Follow-up: the end of conference plenary with a chat g summary of reflections that people put into the conference app. Sigh

Ever since I've been in academia (almost 20 yrs) people have been talking about the end of the traditional academic conference yet they largely persist. What changes have you seen in conferences that you think make a difference? I'll start

0 days since I have heard "I asked [AI tool] about this and.." in a keynote/commencement speech, etc

Coming soon! Reissue of Design for Independent Living, an exceptional document of disabled expertise in collab with architecture students in the 1970s, by Raymond Lifchez and Barbara Winslow. New intro by me, Aimi Hamraie & Ignacio Galán. www.upress.umn.edu/978151792140...

TIL that the term "tarmac" is a shortening of "tarmacadam" referring to tar + a technique of layering crushed stones for hard surfaces (named for engineer McAdam who invented it in 19th c). Basically a precursor to asphalt - but oddly seems mainly to refer to airport paved areas today - right?

This post has great alt text that helped me realize that even when names are provided IDK who 80% of these people are. But pretty clothes! Very bad sponsors! (But let's be honest the met & it's sponsors have never been great)

me: oh my next book is going to be way more succinct and won't go down every rabbit hole like my dissertation-to-book also me: reading entire books to inform 1 to 2 sentences of current hodgepodge of partial drafts

I need a punch card for how many times I've been at a disability-focused event where someone claims they don't need a microphone.

Yeah, hi, I’m a person with “mobility challenges” (excuse me while I hurl). What we want, by and large, are not expensive, heavy devices that will “help us walk again”, but ramps. I know, it’s not sexy, as technology invented before Christ, but it is overlooked in favor of…this. Repeatedly.

it seems like a fair number of people I know from students to colleagues are starting to write in this way where parts of paragraphs are bolded. I am not a fan. Where does this come from and is it preferred by anyone?

<sigh>

love to hear that my university hired a consulting firm to assess our research support - probably spending more than I would earn in research funds in 5 careers. Forgive me for not feeling that marginalized topics, non STEM, and smaller-scale funding are going to be hot topics for them.

I realize this isn't the main thing here but isn't Times New Roman no longer even packaged with Microsoft Word? (while Calibri is the default there) Maybe worth saying there isn't really a single font that is considered most accessible.. but TNR is very poor for readability.

I'm sorry, but it's just too funny that medical leave is called FML

LOL @ this romantic post about the least romantic first date location you could possibly imagine.

Or come for a book talk from David Serlin on his most recent title, "Window Shopping with Helen Keller: Architecture and Disability in Modern Culture: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi... 5/5

I am gutted to learn of @sfdirewolf.bsky.social (Alice Wong’s) passing. She was always a warm friend, a wonderful spirit, and someone who fostered my own growth. She helped me see that, as a #disabled person with chronic illness, I matter—I am whole. I’ll be posting some of Alice’s work. ❤️ forever

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...

30 years ago today the Disability Discrimination Act became law in the UK. We're at Insole Court, Cardiff today for #BeingHumanFestival25 reflecting on it's legacy

just wild how still, almost 20 years into researching what I've been researching, a friend is like "have you seen this masters thesis from 1985" and i click 2 links and have it on my computer, and I've never seen it before. I am thinking AI cannot do this but I do appreciate that regular search can.

Lia Smith was a transgender rights advocate and athlete who spoke out forcefully against this administration's policies. Rest in peace. Every trans suicide is a murder by those in power. www.middleburycampus.com/article/2025...

I just wanna point out that this online No Kings protest organized by disabled folks is offering more opportunities for follow-up and additional action than I’ve seen for any of the in-person events. Not hatin’- just sayin’ 💁🏽‍♀️

boosting & reading disabilityvisibilityproject.com/2025/10/15/g...

Wow a bracing interview on NPR 's Here & now about birth control misinfo on Tiktok, particularly aligned with claims from the likes of Charlie Kirk that birth control has a detrimental effect on women's patches/personalities so they need to get off it to know their true selves

Great to see this new bio of Ed Roberts, one of the key figures in the US Disability Rights Mvmt. Looks like great detail on the legislative and politics work he did beyond what he's best known for in Berkeley. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Following this thread!

Am a fan of the Vibe Check podcast just to get to listen to these 3 great friends who are super smart, caring, knowledgeable, and love dogs and music and poetry. And if you need a super cathartic, absolute takedown of Bari Weiss today, go to about 35 min pca.st/episode/daa5...

I think…people’s obsession with “a cause”…is precisely because autism’s genetic randomness is hard to stratify by social class……………..

fascinated by the fine print of this

People will say the younger generations aren't tough but I'm at an outdoor concert where it's upward of 80 F and people are wearing sweatshirts and tweed jackets. Horrors for my perimenopausal eyes.

I'm thinking of this piece I wrote way back in June 2014, about the problematic assumption that when you're a starting PhD student or PGR who is disabled, you'll know what access support you'll need, even though you've never done a research degree before phdisabled.wordpress.com/2014/06/11/t...

I've gotten so many spam calls lately I've started answering them to see what kind of calls they are. Scary thing is not knowing if this corny sounding dude is just really skilled at trying to turn this conversation around to get my personal info, or if that dude is a bot that is very good at that.

Oh I didn't know this!

in my search for more writing that is less AI susceptible and engaging in general, I had a new type of assignment this semester - "week in review," where students look back over class notes, slides, and our online whiteboard to summarize what we discussed and their assessment of what they learned.

oh no my favorite fidget provider All Things Sensory makes a fidget toy ADVENT CALENDAR. I do not need 24 days of fidgets. But maybe I could need 12. For #research www.allthingssensoryshop.com/product-page...

Way more masks in airports rn (from limited observation). Weird silver lining of recent vaccine discourse is finding out that people actually do remember that COVID exists. Can be hard to tell sometimes.

An even handed overview of what is going on, for people like me who get stressed out by rumor and meme-based news absorption (& bc old fashioned news outlets are completely absent on this beat) www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/it-s-time-...

UC Berkeley Depart of History tenure-track asst prof job in Global History of Technology. History of technological artifacts & infrastructures through a global & transnational lens. All fields, areas, & periods of #HistTech considered For more info: aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05065 #HPS 🗃️

I will literally never learn not to leave image permissions to the end of a project. JFC

my pettiest* professor annoyance is with profs who do not wipe off their whiteboards. You can bet I am trying to guess whose class content this is, and judging. Reeks of "my ideas are the most important" not to mention "I expect other people to clean up after me" *oh I probably have pettier

This interview by @annehelen.bsky.social with @hzeavin.bsky.social will slay you if you're a modern parent pca.st/podcast/909a... Seems like Mother Media could be the next More Work for Mother i.e. helping a whole generation rethink their childhood when they read it in college/grad school

This is the history that we stand to lose if the Trump administration is allowed to continue to dismantle and gut the National Park Service. Thanks to Ashley Whitehead Luskey for writing this brutally honest and deeply personal op-ed. #NationalParks www.historians.org/perspectives...

“If anyone...agrees sheltered workshops should continue, [they] obviously never worked at one." For @motherjones.com, I spoke with disabled workers who used to be paid subminimum wage about Trump admin nixing the plan to end it for disabled people federally. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

GoFundMe in comments

"Secretary Order 3431 . . . poses a threat to the interpretation of American history at NPS sites. The directive demands that the NPS revise educational materials, exhibits, and programs to avoid what it calls “ideological bias.” 🏳️‍🌈 🗃️ 🍎 🗺️ www.oah.org/2025/06/18/s...

Celebrating the fact that Juneteenth was something I never heard of for the first half of my life as a white American, that is now a national holiday. Public history is a gift of shared knowledge.

NEW IN #Mystery! THE DEAD COME TO STAY is out Aug 5; it’s the sequel to award winning FRAMED WOMEN OF ARDEMORE HOUSE—one of the few #books with an #autistic protagonist who claims her #autism! Below is the trailer for book one, and book two will be my next post. www.harpercollins.com/products/the...

My most annoying party self is me lecturing people about how f-ed up the story of Hermione 's anti elf slavery campaign is. Definitely important to boycott JKR if you like the books though.

My favorite kind of academic writing is like the a conspiracy bulletin board with yarn connections all over. In other words, always pointing to other people's ideas, citing, building on. The opposite is always inventing new words, new frameworks for things other people have already written about.

Listening to Jillian Michaels discussing autism with Joe Rogan for my morning rage. Truly what are we as a society where these people have such $ and reach. Better links in thread...