'Disability & Locative Media' by Gerard Goggin, U. of Sydney, talk at 'Social Lives of Locative Media' Symposium, 22 July 2014, Swinburne University, Melbourne

1. Disability and Locative Media
paper for The Social Lives of Locative Media Symposium
Swinburne University, 23 July 2014
Gerard Goggin
@ggoggin
Department of Media & Communications
University of Sydney

2. Acknowledgements
paper based on:
Katie Ellis and Gerard Goggin, ‘Disability, Locative
Media, and Complex Ubiquity.’ In Complex Ubiquity-
Effects: Individuating, Situating, Eventualizing, eds.
Ulrik Ekman et al. (Routledge, 2015).
research supported by:
Disability and Digital Technology: Accessible Design,
Global Media Policy, and Human Rights, ARC Future
Fellowship project, 2014-2018

3. disability & locative media:
encounter of 2 kinds of complexity
1. Disability itself has been proposed as a kind of
cultural location, with its specificity and dynamics
Sharon L. Snyder and David T. Mitchell, Cultural Locations of Disability
(Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2006).
In line with complexity theory, there is complexity
of disability, as constituted in contemporary society.
For example, in its individuation, disability is never
just one isolated category – it’s co-dependent on a
diverse range of other instantiations of class,
gender, race, ethnicity, locality + historical and
cultural specificity.

4. disability & locative media:
encounter of 2 kinds of complexity
2. There is the complexity of the cultural shaping of
locative media, and its materiality.
• locative media are characterized by evolution of
range of technologies that gather & use
information about locations + socio-cultural
dynamics of location & place (Farman, Frith, Goggin, Gordon,
Hjorth, Humphreys, Licoppe, Light, Richardson, Race, de Souza e Silva,
Schwarz, Wilken, et cetera)
• mobile phone is key technology here; in
smartphone stage of locative media, disability
becomes zone for much more intense visibility,
design, and engagement

5. Disability is thus not just a health problem. It is a
complex phenomenon, reflecting the interaction
between features of a person’s body and
features of the society in which he or she lives.
— World Health Organization (WHO)
World Heath Organization, “Disabilities,”
http://www.who.int/topics/disabilities/en/

6. sonic pathfinder (Tony Heyes,
Melbourne-based)

7. ‘The Sonic Pathfinder is a secondary mobility aid for use
by people with a vision impairment. It is not suitable for
anyone who does not have primary mobility skills. It is
designed for use out-of-doors in conjunction with either a
cane, a guide dog or residual vision. The use of the device
must be taught by a correctly trained Mobility Instructor.’
‘Imagine yourself in an open space some 4 metres (12ft.)
away from a wall. If you were to turn to face the wall and
start walking, suddenly you would hear, in both ears, the
notes of the musical scale descending in order. Each note
represents a distance of approximately 0.3 metres (1ft.)
of travel. If you were to stop when the tonic is reached;
you would be able to reach forward and touch the wall
with the outstretched hand.’
Tony Heyes, ‘The Sonic Pathfinder’, http://www.sonicpathfinder.org/

8. Since being totally blind I feel much more traffic
vulnerable, not so much getting lost or anything,
just getting run over. And I have a secondary
fear of actually causing injury to another
pedestrian when I'm run down. So the mobility
stuff [using an ultrasound sensor] is highly
valued.
-- Tom, a 46 year old Blind man, from Adelaide,
South Australian
Quoted in Deborah Lupton and Wendy Seymour, “Technology, Selfhood and Physical
Disability,” Social Science & Medicine 50 (2000): 1856.

9. A dog is far more suitable than using something like
a mote sensor and a sonic pathfinder, for example,
which are electronic aids that are either hand-held,
or one actually sits on your head, like a head band
with ear plugs and a big thing across the forehead
and stuff … [I]t’s socially frightening to a lot of
people … Whereas, for example, to walk around
with a dog is completely and utterly socially
acceptable. And I think with technologies, the more
obtrusive it is, the more offensive it can become to
some people.
-- Margie, a 24 year old Blind woman
Quoted in Lupton and Seymour, “Technology, Selfhood and Physical Disability”, 2000

10. ‘A ' spin-off ' from my aid for the blind, I Invented and
patented ReverseAid in 1983. It is an ultrasonic device
which, when fitted to the back of cars or trucks, gives a
warning to the driver when reversing, should there be an
obstacle behind the vehicle … It was fitted to every car I
owned for the next 18 years. That is, until I was forced to
stop driving because of failing eyesight … It was suggested
that my enthusiasm for the device was because I was a
one-eyed driver and could not judge distances. Today the
situation is very different, many embodiments of the
ReverseAid technology are now available (known
generically as Parking Sensors). It seems to have become
popular even with two-eyed drivers!’ –
Tony Heyes, http://www.sonicpathfinder.org/

11. In the event of service disruption [to public
transportation], the disabled traveller needs
information in an appropriate form about
suitable alternative methods of reaching their
destination … Mobile phones equipped with
cameras can also be used to send visual and
location information to a service centre where
an operator can then guide the user to their
desired destination.
John Gill, “Priorities for Technological Research for Visually Impaired People,” Visual
Impairment Research 7 (2005): 59-61.

12. Using mobile phones they create audio
recordings, videos, text and images that are
immediately published on the Web. Participants
transform these devices into digital
megaphones, amplifying the voices of
individuals and groups who are often
overlooked or misrepresented in the
mainstream media.
Antoni Abad, “Communities + Mobile Phones = Collaborative Visions,”
http://megafone.net/

19. I really hate it when we go into a restaurant and,
after we’ve gotten settled in, I discover that I am
going to need to negotiate stairs if I want to go to
the restroom. Stairs are my nemesis at the moment
and I would really like to know, before we go
somewhere, that I won’t be confronted by them. …
an iPhone app [could be created] specifically for
this kind of information. Like Yelp and its ilk, it
would be powered by the social network, with
people adding information about places that are
wheelchair/cane friendly.
Sylvie, “Disability and iPhone apps. Population of One”, 2009,
www.sylvienoel.ca/blog/?p=1195

20. Exchange
Telstra
blog, 1
May 2014

21. “OK Glass, what’s this?” With four short words, 31-
year-old Kelly Schulz, 97 per cent blind since birth,
is given a glimpse of what’s in front of her. Google’s
head-mounted computer snaps a photo and a reads
a description into her right ear. “It is a male
bathroom”, a computerised voice tells her. Other
times, “it is a $20 note”, “a bottle of skim milk”, or
“a can of BBQ baked beans”. Schulz trialled a
prototype app on Glass for a day, and though she
stresses that the best piece of technology has four
legs, a wet nose and responds to the name Gallia,
she says Glass has massive potential.
“Google Glass and Telstra come to the help of the disabled,” News.com.au, 5 May,
2014

22. The majority of people want access to the
same market-leading devices that the rest
of the population use. They want to choose
from the same library of apps and
participate in the same activities online.
Scott Hollier, “Opinion: Do we still need specialist technology?”
Media Access, 13 June, 2013, mediaaccess.org.au

23. Google Glass has the potential to radically
impact the lives of people with disabilities. Will
you partner with us in making Google Glass
more accessible?
-- Indiegogo crowdfunding platform campaign
“Make it Happen! Google Glass for People with Disabilities,” December, 13, 2013,
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/make-it-happen-google-glass-for-people-with-
disabilities.

24. Cars + Mobiles 3.0:
Internet of mobilities
& locative media

26. ‘… it was the words of Google co-founder Sergey
Brin that most interested me. He said that
driverless cars would provide transport to
people who can’t drive themselves, such as
blind people or those who are physically
disabled.’
Sarah Ismail, ‘The Miracle of Driverless Cars’, Google, 28
September 2012

27. ‘My own physical disability, which I have had
since birth, means that I will never be able to
drive a ‘real’ car. I can’t use public transport by
myself, either. So the chance to have a driverless
car would mean the world to me. It would
change my life so much for the better.’
Sarah Ismail, ‘The Miracle of Driverless Cars’, Google, 28
September 2012

28. ‘It would be more than a car to me. It would give
me the freedom to get up and go out, without
having to wait until there was someone
available to drive me around. If I could get up
and go out, by myself, where I wanted, when I
wanted, I would have real and complete
independence.’
Sarah Ismail, ‘The Miracle of Driverless Cars’, Google, 28
September 2012

29. ‘I am a disability campaigner and I am proud to
be disabled. I know my own limits and very few
of them bother me any more. However, the fact
that I can’t drive is the last thing that I have to
accept about my disability … If only I could drive,
my life would be perfect, disability and all.’
Sarah Ismail, ‘The Miracle of Driverless Cars’, Google, 28
September 2012

30. conclusion
• Google Glass (= wearables) & Google Driverless
Cars (= cars & mobiles 3.0) can be seen as
important next stages in imagining non-screen-
based, locative media (expanding notions of
media)
• Google’s embrace of disability & partnering with
tech developers to explore disability/accessibility
potential is laudable
• however, there is little recognition of the
complex, convergent locative media scapes in
social life & as well as the unfolding complexities
of the conditions & meanings of disability

31. References
Katie Ellis and Gerard Goggin, ‘Disability, Locative Media, and
Complex Ubiquity.’ In Complex Ubiquity-Effects: Individuating,
Situating, Eventualizing, eds. Ulrik Ekman et al. (Routledge, 2015).
Gerard Goggin. ‘Smartphone Culture and Mobile Politics, Avant La
Lettre: Antoni Abad’s Megafone.net/2004-2014.’ In Antoni Abad.
Megafone.net/2004-2014, edited by Macbe (Barcelona: Turner,
2014)
Katie Ellis and Gerard Goggin, Disability and the Media (Palgrave,
2015)
Goggin, Gerard. ‘Mobile Communication Law and Regulation.’ In
International Encyclopedia of Digital Communication and Society,
ed. Ang Peng Hwa and Robin Mansell (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014)
Gerard Goggin. ‘Driving the Internet: Mobile Internets, Cars, and the
Social’. Future Internet 4.1 (2012): 306-321 31