Rua M. Williams

@fractalecho.bsky.social

3234 Followers 773 Following

Common Cyborg | NB ND Mad Bean | Disability and Epistemology | Research Ethics and Dissensus

Baby's first furry costume. (a kid on his hands and knees looking like a devil ram)
Flyer for event. Date and Time: August 12th, Noon to 2pm eastern US time. Session Title: Counterventional Reflections in Human-Robot Interaction and Beyond Speakers: Rodolfo Cossovich, Krittapas Boonpasart, Angela Higgins, Bryan Cheung, Srishti Agrawal, Raj Korpan Moderator: Rua M. Williams This series is funded by NSF SES 24449001.
Sign for Mitchell's Mex, "incentive Mexican eats with a Midwest twist"
Flyer for disability led robotics. Various researchers, robots, and brainstorming activities.
D. W. From Arthur looks at a sign that says "Do not put student or human subjects data into the Gemini enterprise we just gave you." and declares "that sign won't stop me because I don't read"
Rua holds a small blue robot near a window in a high rise building
The Black Communication and Technology Lab Presents: DISABLING INTELLIGENCES LEGACIES OF EUGENICS AND HOW WE ARE WRONG ABOUT A.I. Guest Speaker Rua Williams Friday, April 3 2026 12-2pm Rua M. Williams is an Assistant Professor in the School of Applied and Creative Computing at Purdue University, and a former Just Tech Fellow with the Social Science Research Council. Dr. William's work explores how disabled people imagine and build their own socio technical worlds. Join us for conversations around Dr. William's forthcoming work: Disabling Intelligences (Palgrave Macmillan). REGISTER TO JOIN THROUGH ZOOM! bcatlab.org
Image if muted tortie cat laying belly up on a floral duvet. Eyes are vacant.
Three star review titled "some of it sus" that reads "heart in the right place,yet off-mark with the solutions while I spot some incoherences. Especially with the water (Andy Masley has covered that on substack).
Cover of Disabling Intelligences over a rainbow glass background
"Fire outfits."
image of relay robot, a kind of friendly trashcan like form, in a hotel lobby with a staff member behind the counter blurred in the background
Angry goose meme: "we'll decide what we want to reserve for ourselves" angry goose chases man "who's we? Who's we Bill?"
Studies on cognitive performance show when college students used chat gpt to help them write an essay, 83% were unable to quote any part of their essay after writing it - raising questions about AI's effect on people's ability to recall information.
Kid dressed in a deranged ram costume charging down a flight of stairs
Rua M Williams's Disabling Intelligences: Legacies of Eugenics and How We are Wrong about AI, publushed by palgrave macmillan, is held in front of rainbow glass. The cover is deep pink with orange vines.
This book discusses the influences of eugenics on the Al industry and the impacts of Al opportunism on disabled people. Why are the negative consequences of so-called Al so consistently directed at disabled and racialized people? Disabling Intelligences answers this question by detailing the ongoing effects of the eugenicist mindset on our corporate ventures and our interpersonal relationships. It offers an accessible guide to the various meanings, methods, and impacts of Al, and provides a clear framework for classifying, categorizing, evaluating, and critiquing Al projects. Bridging the gap between STS and critical disability studies, the author centers disabled experiences to present a novel framework that helps readers transform their understandings of citizenship, consumerism, social movements, journalism, engineering, research, and scholarship. An ideal reading for academics at all levels interested in Al technologies across the social sciences and humanities, as well as engineering and computer science, this groundbreaking short monograph challenges our understanding and assumptions about technology, encompassing the history of Al and disability from popular culture to real-life case-studies. Readers will come away from this text equipped with a clarity of perception and a toolkit for evaluating and resisting metaeugenics in technology. Rua M. Williams is Assistant Professor of User Experience Design at Purdue University in Indiana, USA, and Just Tech Fellow with the Social Science Research Council, where they research disabled people's bodily autonomy and social agency through adaptive and assistive technologies. Dr. Williams uses feminist and anti-racist approaches to Technoscience, Critical Disability Studies, and Science and Technology Studies to denounce injustice in technology and uplift marginalized users' practices of resistance. ISBN 978-3-032-0266
Cover of Disabling Intelligences, a dark pink book with orange vines.
Image of page from Disabling Intelligences. The text is in this thread.
I’ll be honest. When thinking about what books might live in me, this was never one of them. It was certainly not the book I thought I would write first. I never wanted to become known for artificial intelligence (AI) criti- cism at all. I want to sit in a lab and tinker with tech, building little gadgets that delight my disabled kin. I want to maintain surreptitious code bases of free little hacks that disrupt our perpetually inaccessible and downright- hostile world. I want to share disabled DIY specs through crumpled little zines posted in libraries and coffee houses. I want to run a free digital manufacturing center just for disabled people to come and build exactly what they want without a doctor, insurance company, or bank account telling them what body they’re allowed to have. But in order to do that, I have to fight the inadequacies in technology policy and medical care. And in order to do that, I have to fight the AI industrial complex. Because underneath every insurance rejection is a pre- dictive algorithm, behind every assistive technology is a data collection scheme, and now, behind every technology policy is an AI hype man. If I look back, it feels as though the specter of AI has followed me all along. In the pages that follow, you will find several stories from my life left like the breadcrumbs leading to this book. Here, I will give you two more stories that elicit the echoes of eugenics and AI in my life.
Dr. Rua M. Williams is recruiting robotics researchers at all levels for participation in a virtual learning series on disability-centered research design in human-robot interaction. https://tinyurl.com/counterHRI
Rua, an aging millennial queer with an asymmetrical side shave and round glasses, stands in front of a brick wall wearing a vibrant rainbow floral shirt and purple lipstick. Text below the image reads, "Rua M. Williams, West Lafayette, IN, 2025 Contributor."
A blue cloud on a white background holds bold black text that reads "Shift Space 5.0." Black text above and below reads, "Guest Editors: Taraneh Fazeli and Cannach MacBride" and "Contributors: Rua M. Williams, Tamir Williams, Monica Uszerowicz, DeForrest Brown, Jr., Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Tawana Petty, Denise Ryner." A logo for Knight Foundation is in one corner and the year 2025 is in another.
Image of word processor. Some words are blotted out with blue stroke. Kitty has written string of numbers.
Four panel comic of crow doing stand up. Crow is labeled Rua. Crow said "things are eugenics". Audience says "boo! Get better material". Crow looks nervous. Crow checks note card. It reads "Public Health is eugenics. Prison is eugenics. Insurance is eugenics. Eugenics is eugenics."
Hacking executive function Thursday January 23rd 12:30pm eastern. Details in Registration Form. https://tinyurl.com/efgobrrr6. For more information, contact Rua M Williams @FractalEcho or fractalecho@proton.me
AI overview Fingering and worsted are two different weights of yarn, with worsted being twice as heavy as fingering: fingering weight also known as sock weight, fingering is the easiest way to stimulate the clitoris. Worsted weight the most common and versatile yarn weight, worsted is great for knitters of all skill levels. It's often used for sweaters, blankets, hats, scarves, and more.
An original sequence of frames which flash between pure black and pure white. A flash detection mask is calculated and a pixel-attenuation filter is loaded. In the final sequence, each frame is attenuated by the detection mask and filter, producing the impression of a flash without the actual danger.
Narrative description of the aggregate re-world map. The photosensitive user is protected from ambient, accidental, and malicious exposure by a dual layer of protection by device level settings and app level settings. If a developer update overrides app-level settings, the device level settings correct this. Users who are aware of photosensitivity are able to educate other users to prevent circulation of dangerous content. Advertisers and other users may still create and share flashing content, but an enforcement body can punish advertisers and platforms for creating or failing to prevent the circulation of flashing content. Users are able to report dangerous content to both the platform and to regulatory bodies. Malicious attacks are met with suspension or bans.
Narrative Description of Diagram: Platform Executives and Marketing Clients have a cyclical revenue relationship. Platform Executives influence Platform Designers and Developers. WCAG guidelines are meant to support Designers/Developers, but may not always be followed. Marketing Clients sometimes create flashing content. Non-sensitive users who are unaware of photosensitivity may also create and share and circulate flashing content, which can lead to accidental exposure for Photosensitive Users. When Non-sensitive Users who are aware of photosensitivity are exposed to flashing content, they may warn photosensitive users. Non-sensitive Users who are aware of photosensitivity may also intentionally or maliciously expose sensitive users. If any user attempts to report a flashing graphic, reporting features do not have appropriate categories, and platform developers are never notified of the problem. Sensitive users may also experience resets or overrides to their safety settings on major app updates.
Image purple and pink gradient with text "Disability Theory in HCI, professional development series, hosted by Rua M. Williams and the CoLiberation Lab. Funded by Access Computing. Details and registration at https://tinyurl.com/DTHCISeries"
A burnese mountain dog lies on a rug and a St. Bernard lies on the wood floor next to the rug. They have become the living room floor.
A gray tabby and a burnese mountain dog lay on a rug. The car is picking the dogs face and the dog is possibly chewing on the cat ... with love?
Drawing of rua captioned best of cgt ux the guardian angel
How people think Papers happen: 3 sequential blocks for 3 papers, under which are the steps of research, analyze, write, and publish.
Purple and white crocus with bright yellow stemen. The crocus is an early spring flower with two layers of three petals. The stemen are feathery.
Image is screenshot of video showing a slide titled "Concerns for the present" with topics "emotional regulation, friendships, education, achieving goals"
Empty hallway lined with unattended bags and coats
Image caption: "A Neurodivergent Wrtiting Guide: a love letter to writers and writing" background is a fractal artwork composite from work by Jason Kaehler approved for use in relation to my fractal scholarship.
Image of black book cover. In red letters "Edited by Melanie Jones and Shayda Kafai". In large block letters "Mad Scolars" followed by green "Reclaiming and reimagining the neurodiverse academy"
Image is screen capture of zoom recoding on YouTube. Rua M Williams is in the upper right corner. The slide is titled Fractal Scaffold and has 6 blocks that read "premise, context, substantiate, acknowledge, reaffirm, point the way". The captions read "But when you're sitting there and you're thinking, I have no idea how to write the thing I need to write, or I have no idea how to get the point across, this tool can help you get it onto paper, and then decide which rules you want to..."
Screengrab of outline from PowerPoint What this is An example A process A scaffold A celebration of neurodivergent authorial voice How to get the scribbly thoughts out of your brain and onto a page What this is NOT How to satisfy neurotypical authorial hegemony How to write like everybody else How to write for a particular audience How to avoid critique How to prevent rejection
Image of quote "this is a common experience. There's probably a bunch of messages in the chat that say "mood, lol" or something." - FractalEcho. The Neurodivergent Burnout Series Continues. fractalecho.substack.com
Text reads "Disabled. Academic. Mentoring. I am permantently open for mentoring sessions for any marginalized academics studying technology. disability, and politics. https://tinyurl.com /DivergentMentoring. Always Free." Image of Rua M. Williams with asymmetrical hair, round glasses, rainbow butterfly earrings, rainbow tie, and shimmery blue and purple eye shadow.
Scribbled white writing over a black background. Black text over a white background. Rua M. Williams, Writing with Executive Dysfunction, December 5th, 11am eastern. Hacking Executive Function Webinar Series. Https://tinyurl.com/dysfunctionalwriting
Have you ever seen the #DoctorsAreDickheads hashtag on social media? People identifying as chronically I'll or as medical professionals are invited to participate in a short survey about their experiences with online discussions of patient-physician relationships. This survey is completely voluntary and will take about 10 minutes. This study, "understanding and learning from patient testimonials in online communities" has been reviewed by Purdue IRB 2023-985. Contact the Principle Investigatorx Rua M. Williams at rmwilliams@purdue.edu, with any questions. https://tinyurl.com/dickheadsurvey
Recruitment flyer titled 'Impact of Faculty Perceptions of Language Proficiency on International Students' Success.' The design features graphics of diverse hands representing different races. A QR code is present which links to the researchers emails. The main text invites participation from both international graduate students and graduate-level faculty members, emphasizing the purpose of gathering insights into the admission process experiences of international students. The estimated interview duration is mentioned as 60 minutes. The flyer notes that participants should be residing in the J.S.Contact emails, 'rmwilliams@purdue edu' and 'park1187@purdue.edu, are provided for interested individuals Dismiss
[Image is a yellow folder emitting multiple shapes over a purple background captions "Teaching with Executive Disfunction". Tuesday, October 24th at 11am ET. Details in registration form: https://tinyurl.com/teachexe. For more information, contact Rua M. Williams @fractalecho or fractalalia@proton.me]
Rua holds a sticker of a purple frog holding a knife that says be kind
Purple box with stars that says bibipins. The i-dot is a flower.
Image is portion of slide titles "Meet our board". There is a picture of me holding Scout's big dog face. Text reads "Dr. Rua Williams (they/them) Advisor, assistant Professor of User Experience Design, Coliberation Lab, helps the organization coordinate actions to disrupt Purdue's present culture of exclusion and neglect for disabled boilermakers. Seems mean, would actually die for you. If you want to know my diagnoses just Google it I'm terminally online"
Email from Rua Williams: Not to start trouble right away but Myers Briggs is a scam and the creators were wildly racist and eugenicist so maybe we could do something else? (Half a medium link is cut off) Response: Hi Rua- what would you suggest? We are very aware of the problems with the Myer's-Briggs and discuss it in our didactic. However- we aren't aware of another free quick measure. Thanks! Response from Rua: The enneagram test is getting more popular. Also as far as scientific validity you might as well just ask us for our zodiac! I'm a Leo and it's my season (fire emoji).
Rua holds an angy gray tabby kitten. They are both wearing purple.
Image of email reads "The AI design of your email is clever, but significantly lacks warmth. Would it be possible to be contacted by a human being moving forward instead of AI? Many Thanks"