Interface Frictions: How Digital Debility Reshapes Our Bodies (Sign, Storage, Transmission)

By: Neta Alexander

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Synopsis: In Interface Frictions, Neta Alexander explores how ubiquitous design features in digital platforms reshape, condition, and break our bodies. She shows that while features such as refresh, playback speed, autoplay, and night mode are convenient, they can lead to “digital debility”—the slow and often invisible ways that technologies may harm human bodies. These features all assume an able-bodied user and at the same time push users to ignore their bodily limitations like the need for rest, nourishment, or movement. Building on the lived experiences of people with disabilities, Alexander explores alternative design solutions that arise from a multisensorial approach to communication. She demonstrates what can be gained from centering the nonaverage user, such as blind people who pioneered ways to control the playback speed of media, and Netflix subscribers with invisible disabilities like PTSD who successfully pushed the company to redesign its previews autoplay feature. Drawing on artworks, video games, and creative hacking by users with disabilities, Alexander challenges our understanding of media consumption, the attention economy, and the digital interface.

Book Quality:: Publisher Quality
ISBN-13:: 9781478032168
Related ISBNs:: 9781478028925
Publisher:: Duke University Press
Date of Addition:: 10/24/25
Copyrighted By:: Duke University Press
Adult content:: No
Language:: English
Has Image Descriptions:: No
Categories:: History, Entertainment, Nonfiction, Disability-Related, Art and Architecture, Social Studies
Submitted By:: Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:: This is a copyrighted book.