Perspectives in Assistive Technology is a Winter Quarter Stanford course - entering its nineteenth year - that explores the design, development, and use of assistive technology that benefits people with disabilities and older adults. It consists of semi-weekly in-person discussions; lectures by notable professionals, clinicians, and assistive technology users; a tour of an accessible inclusive playground; student project presentations and demonstrations; and an Assistive Technology Faire. Students pursue team-based projects that address real challenges faced by people with disabilities and older adults living in the local community. Check out the course website.

Tuesday, January 28th at 4:30pm PST

Abstract: "In this talk, I will share my personal experience as a user with cochlear implants, and discuss the history and future of this device's development. Introducing historian of science and technology Mara Mills' term "bionic rhetoric," I will explain how the cochlear implant negotiates two different strains of thinking in assistive technology design: normalization and enhancement. My talk will conclude with a discussion of how this rhetoric gets metabolized in literary and popular discourse, and how these narratives illuminate how people with disabilities use - and even hack - their assistive technologies."

Biosketch: Lindsey Dolich Felt is a lecturer in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric and teaches#NoBodyIsDisposable: The Rhetoric of Disability and The Rhetoric of Nonverbal Communication at Stanford University. She received her PhD in English from Stanford University in 2016, and holds a BA from Haverford College. Before coming to Stanford, she worked as a journalist for ESPN the Magazine and ESPN.com.

Her research interests include contemporary American literature, media culture, science fiction, science and technology studies, and disability studies. She is currently researching how disabled bodies crucially shaped conceptions of electronic communication in the post-WWII era, and has written articles on female hackers in Cyberpunk fiction, and the little known history of the first cybernetic limb and its influence on communication engineering in the early Cold War era.

Her course, "Unruly Bodies: Gesturing Toward a New Rhetorics of Body Language" explores how advances in science, technology, medicine, and culture have transformed our understanding of disability, normalcy, and health.

Thursday, January 30th at 4:30pm PST

Abstract: "Robots once were a dream of the future, but they now creep into all aspects of our lives, whether it be vacuuming our house or exploring distant planets. Rehabilitation and mobility are no different. Exoskeletons can provide the motion and support that a user cannot, supplementing or replacing their muscles to enable natural motion. These devices can be used for mobility or for rehabilitation, but both uses come with challenges. I will discuss the design and control of robotic exoskeletons and the challenges faced when designing these devices."

Biosketch: Katherine Strausser holds a Bachelor's degree from Carnegie Mellon University and a Master's and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. She was one of three primary inventors of Ekso 1, an electro-mechanical lower extremity exoskeleton and is currently a senior controls engineer at Ekso Bionics working on control algorithms and software for various research efforts focusing on the Human Machine Interface.

• Tuesday, February 4th - Thoughts on Assistive Robotics
• Thursday, February 6th - Assistive Robotics