A flowchart diagram composed of interconnected circles, boxes, and arrows illustrating the processes families navigate to request and obtain AT. The three central circles represent the primary power structures families engage with: School Officials (e.g. teachers, district staff), Health Care Providers (e.g. doctors, SLPs, OTs), and Public Service Agencies (e.g. Apple Health, DDA). These circles are linked by directional arrows that trace the flow of interactions between families and these institutions. Rectangular boxes on the arrows detail the specific interactions families have with each system, such as "obtaining funding for AT" from funding bodies or "requesting evaluation" from doctors. These boxes are color coded with the type of agency loss experienced by the families during these interactions. For example, while requesting evaluations, families can experience a loss of temporal agency due to long waiting times. The legend in the bottom-right corner of the diagram defines the meaning of each color, for example, orange indicates loss of definitional agency, and green indicates loss of assertive agency, etc.

The Everyday Politics and Power Dynamics of AT Adoption

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In this paper, we examine why promises of empowerment through AT continue to fall short for many underserved populations, even as new innovations emerge every day. We found that low-income, racially diverse, and disabled families usually bear higher costs of access due to bureaucratic red tape that disproportionately affects them. We argue that accessibility research needs a new framework — one that recognizes the sociopolitical realities shaping how families navigate and sustain access. To that end, we introduce the concept of minor resistance to capture the everyday strategies families devise to exercise agency within unequal power dynamics. By focusing on these grassroots practices, we show how technology can be reimagined to help communities build collective power.

Stacy Hsueh, Danielle Van Dusen, Anat Caspi, and Jennifer Mankoff. 2025. Minor Resistance: The Everyday Politics and Power Dynamics of Assistive Technology Adoption. In Proceedings of the 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS ’25), October 26-29, 2025, Denver, CO, USA.

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