This seminar AI for All? Inclusive Education and Assistive Technologies explores the intersection of inclusive education and emerging technologies, such as AI-based systems such as self-balancing wheelchairs, eye-gaze control, and sign language avatars. Drawing on experiences from her work with the Assistive Technologies Lab and Makerspace at PH Zurich, Dr. Christa Schmid-Meier provides a broad perspective on how these innovations can be integrated into inclusive learning environments. Beyond the technical applications, the seminar invites participants to engage in discussion on critical topics often sidelined, including techno-ableism and the ethics of therapeutic chatbots within the context of neurodiversity. By challenging normative ideas of productivity and the pressure to use technology as a tool for constant performance, the session also aims to hightlight how inclusive co-design can ensure that assistive AI serves a user’s individual agency and the right to non-optimization rather than merely automating their participation.
About Dr Christa Schmid-Meier
Dr. Christa Schmid-Meier is a senior lecturer and researcher specializing in Artificial Intelligence and ICT for Inclusion at the Interkantonale Hochschule für Heilpädagogik in Zurich. With an extensive background spanning special education, digital leadership, and media science, her research focuses on both the inclusive potential and the exclusionary risks of emerging technologies. In addition to her role at HfH, she serves as an external academic at Oxford University and is a member of the advisory board for the Swiss Centre for Special Education, where she works to bridge the gap between technological innovation and equitable educational practice.
Time: 9/2 at 13.15-15. For participation via zoom, please contact katarina.sperling@liu.se
Place: AIST-laboratory, Key-huset, Campus Valla
The seminar will be held in English.