[Air-L] Lecture: “Researching Disability and Play – Where’s the fun in that?” with Dr. Katta Spiel

[Gerald Voorhees]

Dear Colleagues,

Please join the Games Institute <https://uwaterloo.ca/games-institute/> at
the University of Waterloo for a Lecture on “Researching Disability and
Play – Where’s the fun in that?” with Dr. Katta Spiel on Thursday, March
9th, 2023 at 2 -3 PM!


This is a free and hybrid event! *Registration is required.
<https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/researching-disability-and-play-wheres-the-fun-in-that-tickets-553685597527>*



*About the event: *



Games research is slowly diversifying in matters of representation as well
as accessibility related investigations. Similarly, a materialist and
embodied understanding of play (also digitally) seeps in more on a
theoretical basis. However, we need to critically examine what kind of
bodies are invited to participate in play and how.  Where games and play
are mostly conceptualised as entertainment for the majority of bodies,
disabled people are often relegated to playing for  externally motivated
purposes that are often driven by deficit oriented medical models of
disability. Using the theory on the surrogate body in play, I illustrate
how it can be instrumental to critically engage with norms governing
digital play and identifying design opportunities playing with said bodily
norms to holistically cater to disabled audiences. I do so by focusing on
the critical analytical category of disability not just through an access
oriented lens per se, but rather to bring principles of disability justice
to play.



*About the speakers:*



Katta Spiel is an FWF Hertha-Firnberg scholar at the HCI Group of TU Wien
(Vienna University of Technology), where they work on the intersection of
Computer Science, Design and Cultural Studies. Katta researches
marginalised perspectives on technologies to inform interaction design and
engineering in critical ways so they may account for the diverse realities
they operate in. Drawing on methods from (Critical) Participatory Design
and Action Research on a background heavily shaped by Queer Theories and
Disability Studies, they collaborate with neurodivergent and/or nonbinary
peers in conducting explorations of novel potentials for designs,
methodological contributions to Human-Computer Interaction and innovative
technological artefacts.



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Gerald Voorhees, Ph.D. (he/him)

Associate Professor

Department of Communication Arts

University of Waterloo

257A ML, Waterloo ON, N2L 3G1


President, Canadian Game Studies Association
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*I acknowledge that I live and work on the traditional territory of the
Attawandaron (Neutral), Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. The
University of Waterloo is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land
promised to the Six Nations that includes ten kilometers on each side of
the Grand River. *