Disability, Technology, Art, Ethnography, Activism, and Access
Karen Nakamura, Professor
Anthropology
Applications for Spring 2026 are closed for this project.
The Berkeley Disability Lab (https://disabilitylab.berkeley.edu/) has been involved in several projects surrounding disability, technology, art, activism, and access in the Bay Area. We welcome students from all fields of the university (arts, engineering, social sciences, communications, CS, design, music, architecture, etc.). People with personal experience of disability or exclusion are particularly welcome.
Weekly Meetings: Attendance at weekly lab meeting (Friday 12-2pm) is mandatory. Additional lab hours, which include team meetings, are also required.
Role: Tasks include:
1. Background research and reading
2. Research pertaining to specific user needs
3. Design: monitoring and evaluation of adaptive technology
4. Field testing and monitoring with user feedback
5. Accessible access to design and research: the intention of the Disability Lab is to create products which are open access to-- and easily shared with [[and hacked by]]-- the disability community
Students will learn how to conduct research pertaining to adaptive technology and design. Apprentices will learn how to conduct field interviews, run field tests, and learn how to iterate user and community feedback into the design process.
Qualifications: Qualifications: Everyone is qualified.
Students with lived experience of disability, neurodiversity, or environmental sensitivity are particularly invited to apply. Background experience with standard makerspace tools-- Arduino, Python, Raspberry Pi, 3D design tools, CNC, 3D printing, videography and editing, etc.--, grant writing and web design would be especially appreciated.
We ask that members dedicate 6-8 a week to the URAP (3hrs for meetings; 3-5 for specific project work). Required: Students will need to agree with both a lab code of conduct agreement as well as lab equipment safety requirements and trainings.
Separately, we have a new project this semester which seeks specific qualifications [the project description is listed below]:
As digital technologies increasingly mediate life in the US, public and professional discourse respond with a growing backlash to their proliferation. The fast pace at which digital technologies are flooding work, education, and domestic life contributes to a sense of urgency with which health and state actors move to gain clarity about their harmful potential. How do social and political demands to limit or reject digital technologies reconcile their simultaneous permeation in daily life? This project works at the intersection of technology addiction and technology resistance, exploring how these phenomena become unified in ‘offline’ activists’ efforts to build a national movement against the technological saturation of everyday life. The project’s current objective is to survey the past and present-day emergence of these movements to contextualize their historical, social, and political formulation.
Role: Undergraduate researchers will survey and synthesize past, present, and emerging interdisciplinary literature on the topics of technology addiction and technology resistance. While literature can be from a broad array of sources, undergraduate researchers will focus on popular literature, policy and politics, and social media and online trends. This literature review will assess how technology addiction and technology resistance have emerged and evolved over time and outline their current status within the popular landscape.
Qualifications: Applicants should have strong reading and writing skills, experience synthesizing literature and trends across academic and popular sources (Google Scholar, social media platforms, news articles, policy reports), or a strong desire to learn. An interest in qualitative research skills, the phenomenon of technology addiction, and the emergence of offline/technology-resistance movements is preferred.
Hours: 2-6
Research sites: Weekly on-campus meeting. The remainder of the work will be done during Disability Lab Office Hours or independently off-campus.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Gloria Kunder, Graduate Student
Hours: 6-8 hrs
Related website: https://disabilitylab.berkeley.edu/
Related website: http://disability.jp/nakamura