Disability, Locative Media, and Complex Ubiquity

Abstract

The current phase of network societies has generated an intensification of pervasive, ubiquitous digital technologies and cultures of uses, with emergent, complex social functions, and politics. In this chapter, we explore a fascinating, instructive example of the actualization of such ubiquity-effects — the case of locative media technologies designed for and by people with disabilities. In the meeting of disability and locative media technology, we find an apposite, challenging example of ubiquity — its associated, emergent social practices, what their cultural implications are, and how design makes sense of this. We discuss these dynamics of complex ubiquity and disability through two case studies: way-finding locative technology, smartphones and apps; and Google Glass.