Access Fandom

Academic Sean Yeager seeks autistics to discuss experiences of time and narrative. Get paid! Participants will be compensated $100 for discussing their experiences of time with an openly autistic interviewer.

Interviews will take place in June-July 2023. Most interviews will take place over Zoom and last approximately 60-90 minutes. The interview format is flexible and can be adapted to accommodate participants’ access needs (e.g. typed and/or AAC interview is OK)

About Sean: https://english.osu.edu/news/sean-yeager-recipient-2022-2023-alumni-grants-graduate-research-and-scholarship. They discuss the importance of neuroqueer narratives in a 36-minute podcast https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/n4sj/episodes/Neuroqueer-Narratives-e1d3neb with transcript and bibliography

( Eligibility and Narrative Focus Points )

Cassie Josephs’ excellent Tor.com essay, "Murderbot: An Autistic-Coded Robot Done Right" explores how Martha Well's series provides insight into autistic lives and rights.

( 330 word excerpt )

It’s a cool concept, hides clutter in your room. Also creates barriers.

Zoom virtual backgrounds combine you in the foreground with something nifty in the background. (Think the weather reporter on TV in front of a big US map.) In the past week I've seen the prow of a ship, inside of Tardis, comets, the Hamilton stage and more. Zoom itself says This feature works best with a green screen and uniform lighting, to allow Zoom to detect the difference between you and your background. -- which is not equipment most people have at home!

The Zoom software uses clever algorithms to isolate your outline from what your camera captures. But these algorithms often fail for delicate edges, like hair or hands. Outcome: every movement captured on camera includes Zoom struggling to adjust the edges, which can result in your head and hands sparkling, flashing, or disappearing altogether.

It’s distracting and unpleasant for me when even one user has the virtual background. For some of us with migraine, vestibular issues, brain injury or epilepsy it can be a complete barrier.

Even if the software works perfectly, some of the available backgrounds include so much detail that it overwhelms your image. I can’t read your facial expression, much less your lips. This results in no benefit to using video at all.

Do you have issues with this aspect of Zoom? Are there benefits to the backgrounds that I'm missing?