About this Event
Workshop description
Universities and educators are increasingly realising the value of simulating experiences in three-dimensional virtual environments for learning across multiple disciplines.
However, much of this content remains inaccessible to d/Deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent learners.
This workshop introduces participants to innovative access practices devised by d/Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists and their allies. Through playful exercises, participants will reflect on how embedding access could engage learners in new ways of knowing, remembering, and critiquing knowledge.
Bio
Dr Harshadha (Harsha) Balasubramanian is a researcher and educator seeking to creatively embed access in the digital age.
Alongside academic and industry partners since 2017, Harsha has developed guidelines, prototypes, workflows, and educational courses to help digital creatives value the expertise of disability communities. These contributions were produced through partnerships, including with Microsoft Research, Royal College of Art, and the UK’s leading creative technology hub, Watershed.
Harsha has a PhD in Anthropology from UCL, where she exposed the technical and cultural challenges facing artists making virtual reality accessible. She is currently an ESRC postdoctoral fellow at LSE’s Department of Media and Communications, where she is devising workshops, policy briefs, and toolkits that value and support the labour of negotiating access to extended reality (XR).
Event venue & nearby stays
UCL Bentham House (221 Hong Kong Alumni Room), 4 Endsleigh Gardens, London, United Kingdom
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