fundamental understanding and radical implementation of access and participation.

Box of zines and stickers.

On the third day, our core values of participation and solidarity were again highlighted in the paper presentation entitled ‘Von Partizipation zu Solidarität: Eine Fallstudie zur Zugänglichkeit von Makerspaces aus Gehörloser und Hörender Perspektive’ by Oliver and Katta.

Oliver and Katta presenting a talk.  A slide in the background reads Access/Zugang.


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.

Panel discussion with five people and one interpreter in the back.


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!

Five team members showing of their shirts with logos on the back in front of the MuC Logo.
Five team members showing of their shirts with logos on the back in front of the MuC Logo.

First ACCESSTECH paper out: “Cyber toy stories: The broken promises and broken parts of interactive sex toys” 

Videos show content in International Sign (left) and Austrian Sign Language (right).

Teledildonics are remote-controllable sex toys that transmit touch in real-time via vibrational patterns between two (or more) users. Inspired by sci-fi narratives, they aim at enabling sex at physical distance. The ability to combine teledildonics with virtual reality pornography further promises endless possibilities for sexual interactions.  

To investigate how this idea is realized in practice, we took a deep dive into one Dutch teledildonics company, KIIROO

The results

KIIROO portrays an imminent technologized utopia by promising that their products will revolutionize sexual relationships and improve the health and safety of their customers. However, while they present their claims as established facts, they do so without necessarily providing the required proof to back these up. 

Further, despite claiming that their products are for everyone KIIROO’s presentations and design of their teledildonics rienforce cis-hetero-normative concepts of sex, intimacy, and relationships. Thereby a range of groups (such as queer and disabled people) are marginalized, ignored and effectively excluded. 

Contrary to the company’s promises, we show how such enactments potentially result in a dystopia characterized by security nightmares around intimacies and dire consequences for mental and physical health, safety, and consensual sexual interactions.

The point

Design and marketing of a product cannot be separated. If we actually want to foster inclusivity, we also need to change the cyber toy stories we tell about intimate technologies. 

You can find the full paper at the journal homepage.

ÖGGF Gender Lecture

Videos show content in International Sign (left) and Austrian Sign Language (right).

On Tuesday, March 19th 2024 at 6pm, Katta Spiel will give an online talk on “Tech-Utopias between Cyborgs and Care – What Access has to do with Solidarity and Feminism”. It will be given in German and interpreted to Austrian Sign Language. The talk is part of the ÖGGF Lecture Series on Current Positions in Gender Studies. ÖGGF stands for Gender Studies Association Austria. They request you register at office{at}oeggf.at.

Poster Version of the Invitation in German. All information has been put in text already.