Why do we hate disability?  Why does design neglect disability? How do disabled people tap into their creativity to make the world accessible?

Laura Mauldin is a writer, sociologist, and interdisciplinary scholar based in Brooklyn, NY. She's currently an associate professor at the University of Connecticut. Her research focuses broadly on disability, care, and technology. Her first book, Made to Hear: Cochlear Implants and Raising Deaf Children, documented the structure and culture of the systems we’ve designed to try to make deaf kids hear. Currently, she is writing a nonfiction book on spousal caregiving that weaves together research, memoir, and cultural commentary. She’s recently published articles in The American Prospect, Baffler Magazine, and the Los Angeles Review of books connected to spousal caregiving. Most recently, she launched the new website DisabilityAtHome.org which documents the daily hacks that disabled people and caregivers have devised to make life work at home. 

Episode Mentions:

Book: Made to Hear: Cochlear Implants and Raising Deaf Children by Laura Mauldin

Website: disabilityathome.org

Article: Care Tactics: Hacking an Abelist World by Laura Mauldin

Article: Finding Comfort at Home: New Website Logs Solutions to Everyday Problems for Disabled People and Their Caregivers

Follow: Liz Jackson

Follow: Imani Barbarin

Website: Well Spouse Association

Other related content:

Website: engineeringathome.org

Link: Designing for Disability - TED Talks

Follow Laura: Twitter | LinkedIn

Episode Website: https://mailchi.mp/designlabpod/lauramauldin

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Production by Robert Pugliese

Edit by Fernando Queiroz

Cover Design by Eden Lew

Theme song by Emmanuel Houston

Indexed in the Library of Congress: ISSN 2833-2032