This roundtable conversation considers what it means to design accessible conference presentations, as well as how to survive and navigate conferences as a disabled scholar. How might we advocate for access in inaccessible and often high-stakes terrain? What strategies might we use in our own conference practices to support the work of access creation?

Please register to attend on Zoom: https://myumi.ch/JwZrE

About the Panelists:

Michele Friedner (Professor and Chair, Department of Comparative Human Development, University of Chicago) is a medical anthropologist and works at the intersections of medical anthropology, science and technology studies, disability studies, deaf studies, and sensory studies. Her most recent book is Sensory Futures: Deafness and Cochlear Implant Infrastructures (Minnesota, 2022). She is excited to talk about the sensory and other infrastructures of academic conferences.

Ruth Osorio (Associate Professor of English and Women's and Gender Studies, Old Dominion University) is a feminist rhetorician who researches disability activism, critical access literacies, and feminist historiography. She has researched and participated in disability access advocacy at the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) and Feminisms and Rhetoric Conference. Outside of work, she's a troop leader for a large LGBTQIA-affirming Girl Scout troop in Norfolk, avid reader of novels, and a lover of nature.

Kuansong Victor ZHUANG (Assistant Professor in Disability Communication, Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University Singapore) is a disability studies scholar working at the intersections of disability, media, cultural and communication studies. His research focuses on disability and inclusion in contemporary societies such as Singapore. He is also exploring questions of digital inclusion, in particular, the sociotechnical imaginaries of disability in emerging technologies, and the intersections of sustainable futures and disability in smart cities.


We want to make our events accessible to all participants. CART services will be provided. If you anticipate needing accommodations to participate, please email Giselle Mills at gimills@umich.edu. Please note that some accommodations must be arranged in advance and we encourage you to contact us as soon as possible.