Critical Computing

An umbrella term for HCI and computer-science scholarship that interrogates the values, power relations, and social consequences of computing technologies rather than taking their benefits as given. Critical computing draws on disability studies, science and technology studies (STS), feminist theory, critical race theory, and political economy, and asks who benefits from a technology, who is harmed, whose labour produces it, and what alternative arrangements are possible. In accessibility research, critical computing provides vocabulary for challenging techno-solutionist narratives — for example, that AI will 'solve' accessibility — and for connecting accessibility debates with broader questions of social justice, sustainability, and algorithmic accountability. CHI hosts a 'Critical Computing, Sustainability and Social Justice' subcommittee.