Infrastructuring as Collective Resistance: How Disabled Students Negotiate Access Through Technology in Universities

Paper Title

Infrastructuring as Collective Resistance: How Disabled Students Negotiate Access Through Technology in Universities

Publication Info

• Topic area: Accessibility and resistance practices of disabled students in higher education.
• Keywords: accessibility, disability justice, infrastructuring, counteractive frictions, mutual aid, higher education, student activism, digital networks, care infrastructure, academic rigour.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Universities often frame accessibility as an individual responsibility, relying on accommodations that are bureaucratic and insufficient for addressing the dynamic needs of disabled students. This perpetuates exclusion and marginalization.
• Significance: Disabled students face systemic barriers that hinder equitable participation in education. Addressing these barriers is essential for fostering inclusivity and reimagining institutional support systems.
• Motivation and related work: Prior research critiques the medical model of disability and highlights the limitations of accommodations. However, there is limited exploration of how disabled students collectively resist and reconfigure institutional infrastructures through community practices and digital technologies.

Solution

• Proposed approach: The study investigates how disabled student groups at a Canadian university use technologies and community practices to negotiate access, resist institutional barriers, and build collective care infrastructures.
• Novelty:
  1. Introduces the concept of "counteractive frictions" as deliberate disruptions to challenge institutional systems.
  2. Reframes access labour as "routine infrastructuring," emphasizing collective and sustained practices rather than individual responsibility.
  3. Explores the interplay between formal and informal practices in creating (in)formal care infrastructures.
  4. Examines the role of digital technologies in sustaining mutual aid and advocacy networks.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  1. Conducted semi-structured interviews with 13 disabled student activists and leaders of disability-related groups.
  2. Performed digital ethnography of 12 student-operated social media accounts.
  3. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts and social media data to identify patterns in access work, mobilization, and resistance practices.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Disabled students encounter "access frictions" in bureaucratic systems, including delays, rigid documentation requirements, and resistant staff.
  • Student groups operate as (in)formal care infrastructures, leveraging university resources and digital tools to address gaps in institutional support.
  • Digital platforms (e.g., Slack, Instagram, Zoom) enable coordination, knowledge-sharing, and continuity of advocacy efforts.
  • Mutual aid networks redistribute access labour and foster collective care, shifting from individual to community-based advocacy.
  • "Counteractive frictions" are strategically produced disruptions that challenge institutional norms and provoke systemic change.
• Advantage over baselines:
  • Moves beyond individual accommodations to highlight collective, community-driven practices.
  • Demonstrates how frictions can be generative sites of resistance and reconfiguration, rather than mere disruptions.
  • Expands HCI scholarship by situating routine infrastructuring within centralized, bureaucratic institutions.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Sample: 13 participants (student activists and leaders) at a Canadian university.
  • Data sources: Interviews and social media analysis.
  • Metrics: Thematic analysis of access frictions, infrastructural configurations, and mobilization practices.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Recruitment focused on leaders of disability-related groups, potentially overlooking less formal initiatives.
  • Limited demographic data on participants, restricting intersectional analysis.
  • Future work should explore broader institutional contexts and refine the conditions enabling counteractive frictions.

Summary

This study examines how disabled students at a Canadian university collectively negotiate access and resist institutional barriers through community practices and digital technologies. By introducing the concept of "counteractive frictions," it highlights how deliberate disruptions challenge exclusionary infrastructures and provoke systemic change. The findings emphasize the role of student groups as (in)formal care infrastructures that sustain access and advocacy through mutual aid and routine infrastructuring. This work contributes to HCI scholarship by reframing access labour as a collective, political practice and calls for rethinking infrastructuring as a site of both adaptation and resistance.