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Chapter V Dance and Disability Meet Assistive Technology.docx
(2017)
  • Merry L. Morris, University of South Florida
Abstract
This is an excerpted chapter from my published dissertation. In the chapter, I discuss the ways in which the dance context in intersection with disabled bodies revises notions of assistive technology design. By looking at what dancers and choreographers working within the disability community are doing (or attempting to do) with the assistive device, and foregrounding the agency of the device, as another “body,” new conceptions for what the device can enable rise to the surface. The words of “partnership,” “bodily extension,” and “helper,” were all themes which surfaced in my research defining the device relationship. From a dance lens then, one might ask the following questions: How does the AD design enable creative embodied expression rather than just “function”? How does the AD design attend to and support dynamic and intimate relationships with others? How may the AD design be transformed aesthetically and tactilely to better match identity, interests, and desires of users? How is the AD a responsive entity, supporting the body in motion?
Keywords
  • Assistive technology design,
  • mobiliy,
  • integrated dance,
  • dance,
  • disability,
  • design
Publication Date
Summer August, 2017
Citation Information
Merry L. Morris. "Chapter V Dance and Disability Meet Assistive Technology.docx" (2017)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/merry-morris/31/