Signaling Stigma: How Support Technology Induces Bodily Inequalities in Interaction

Abstract

This paper contends that support technologies and their relevant artifacts recast bodily relations and thereby produce differing bodies in situations. In this vein, it sketches three main forms of physical human-machine relations (substitution, augmentation, support) and then introduces the concept of signaling stigma that allows to observe the situated management of new technological markers of difference. It concludes with suggestions for further research building on this approach to uncover the interactional foundations for what might grow into manifest inequalities - beyond the still important issues of personal data rights and access to technology.