Katta Spiel

Katta Spiel is an Assistant Professor for Critical Access in Embodied Computing at the HCI Group of Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), where they lead research under the ERC Starting Grant ACCESSTECH. They also hold membership in the Young Academy of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (2024-present) and will serve on Austria's UN Disability Rights Monitoring Committee (2025-2029).

Their academic foundation includes:

• Bachelor of Arts in Media Culture from Bauhaus Universität Weimar
• Bachelor of Science in Media Systems from Bauhaus Universität Weimar
• Master of Science in Computer Science and Media from Bauhaus Universität Weimar

Spiel's research critically examines technology through marginalized lenses, merging Computer Science, Design, and Cultural Studies. They develop participatory methodologies that center disabled, neurodivergent, and nonbinary experiences to challenge normative assumptions in Human-Computer Interaction. Key contributions include reimagining accessibility beyond compliance, transforming empathy-based design into justice-oriented co-creation, and developing frameworks for evaluating technology through lived experience rather than deficit models.

Major recognitions include:

• SIGCHI Outstanding Dissertation Award (2020) for pioneering work on neurodivergent digital experiences
• Förderungspreis Mathematik, Informatik, Naturwissenschaft, Technik of Vienna (2022)

Spiel's grant portfolio demonstrates sustained funding success, currently leading the €1.5M ERC Starting Grant ACCESSTECH (2025-2029) after securing FWF Hertha Firnberg and project funding for 'Exceptional Norms', 'Social Play Technologies', and 'OutsideTheBox'. These projects collectively advance participatory design with autistic children, neurodivergent youth, and nonbinary communities, producing methodological innovations like their co-developed Participatory Evaluation framework.

Their research environment fosters radical collaboration through the ACCESSTECH project team, which operates as a community of practice where academic researchers and marginalized technology users co-design both methodologies and artifacts. This model rejects traditional lab hierarchies in favor of equitable knowledge production, with outcomes spanning interactive computing systems, critical design patterns, and transformative HCI theory.