Taught a class on body politics and screened Tod Browning’s Freaks (1932). Asked everyone to put their tech away and focus. Over half the class fell asleep. I still think about this.

like big tobacco funding cancer research

In my book Illness Politics and Hashtag Activism, I write about the #MillionsMissing protests as demonstrating, quoting Judith Butler in Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly, "what it means to mobilize vulnerability in concert." #NietHersteld does this too. manifold.umn.edu/projects/lln...

And whilst I'm here! If you're thinking of buying SYSTEMS ULTRA as a festive gift (neon cover also doubles as SAD lamp), I'd be happy to mail you a set of bookmarks and holographic stickers to go along with it - please get in touch [1/4]

Please listen to this amazing episode with Stefanie Felsberger @flsbrgr.bsky.social shows.acast.com/the-data-fix...

Looking forward to hearing on @clemicollett.bsky.social new report later today at 12pm!

WE JUST KEEP WINNING. (UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program RESTORED!!!!)

I don’t want to formulate words yet, but my friend Alice Wong, @sfdirewolf.bsky.social of the Disability Visibility Project, has passed. Here are the words she left behind: www.instagram.com/p/DREMDNBjnq...

The incredible, indomitable, inspirational Alice Wong has left us. I'm so grateful to have known her on social media, and so grateful for all the words she shared with us and all the actions she encouraged us into making. May we live up to her example. (so you don't have to go to Instagram)

gosh big tears rolling down my face. rip dear Alice

More work from the "AI in the Street" project, where we used "access data walks" in the streets of Cambridge. Other cities (London, Edinburgh and Coventry) featured in this study too.

When asked by Rachel Troup, counsel to the inquiry, if the voices of those people "might not be as loud… as others", Mx Porter said: "The voices are loud, they are just not listened to."

The British Academy ECR Seed Fund recently confirmed that transcription costs are eligible for funding, but you'll need a rationale for swerving AI tools. Let us help you argue why your specialist research needs specialist support from real, live transcribers with research expertise 👇

as a girl with a PhD in natural language processing and machine learning it's actually offensive to me when you say "we don't know how LLMs work so they might be conscious" I didn't spend 10 years in mines of academia to be told ignorance is morally equal knowledge. We know exactly how LLMs work.

🔔 freelance researcher call At @carefultrouble.bsky.social we're looking for freelance researchers to deliver a literature search on the impacts of AI adoption, looking at worker safety, infrastructure resilience, and environmental safety www.careful.industries/blog/2025-9-...

Capitalism is not working www.reuters.com/world/usdot-...

Our latest for Buttondown, @fractalecho.bsky.social and I dug into Microsoft's inaccurate telling of its own 'Inclusive Design' story and who Inclusive Design erases more broadly. bsky.app/profile/lizj...

📢 One week left to apply for the Research Associate position with the Algorithmic Kitchen! Applications close on 5 October. www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...

Read the full report (with a BSL summary) - BSL is Not for Sale - from @louhicky.bsky.social, @alexahagerty.bsky.social, and Rose Powell. ➡️ www.mctd.ac.uk/bsl-not-for-...

Today is International Day of Sign Languages, a day commemorating the establishment of the World Federation of the Deaf and spotlighting the issues Deaf people face in their everyday lives. This year's theme is: No Human Rights Without Sign Language Rights❗

My department, Sociology at the University of Calgary, is hiring FOUR (4) tenure track professors this fall in the areas of systemic justice and structural harm. Please help us to circulate this widely within your scholarly networks!

It's great to see hard copies of the "BSL is not for Sale" report at the @mctd.bsky.social meeting today!

Current procurement of artificial intelligence (AI) using British Sign Language (BSL) is excluding deaf expertise, resulting in harm and “serious institutional risks” such as service failures and a breakdown in community trust - a University of Cambridge paper has warned.

Yesterday we published a report on buying BSL AI. We look how a Deaf-led governance model could improve how public institutions commission BSL AI tool, including setting up a national expertise network to completing deaf-led algorithmic impact assessments.

Watch a BSL summary of the report ➡️ vimeo.com/1115461686/4...

Really proud of this report. Our focus is Sign Language AI, but the core message applies everywhere: communities affected by AI should lead its procurement. When we get this right, we build better services for everyone. Full report available now.

We're hiring a new lecturer @stsucl.bsky.social. We're looking for someone with particular interests in the environment. Please share widely www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

I have a new report coming out this week on British Sign Language (BSL) AI. Co-authors and I avoided using the popular term 'Sign AI' to ground languages with specific histories and cultures. Sign AI is a deeply depolitical move taken by tech companies.

NEW JOB! Algorithmic Kitchen is hiring a postdoc! The project is seeking a Research Associate with expertise in STS, design, HCI, or critical disability studies to co-create innovative methods and prototypes. Apply by 5 Oct 2025 www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...

They deliberately failed democracy for clickbait.

My new installation A Harbinger, A Horizon, and A Hope: Three Heralds of Possible AI Futures is now open at Inspace Gallery in Edinburgh for the Edinburgh Festival. It's three interactive devices each showing a glimpse at a different future for individuals and communities and their relation to AI.

RoboCop: *about to arrest me* Me: before you arrest me, which of these 9 pictures have cars in them RoboCop: i’m going to let you off with a warning

There are some amazing subheadings in this paper: “‘We’ll take your toothpaste too if you keep this up’: the asymmetries of carceral tinkering”

Another policy ick is lived experience. Of course, the spectator has offered a short history.

I stopped reading the 'well-meaning' evals, which provided instruction on how to 'manage' my own disability.

Next week, I'm starting a new project called "Algorithmic Kitchen" with support from the @wellcometrust.bsky.social a project that weaves disability design with health tech. I'm ready to grow new networks with direct engagement with a touring kitchen! wellcome.org/research-fun...

* STS folks! * CMU is hiring up to 2 tenure track faculty focused on: the intersection of tech & social change, the environmental and social impacts of science, tech, and medicine. They will be housed in History, a department of both historians and anthropologists. apply.interfolio.com/170040

So, they are going to share the locations of where highly vulnerable individuals live with firms which have suffered massive data breaches? Hmm, what could possibly go wrong.

And people still wonder why psychoanalysis is having a moment

“Taking a data justice approach, it [the report] critiques society’s poor understanding of what is at stake in tracking menstruation, maps the existing and future harms of tracking menstrual cycles by private companies for both individuals and society, and suggests ways to mitigate these risks…”

Astonishing of the BBC. Their oversized contribution to normalising some of the most appalling policies both sides of the Atlantic will I’ve no doubt be studied by media and sociology students down the ages.

This sort of error will lead to insurance denials, medical errors and lawsuits. It also puts the burden on patients to check and correct their own records, if they can. Just utter madness

Dynamic pricing is the worst. We need more research on how this intersects with disability and accessibility. Anyone working on this?

It was good to meet the team and steering committee in person on Monday after working together for two years.

The policy team at Royal Society is launching their new report on disability tech: how data and digital assistive technologies can support independent, fulfilled lives today. I've served on the steering committee (made up with disabled and non-disabled experts) to support this important work.

& enjoy the most abundant seating in the V&A museum at the Design and Disability exhibition:

TOMORROW 🗯️ Crip Authorship Drop by the V&A Museum for an afternoon exploring disability, authorship, and access. @louhicky.bsky.social will explore the value of human labour in building accessible media, with a partial screening of ‘Captioning on Captioning’. ➡️ www.mctd.ac.uk/events/crip-...

'Meredith,' some guys ask, 'why won't you shove AI into Signal?' Because we love privacy, and we love you, and this shit is predictable and unacceptable. Use Signal ❤️

In her new memoir "Beautiful Mystery," @danilynrutherford.bsky.social‬ tells the story of her life with her daughter Millie, who cannot communicate verbally, which has taught her that we do not need to understand someone to love them. Read the intro for free now! buff.ly/445b3n8

A blue bench by Finnegan Shannon "I need more time. Rest here if you agree" at the Design and Disability show. www.vam.ac.uk/event/135rMr...