Online vs offline inequality:Examining disableist infrastructure via open data

In this talk, I explain why I believe that computational social science and (online) open data can expose, reproduce, and transpose (offline) infrastructural inequalities related to disability. To make this point, I draw on the first phase of a multi-stage, mixed methods research project that centres around a “public washrooms” dataset released by the City of Vancouver. I discuss how, in this case, open data can: be used to expose gaps in infrastructural services for wheelchair users; reproduce disableism by providing misleading or inaccurate data, and; transpose disableism from (offline) infrastructural and resource deficits into (online) informational deficits, which then also influence (offline) engagement with urban environments.