Navigating Disability in Russia with Cassandra Hartblay

In this episode of The Good Robot, Eleanor Drage speaks with Cassandra Hartblay, anthropologist, writer, playwright, and author of Access Vernaculars: Disability and Accessible Design in Contemporary Russia.

They explore disability, accessibility, technology, and inclusive design in contemporary Russia, examining how the unique political context shapes coping mechanisms for disabled people living in inaccessible and poorly maintained cities.

We also discuss the Sochi 2014 Olympics and Paralympics, disability advocacy, and the relationship between war and disability. Through stories of wheelchair users, activists, architects, and everyday experiences of inaccessible environments, the episode asks what it really means to create technology and design that enables people to move, participate, and live with greater freedom.

Reading List:

• Access Vernaculars: Disability and Accessible Design in Contemporary Russia
• Gleaning for Communism: The Soviet Socialist Household in Theory and Practice by Xenia Cherkaev
• Unmaking Russia's Abortion Culture: Family Planning and the Struggle for a Liberal Biopolitics by Michele Rivkin-Fish
• Keywords for Ethnography and Design,  Cultural Anthropology website
• The Question of Access: Disability, Space, Meaning by Tanya Titchkosky
• Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing

Edited by: Meibel Dabodabo