Critically analyze the impact of ableism on accessibility and inclusivity of makerspaces, while exploring strategies to foster a more inclusive maker mentality and a more welcoming makerspace.
Engaging with this task you are going to disseminate the discrimination of and social prejudice against people with disabilities. Disabilities can be visible and invisible.
The task is to engage with required scholarly work, supplementing with own examination of research and academic work to design an accessible maker space (physical, virtual or hybrid) that is inclusive of individuals with (in)visible disabilities from an anti-ableist lens.
Use the checklist below and the liberatory design thinking process as a means to guide your design using any of the educational technology tools listed below (or your own tool of choice). You will include a description and justification of your designed inclusive space using the scholarly work to support your claims, decisions, and configuration. You will want to check out Makers Making Change to provide you with ideas and additional resources to support your design.
Accessibility standards and guidelines for makerspaces have been addressed.
The space was designed using liberatory design thinking principles and practices.
Inclusive vs. exclusive accessibility and usability has been considered.
The design of your accessible makerspace is inclusive of individuals with diverse abilities
Incorporated universal design principles in the design process of this maker space as it pertains to set up, equipment, materials, and navigation.
Addresses physical and sensory barriers in maker space design and activities.
Empowers individuals with disabilities through adaptive and assistive technologies included in the space
Promotes inclusive practices and fosters a culture of accessibility and accommodation
Recognizes and challenges ableist assumptions and biases within maker culture through the design of the space
Space demonstrates an awareness and sensitivity toward diverse abilities.
Implements inclusive policies and guidelines for equitable participation in maker activities
Leverages community engagement and partnerships to support and amplify inclusivity in makerspaces as best communicated through the design.
People first and identify the first language used in space.
Demonstrates critical analysis of the texts through the design of the space.
Preface
After graduating from university, I was working as a BC Autism Funding service provider, working with youths on the autism spectrum. This project was inspired by KK, one of the youths that I used to work with. He would make elaborate builds of the Vancouver skytrain system within his Minecraft world, and we would often hop onto the server to build together during our sessions.
This made me consider online virtual spaces in connection with makerspaces and the potential ways that the Minecraft functions can be leveraged or modified to accommodate for individual user’s needs.
This challenge caught my attention, as I am a strong believer in the values behind repair and mending as a form of sustainability by reducing waste; extending the life of objects; as well as embracing appreciation for imperfection, creativity and personal expression.
I thought it was rather refreshing that this challenge included mending techniques and history from different cultures, including Japanese Sashiko and Bengali Kantha embroidery.
Originally for both cultures, this kind of visible mending originated out of basic necessity to repair or prolong the use their clothing and other fabric garments. The process does not require many tools nor materials, and often re-incorporates waste fabric and recycling as input, where old scraps are given new life.
In the Youtube Video that introduced Japanese Sashiko, the artisan Keiko brought up an important point —- “when we are going to shout out and live the importance of sustainability, I would like us to care and be respectful of cultural sustainability as well. […] and not lose the whole picture of the wisdom and stories behind it”. Keiko also has an entire video where he discusses not to worry about the fine line between appreciation and appropriation too much, under the one condition that people who do practice this kind of mending do not ignore the voices of Japanese Sashiko artisans themselves, and strive to understand and learn more about this practice.
My roommates and I are avid menders when it comes to our household items or clothing. Sometimes we would have communal mending time, where we work on our own mending projects together in the living room.
One visible mending project was mending our couch — it came with a huge gash in the cover when we got it second-hand off online marketplace. It didn’t bother us much until the gash started tearing apart more with use over time. We weren’t able to sew the big gash together, so I crocheted a patch that was in the exact shape of the gash to close the gap. My roommate then sewed the patch in place.
This was an obvious instance where mending extended the life and use of the couch significantly without much effort, rather it became a fun collaboration of our craft skills and gave our living room a more personalized touch!
However, there are times where mending might not be the obvious solution.
In the introductory article of this activity on “mending as an ancient craft for modern times”, it talks about “whether we actually mend the garments we buy directly correlates to how much we value them.” I don’t think that it is completely true, as I believe sometimes we tend to take the path of least effort when it comes to mending.
Perhaps it is more cost-effective to buy a new version of the item because it might be more expensive to repair, or perhaps the repairs may not outlast the everyday wear and tear. There are many “lazy ways” to justify ones’ way out of maintenance, especially in the face of fast fashion.
In contrast, the decision to mend and repair then becomes more of a conscious action and choice, as a persistence of DIY values and resistance to the temptation of consumerism that envelops us.
The purpose of the task is to critically examine the role of equity, diversity and inclusion within the context of makerspaces, while incorporating decolonization and anti-racism frameworks through the examination of the content in MET’s Anti-Racism Speaker Series. Design a maker challenge or provocation that fosters an environment of equal participation, cultural understanding, and social justice within the makerspace community.
Choose one Anti-racism Speakers Series presentation or podcast to frame the challenge/provocation. Make note of key ideas, theories and research presented in the series. This challenge/provocation should actively promote the participation of individuals from diverse backgrounds, including those historically marginalized and under-represented in the field. Integrate cultural sensitivity and awareness into the design process, ensuring the activity is respectful, accommodating, and accessible to all participants. Use the following templates to design the challenge/provocation.
This provocation is designed to encourage students to explore the local bike scene and explore how community, identity and inclusivity intersect in cycling culture.
In Pedal Perspectives, students are encouraged to read some bike zines, visit their local bike shops, meet local riders and perhaps join a biking event, and consider the ways that these spaces are — or are not — accessible and welcoming. How do gender, race and identity shape our experiences in these spaces?
While cycling has surged in popularity as a mode of transport, fitness and community engagement, scholarly research on bike culture remains scarce. Traditional academic circles often overlook the nuanced, lived experiences of cyclists, especially those from marginalized groups.
In conjunction with the Anti-Racism Speakers Series podcast Pervasive Racism and the 2SLGBTQIA+ Community, guest speakers Alex DeForge and Meera Dhebar talk about the lack of meaningful representation, the impact of stereotypes, and need for more intentional and inclusive effort to reflect diverse identities. Both speakers emphasize that critical literacy is the key to empower individuals, and to understand the diversity and depth of the bike community, we need to explore beyond mainstream publications and delve into more underground and personal spaces – like zines.
“The history of lack of women, LGBTQIA+, and BIPOC representation in cycling reveals their marginalization and exclusion, especially in cycling media and sport. And it speaks to a bigger cultural issue of how marginalized groups are continually ignored and misrepresented. We cannot shy away from telling our stories in cycling just because it doesn’t suit the narrative the cycling industry sells.” (Cyclista Zine, 2019)
Zines are booklets (like magazines) that are used to share information, knowledge or experiences with others. They are often made with pen, paper, and collage techniques. They can also be made on computers using digital publishing software.
These DIY publications offer a more authentic look at the voices, struggles and triumphs within biking subcultures, often addressing topics such as gender identity, race, accessibility and social justice that are otherwise absent in academic discourse. By engaging with zines, we can gain more personal and grassroots perspectives that shape biking culture, and illuminate the vital, under-represented voices that mainstream studies miss.
Through guided reflections and interactive exploration, and creating your own zine, this project encourages students to investigate how their own backgrounds and identities relate to the biking community, in hopes to start a conversation about inclusivity, equity and what it means to belong and participate in a community.
Materials and Resources Required
Device (computer, tablet, phone) to take notes or document reflections
Pencil, pens, paper, magazines, flyers, art/craft supplies etc.
Optional: access to a bicycle
Inclusive Maker Provocation Instructions
Part 1: Pre-activity Reflection — Understanding your own positionality in bike culture
Think about your current experiences and knowledge when it comes to biking and bike culture. By reflecting on these questions beforehand, you can better understand your personal lens and become more aware of how your own experiences and identities shape the way you engage with biking spaces and community interactions.
Some questions to consider:
What is your personal history with biking? Do you view it more as a form of transportation, recreation, fitness or something else?
How often do you engage in biking activities, and in what kinds of spaces (i.e. recreational trails, urban commutes, group events)?
Have you experienced barriers to accessing biking spaces, whether economic, social, physical, etc.? How have they shaped your relationship to biking?
Do you see people who share your identity and background in biking spaces you frequent? How does this affect your sense of belonging?
Are there stereotypes or assumptions within biking culture that impact on how people perceive you or that shape how you perceive others?
Part 2: Participate —
Visit your library’s zine section
Visit your library’s zine section, and browse the selection of bike-related zines
Select a few zines to read, pay attention to the different voices, styles and stories represented
Take notes on reoccurring themes, especially in relation to gender, race, accessibility or personal experiences in the bike community
Some questions to consider:
Who is the author and how does their background and identity impact their experiences within the bike community?
How do the perspectives in the zines compare with the mainstream cycling media or bike shops?
What issues or themes appear frequently across the zines? What is something novel or surprising that you’ve noticed about the zines? What are some themes that you can relate to personally?
How do the zine creators express their identities and experiences through their zines? Are there recurring challenges or barriers that they discuss?
How do the zines influence your understanding of the biking community? How does that affect your perspective of your understanding of the bike community?
If you do not have a zine section at your local library, consider reading through online eZines related to bike culture, here are some recommendations:
Cyclista Zine Library : a collaborative zine made from intersectional feminist and DIY culture lens. It is run by zinester Christina Torres and celebrates intersectional feminism through zines, live events and workshops.
QZAP: Queer Zine Archive Project – Dykes and Bykes
Microcosm Publishing Bike Zines : should you have the funds and means, check out some bike zines Microcosm Publishing, a zine publisher based in Portland, Oregon.
Part 3: Create — Record and share your experiences in a zine
Follow the instructions above to make a simple one-page zine as a base to document your reflections from the previous activities.
Embellish your zine with illustrations or make a collage with my arts and crafts supplies that you have available.
How do you feel about entering spaces that may be new or unfamiliar? Are there any assumptions or expectations you hold about bike shops, biking events, or zine culture?
In what ways are you open to letting this experience challenge or expand your existing views on biking culture, inclusivity, and community dynamics?
In what ways could this provocation be adapted to other subcultures or community activities where marginalized voices are underrepresented? How might this broaden students’ understanding of inclusivity in various societal domains?
Background/Additional Information
Inclusivity Focus
This challenge considers the EDIDA framework with emphasis on exploring biking spaces in relation to the student’s own positionality, encouraging students to access who these spaces are designed to serve and who may be excluded or underrepresented.
The activity also includes diverse ways to engage with the biking culture and community (see Extension section below) – whether it is visiting a bike shop, attending an event, or exploration via zines — students with varying physical abilities, comfort levels and preferences can participate meaningfully.
Lastly, I have purposefully included zines as a source of learning as it engages with the decolonization framework by valuing non-traditional, grassroots forms of knowledge production and distribution. Zines often represent marginalized voices and disrupt dominant narratives, offering insight to biking culture and underrepresented voices often missed in academic literature.
No Tech, Low Tech, High Tech Options
Zines are quintessentially low-tech, DIY methods of sharing knowledge and experiences, easily made with pen and paper, and a photocopier if you would like to share and distribute your zines!
Some higher-tech options for sharing similar kinds of DIY content include:
Blogs/Personal Website
Digital Zine/eZine
Social Media
Podcast/ Youtube Channel
Extension
Choose an activity below and follow the guiding instructions to help reflect on your experience. These activities are made to include a broad range of involvement and participation, and are mindful of certain barriers, such as access to a bicycle, different levels of mobility and skill levels, and meant to expand in the different ways participation can look like.
Nonetheless, these activities and questions aim to deepen your understanding of the diverse, often overlooked experiences within biking culture and help you explore how your own perspectives interact with these communities. Enjoy the journey!
Visit a local bike shop
Choose a bike shop near you and make a visit. As you explore space, pay attention to how the space is organized and who the shop seems to be designed to serve.
Observe the shop’s environment, the types of bikes and gears available, and any information displayed about events or cycling groups.
If possible, strike up a conversation with an employee to learn more about the shop’s role in the local biking community
Some questions to consider:
Who does this bike shop seem to cater to? Are there specific demographics that seem prioritized in this set up, product offerings or marketing?
What aspects of the shop make it feel inclusive or exclusive? Consider factors like pricing, layout and accessibility.
How does the shop engage with local community? Do they advertise any events or promote social causes on their bulletin boards?
How did you feel going into this space, what about it made it feel welcoming or intimidating? Did you feel comfortable being in this space?
Participate in a bike event
Find a local bike event that is open to all skill levels, like a group ride or a community bike day.
Participate in the event, look around and make note of the people involved, the event’s purpose and the general atmosphere
Notice how newcomers are welcomed, and whether accessibility (in terms of skill level, gender, background) is addressed during the event
Some questions to consider:
What kinds of people attended this event? Are there particular groups that seem well-represented or under-represented?
In what ways was the event accessible or inaccessible to people with different needs or backgrounds?
How did the event organizers foster a sense of community or shared purpose? Were there any efforts made to address diversity or inclusivity?
How did you feel about participating in this event? How does your own identity and experience shape your sense of belonging or connection? Would you participate in a similar event again?
The intention of the provocation is to build awareness and acceptance of 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals and communities in order to create a welcoming and inclusive environment for all.
Design a critical and cohesive overview of race, gender, identity, and intersectionality in the maker environment. Introduce others to representational problematics in makerspaces and communities.
Choose your means of presentation so long it is multimodal.
This is an interactive text-based story surrounding a group of diverse makers that challenged the space’s gender norms and definition of “making” in the local makerspace the Iron Forge.
There are two main aspects of inclusivity that I focused on, specifically on gender and culture.
The story draws upon themes mentioned in the lecture by Kimberly Martin on Centering Gender: A feminist analysis of makerspaces and digital humanities centres especially the notions of the difference between “Making vs Crafting” and how that often is intertwined with the idea of “New Domesticity” when it comes to “softer” forms of making with sewing, knitting, weaving, etc. having it be dismissed as mere “craft”.
Another theme that really resonated with me in that lecture was the idea of “invisible labor” of women when it comes to expectations within makerspaces and the stereotypical gender roles affecting how work is organized into private and public spheres that in turn shape how we categorize tasks into “men vs women’s” work.
The narratives I have included are completely fictional and made with the help of ChatGPT. I wanted to utilize AI in this project as I was curious to see what stories it creates and the underlying biases and stereotypes that arises when it comes to inclusivity and diversity in makerspaces.
Below is an excerpt that I did not use in my story, but was given to me after prompting.
As the weeks passed, the dynamic between the men and women evolved. The men, who had been skeptical, began to respect the women’s leadership, learning new techniques and embracing projects they had never considered. Meanwhile, the women appreciated the technical knowledge the men brought, weaving it into their more holistic, creative projects.
By the end of the month, the makerspace had become a true melting pot of ideas, where gender was no longer a barrier to creation. Men and women worked side by side, designing everything from wind-powered kinetic art installations to smart home devices that responded to voice commands. They learned from one another, breaking down stereotypes and building something even stronger: a community that thrived on diversity and collaboration.
The women had taken charge, not by forcing the men out, but by expanding what was possible in the space—and in doing so, they had created a makerspace that belonged to everyone.
It felt like it was perpetuating the gender binary, even though there was one non-binary character in the story, and it felt like it was lumping “non-men” into one category of “women”. The erasure of non-binary-ness was somewhat surprising to me, and it played into a conundrum that I had when I was creating this project. Namely, the challenge of wanting to “break gender stereotypes” but needing to lean into and “exaggerate” the stereotypes in order to highlight that gap. I felt like that was the case when I was reading some of the papers, like by talking about under-representation first entailed the re-enforcement of gender stereotypes!
In terms of culture, I think the story reflects the kinds of cultural assumptions nested within the creation tools used in makerspaces, especially the recent tendency for integration of Arduinos, circuit boards, e-textiles to add the “Art” into STEM. Many papers seems to place an emphasis on empowering girls to participate more in science and computational activities, but it feels like there is less of a push to empower boys to lean into their artistic side. Seo and Richard (2021) mentioned that bidirectionally responsive design (BRD) activities were shown to “dissipate gendered preconceptions, and the learners across gender equally saw value of crafting, coding, sewing and design”, which might be a start, but I am curious to investigate more into such design-thinking and the more practical aspects in a broader context.
Ideally, I would have liked to include characters that are based on lived experiences, and to make sure that the representations of the characters are reflective of people with such positionalities that the characters themselves occupy. Potential development would be by asking friends with culturally relevant maker experiences to be part of the storytelling.
Should I have more time, I would have liked to explore more into disability and accessibility aspect of makerspaces in terms of content and subject matter.
In terms of the making of this artifact, I would have liked to find ways to embellish the story with more visual elements, such as photos of the makerspace, the characters, the kinds of projects they are making, etc. to create a more immersive and visual experience.
Norris, A. (2014). Make-her-spaces as hybrid places: Designing and resisting self constructions in urban classrooms. Equity & Excellence in Education, 47(1), 63-77. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2014.866879
Parekh, P. (2024). Girls’ reluctance and intersectional identities in STEM-rich makerspaces. Education Sciences, 14(6), 628.
Seo, J., & Richard, G. T. (2021). SCAFFOLDing all abilities into makerspaces: A design framework for universal, accessible and intersectionally inclusive making and learning. Information and Learning Sciences, 122(11/12), 795-815.
This paper explores how marginalized people use humanitarian makerspaces to create projects that meet both basic and high-level needs, like belonging and self-actualization. This supports Max-Neef’s idea that personal fulfilment comes from satisfying multiple needs at once. Further research should focus on how the design process itself can empower marginalized people and lead to impactful outcomes.
Question: The article emphasizes designing with and for marginalized people, what could that look like in your own personal contexts?
This paper explores how gender identity affects participation in makerspaces. The available technologies often send gendered signals, making men feel more welcome than women. A deeper look at the environment and materials in the spaces may help promote greater gender equity and representation.
Question: What were your personal experiences with interacting with tools in makerspaces, were you intimidated by certain tools and technologies more than others?
Kye, H. (2020). Who is welcome here? A culturally responsive content analysis of makerspace websites. Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER), 10(2). https://doi.org/10.7771/2157-9288.1190
This paper shows though makerspaces can help create more equitable STEM opportunities for marginalized students through collaborative learning, intentional efforts of integrating culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) is needed to support both the academic success and student’s cultural identities. More practical guidelines on CRP principles are needed to better ensure equity and diversity in makerspaces both in-person and online.
Question: In your personal contexts, what are some practical culturally responsive pedagogical changes that can be applied?
Convergences All three papers highlight the need for more intentional design of makerspaces to promote equity and inclusion for marginalized groups. Without conscious efforts, makerspaces risk perpetuating existing inequities related to gender, race and socioeconomic status. Fostering inclusive environments require purposeful frameworks and guidelines to empower marginalized participants and support diverse identities.
Introduce yourself as a maker and reflect on your own professional philosophy and how you view yourself as a maker, as a critical and innovative thinker, and as a designer. You will align your own personal and professional philosophy for your learners within a maker environment. Your introduction will include:
A visual representation of your values, approach to making, and educational/leadership philosophy inspired by the course readings
Investigate multimodal means to design a creative and critical introduction
Include your goals for this course within your introduction
Some guiding questions:
How do you describe yourself as a maker, and your maker philosophy?
What is your current educational/leadership philosophy?
How does your philosophy fit into the maker movement?
What is your experience with Makerspaces?
What is your experience with EDIDA Frameworks?
Why are you taking this course? What are your expectations and goals?
