Maker Technology and the Promise of Empowerment in a Flemish School for Disabled Children
Abstract
Maker culture encourages do-it-yourself practices to create, repair, and repurpose technology. In Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research, it is seen as a means of empowering people, providing affordable and customisable technology with potential to enrich areas such as education or assistive technology. To investigate this alleged potential, we performed an anthropological inquiry at an elementary school for disabled children that lasted one year, participating in everyday activities with students, teachers, and therapists. We observed ‘heterogeneity in a fluid environment’ and ‘creativity in the moment’ in an ‘endemically underfunded’ setting. We saw how technology is ‘injecting dependencies’, ‘reinforcing disability’, and ‘occupying time and space’, changing our view on the role that making can have. Leveraging Empowerment Theory, we highlight how (making) technology risks ignoring the intertwined dynamics between the individual, the organisational, and the community, and articulate points for reflection for technology in schools for disabled children for the HCI research community.
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Previous research argues that interactions with technology occur at the individual level, mediated by the environment and shaped by organizational decisions, and that it is crucial to encourage institutional-level adoption of technologies and practices for accessibility.
“Previous research also argues that interactions with technology occur at the individual level, mediated by the environment and shaped by organizational decisions [95] and it is crucial to encourage institutional-level adoption of technologies and practices for accessibility [10].”
From Rethinking “Empowering Technology” in Higher Education Accessibility: A Case Study of Disabled Students’ Experiences at a German University (2026) · cites this paper as [95]
Zimmerman's ET has previously been leveraged in accessibility research and offers a lens to explore the role of technology at the individual, community, and organizational levels.
“we draw upon Zimmerman's ET [100], which has previously been leveraged in accessibility research [95], and which offers us a lens to explore the role of technology at the individual, community, and organizational levels.”
From Rethinking “Empowering Technology” in Higher Education Accessibility: A Case Study of Disabled Students’ Experiences at a German University (2026) · cites this paper as [95]
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References 84 · Cited by 15
- Authors
- Vandenberghe, B., Gerling, K., Geurts, L., & Vanden Abeele, V.
- Affiliations
- KU Leuven (BE)
- Department of Computer Science, e-Media Research Lab, KU Leuven, Belgium
- Venue
- CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
- Publisher
- ACM
- Published
- 2022-04-29
- Pages
- 1-18
- OpenAlex
- W4225163123
- Cited by
- 15
- References
- 84
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2
- FWCI
- 3.77
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (publishedVersion)
- Lirias (KU Leuven) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Assistive Technology in Communication and Mobility
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Innovative Human-Technology Interaction
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Teaching and Learning Programming
- Keywords
- maker culture, empowerment, assistive technology, disability, empowerment theory, underfunded schools, technology dependence, creativity, primary education, inclusive education, anthropology of technology
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