Publications – Katta Spiel

Select Recent Publications

Suchanek, Oliver, Janis Lena Meissner, Robin Angelini, and Katta Spiel (2024). “From Participation to Solidarity: A Case Study on Access of Maker Spaces from Deaf and Hearing Perspectives: Von Partizipation zu Solidarität: Eine Fallstudie zur Zugänglichkeit von Makerspaces aus Gehörloser und Hörender Perspektive”. In: Proceedings of Mensch Und Computer 2024. MuC ’24. Karlsruhe, Germany: Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 140–155.

Spiel, Katta (2023c). “Practicing Humility: Design as Response, Not as Solution”. In: Postdigital Science and Education, pp. 1–7.

K. Spiel, E. Hornecker, R. Williams, J. Good, “ADHD and Technology Research – Investigated by Neurodivergent Readers”, Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’22) Article 547, 1–12 (2022).

K. Spiel, “”Why are they all obsessed with Gender?” — (Non)binary Navigations through Technological Infrastructures”, Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2021 (DIS ’21) Best Paper Award & Diversity and Inclusion Award, 478–494 (2021).

Journal Publications

Gerling, Kathrin, Arno Depoortere, Jeroen Wauters, Katta Spiel, Dmitry Alexandrovsky, Marina Danckaerts, Dieter Baeyens, and Saskia Van der Oord (Aug. 2024). “Representation of Invisible Disability: Exploring the Lived Experience of Teenagers With ADHD to Inform Game Design”. In: ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact.

Osipova, Ekat, Azadeh Badieijaryani, and Katta Spiel (2024). “Cyber toy stories: The broken promises and broken parts of interactive sex toys”. In: Sexualities 0.0.

Spiel, Katta (2023c). “Practicing Humility: Design as Response, Not as Solution”. In: Postdigital Science and Education, pp. 1–7.

K. Spiel, “Transreal Tracing – Queer-Feminist Speculations on Disabled Technologies”, Feminist Theory 23(2), 247-265 (2022).

D. Vargemidis, K. Gerling, V. Vanden Abeele, L. Guerts, K. Spiel, “Irrelevant Gadgets or a Source of Worry: Exploring Wearable Activity Trackers With Older Adults”, ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing 14 (3), Article 16 (2021).

A. Weiss, K. Spiel, “Robots beyond Science Fiction: mutual learning in human–robot in- teraction on the way to participatory approaches”, Springer AI & SOCIETY – Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Communication, (2021).

S. Burtscher, K. Spiel, ““Let’s Talk about Gender”– Development of a Card Deck on (Gender) Sensitivity in HCI Research and Practice Based on a Contrasting Literature Review”, i-com – Journal of Interactive Media 20, 1 (2021).

K. Spiel, K. Gerling. The Purpose of Play: How HCI Games Research Fails Neurodivergent Populations. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 28 (20), Article 11 (2021).

O. Keyes, B. Peil, R. Williams, K. Spiel, Reimagining (Women’s) Health: HCI, Gender and Essentialised Embodiment, ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction. Volume 27 Issue 4, August 2020, Article No. 25

D. Vargemidis, K. Gerling, K. Spiel, V. Abeele, L. Geurts, “Wearable Physical Activity- Tracking Systems for Older Adults – A Systematic Review”, ACM Transactions on Computing for Healthcare 1, 4 (2020).

K. Spiel, L. Nacke, What is it Like to Be a Game? – Object Oriented Inquiry for Games Research, Design and Evaluation, Frontiers in Computer Science – Human-Media Interaction 2, 18pgs (2020).

K. Spiel, E. Brulé, C. Frauenberger, G. Bailley, G. Fitzpatrick. In the Details: The Micro-Ethics of Negotiations and In-Situ Judgements in Participatory Design with Marginalised Children. Co-Design. 2020.

K. Spiel, C. Frauenberger, O. Keyes, G. Fitzpatrick. Agency of Autistic Children in Technology Research – A Critical Literature Review. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction. Volume 26 Issue 6, December 2019, Article No. 38

V. Abeele, K. Spiel, L. Nacke, D. Johnson, K. Gerling, Development and Validation of the Player Experience Inventory: A Scale to Measure Player Experiences at the Level of Functional and Psychosocial Consequences, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, (2019). Best Paper 2020 Award.

C. Frauenberger, K. Spiel, J. Makhaeva, “Thinking OutsideTheBox – Designing Smart Things with Autistic Children”, International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction , 35:8, 666-678 (2019).

K. Spiel, C. Frauenberger, G. Fitzpatrick, “Experiences of Autistic Children with Technologies”, International Journal of Child Computer Interaction (IJCCI) 11, 50–61 (January 2017).

K. Spiel, S. Bertel, M. Heron, “Navigation and Immersion of Blind Players in Text Based Games”, Computer Games Journal 11, (2014).

Conference Publications

Angelini, Robin, Katta Spiel, and Maartje De Meulder (2024). “Experiencing Deaf Tech: A Deep Dive into the Concept of DeafWatch”. In: Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility. ASSETS ’24. St. John’s, NL, Canada: Association for Computing Machinery.

Kender, Kay and Katta Spiel (2023). “Banal Autistic Social Media: A Found Footage Autoethnography”. In: Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility. ASSETS’23. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery.

Payne, Blakeley H., Jordan Taylor, Katta Spiel, and Casey Fiesler (2023). “How to Ethically Engage Fat People in HCI Research”. In: Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing. CSCW ’23 Companion. Minneapolis, MN, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 117–121. Best Poster Award

Crawford, Kirk Andrew, Katta Spiel, and Foad Hamidi (2023). “Complex Dynamics: Disability, Assistive Technology, and the LGBTQIA+ Community Center Experience in the United States”. In: Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility. ASSETS ’23. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. isbn: 9798400702204.

Angelini, Robin, Sabrina Burtscher, Felix Fussenegger, Kay Kender, Katta Spiel, Franz Steinbrecher, and Oliver Suchanek (2023). “Criptopias: Speculative Stories Exploring Worlds Worth Wanting”. In: Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery.

Burtscher, Sabrina and Katta Spiel (2023). “Tackling Discrimination in Tech: The Anti-Bias Cards (ABC) in Use”. In: Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery.

Gromann, Dagmar, Manuel Lardelli, Katta Spiel, Sabrina Burtscher, Lukas Daniel Klausner, Arthur Mettinger, Igor Miladinovic, Sigrid Schefer-Wenzl, Daniela Duh, and Katharina Bühn (June 2023). “Participatory Research as a Path to Community-Informed, Gender-Fair Machine Translation”. In: Proceedings of the First Workshop on Gender-Inclusive Translation Technologies. Ed. by Eva Vanmassenhove, Beatrice Savoldi, Luisa Bentivogli, Joke Daems, and Janiça Hackenbuchner. Tampere, Finland: European Association for Machine Translation, pp. 49–59.

Burtscher, Sabrina, Katta Spiel, Lukas Daniel Klausner, Manuel Lardelli, and Dagmar Gromann (2022). ““Es Geht Um Respekt, Nicht Um Technologie”: Erkenntnisse Aus Einem Interessensgruppen-üBergreifenden Workshop Zu Genderfairer Sprache Und Sprachtechnologie”. In: Proceedings of Mensch Und Computer 2022. MuC ’22. Darmstadt, Germany: Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 106–118 Best Paper Award

Graf, Linda, Maximilian Altmeyer, Katharina Emmerich, Marc Herrlich, Andrey Krekhov, and Katta Spiel (2022). “Development and Validation of a German Version of the Player Experience Inventory (PXI)”. In: Proceedings of Mensch Und Computer 2022. MuC ’22. Darmstadt, Germany: Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 265–275. Honorable Mention Award

K. Kender, K. Spiel, “FaceSavrTM: Designing Technologies with Allistic Adults to Battle Emotion Echolalia”, CHI EA ’22: Extended Abstracts of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Art.14, 1–8 (2022).

D. Wittchen, K. Spiel, B. Fruchard, D. Degraen, O. Schneider, G. Freitag, P. Strohmeier, “TactJam: An End-to-End Prototyping Suite for Collaborative Design of On-Body Vibrotactile Feedback”, Sixteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI ’22) , 1:1-1:13 (2022).

M. Sturdee, M. Lewis, A. Strohmayer, K. Spiel, N. Koulidou, S. Fdili Alaoui, J. Davis, “A Plurality of Practices: Artistic Narratives in HCI Research”, Creativity and Cognition (C&C’21) – Pictorial Best Pictoral Award, Article 35 (2021).

K. Tang, K. Gerling, L. Guerts, K. Spiel, “Understanding the Role of Technology to Support Breastfeeding”, Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’21). , Article 211 (2021).

K.Gerling, K. Spiel, “A Critical Examination of Virtual Reality Technology in the Context of the Minority Body”, Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’21). , Article 599 (2021).

M. Scheuerman, A. Jiang, K. Spiel, J. Brubaker, “Revisiting Gendered Web Forms: An Evaluation of Gender Inputs with (Non-)Binary People”, Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’21). , Article 400 (2021).

K. Spiel, “The Bodies of TEI – Investigating Norms and Assumptions in the Design of Embodied Interaction”, TEI ’21: Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction Diversity & Inclusion Award, Article 32 (2021).

H. Strauven, K. Spiel, I. D’Haesleer, B. Vanrumste, H. Hallez, V. Abeele, “From Promoting Dignity to Installing Distrust: Understanding the Role of Continence Care Technology in Nursing Homes”, Proceedings of the 11th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Shaping Experiences, Shaping Society (NordiCHI ’20) Article 38, 1-11 (2020).

C. Frauenberger, K. Kender, L. Scheepmaker, K. Werner, K. Spiel, “Designing Social Play Things”, Proceedings of the 11th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Shaping Experiences, Shaping Society (NordiCHI ’20) Article 24, 1-12 (2020).

S. Burtscher, K. Spiel, ““But Where Would I even Start?” – Developing (Gender) Sensitivity in HCI Research and Practice”, Proceedings of the Conference on Mensch und Computer (MuC ’20) Honorable Mention, 431–441 (2020).

C. Passmore, S. Harrer, K. Spiel, “Between Pleasure and Power: Game Design Patterns In Clickbait Ludoporn”, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA 2020) , (2020).

Z Toups, N. LaLone, K. Spiel, B. Hamilton, Paper to Pixels: A Chronicle of Map Interfaces in Games, DIS ’20: Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference , 1433-1451 (2020).

K. Gerling, P. Dickinson, K. Hicks, L. Mason, A. Simeone, K. Spiel, Virtual Reality Games for People Using Wheelchairs, Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’20) , p138 (2020).

A. Ymous, K. Spiel, O. Keyes, C. Bennett, R. Williams, E. Hornecker, J. Good, I am just terrified of my future — Epistemic Violence in Disability Related Technology Research, Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’20) (alt.chi) , alt23 (2020).

B. Yu, J. Seering, K. Spiel, L. Watts, “Taking Care of a Fruit Tree”: Nurturing as a Layer of Concern in Online Community Moderation, Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’20) (LBW) , lbw253 (2020).

A. Weiss, A. Pillinger, K. Spiel, S. Zauchner-Studnicka. Inconsequential Appearances: An Analysis of Anthropomorphic Language in Voice Assistant Forums. Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’20) (LBW) , lbw104 (2020).

K. Spiel, K. Gerling, The Surrogate Body in Play, CHI PLAY ’19 Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, 397-411 (2019)

K. Spiel, S. Alharthi, A. Cen, J. Hammer, L. Nacke, Z Toups, T. Tanenbaum, “It started as a Joke”: Interviews with Idle Game Designers, CHI PLAY ’19 Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, Honorable Mention, 495-508 (2019).

K. Spiel, S. Bertel, F. Kayali, Adapting Gameplay to Eye Movements – An Exploration with TETRIS, CHI PLAY ’19 Extended Abstracts of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play Companion, 687-695 (2019).

E. Brulé, K. Spiel. Negotiating Gender and Disability Identities in Participatory Design. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Communities & Technologies – Transforming Communities (C&T ’19). Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Award, 218-227 (2019)

K. Spiel, O. Keyes, P. Barlas. Patching Gender: Non-binary Utopias in HCI. CHI’19 – Extended Abstracts (altCHI), Article no. alt05 (2019). – alt.chi Track.

C. Frauenberger, K.Spiel, L. Scheepmaker, I. Posch. Nurturing Constructive Disagreement – Agonistic Design with Neurodiverse Children. Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’19). Article no. 271 (2019).

K. Spiel, C. Frauenberger, G. Fitzpatrick, E. Hornecker. Effects of Participatory Evaluation – A Critical Actor-Network Analysis. CHI’19 – Extended Abstracts (Case Studies), Article no. CS02 (2019). – Case Studies Track.

L. Scheepmaker, C. Frauenberger, K. Spiel, “The Things We Play with – Roles of Technology in Social Play”, The Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play Extended Abstracts (CHI PLAY ’18), ACM (2018

K. Spiel, E. Brulé, C. Frauenberger, G. Bailley, G. Fitzpatrick, “Micro-Ethics for Participatory Design with Marginalised Children”, Proceedings of the 15th Participatory Design Conference: Full Papers – Volume 1 (PDC ’18) 1, 17 (2018).

F. Kayali, N. Luckner, P. Purgathofer, K. Spiel, G. Fitzpatrick, “Design Considerations towards Long-term Engagement in Games for Health”, Foundations of Digital Games (FDG ’18) Honorable Mention, (2018).

K. Spiel, F. Kayali, L. Horvath, M. Penkler, S. Harrer, M. Sicart, J. Hammer, “Fitter, Happier, More Productive? Normative Ontologies of Fitness Trackers”, CHI’18 – Extended Abstracts (altCHI), Article no. alt08 (2018).

K. Spiel, K. Werner, O. Hödl, L. Ehrenstrasser, G. Fitzpatrick, “Creating Community Fountains by (Re-)Designing the Digital Layer of Way-finding Pillars”, Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI ’17), Article no. 92 (2017).

C. Frauenberger, J. Makhaeva, K. Spiel, “Blending Methods: Developing Participatory Design Sessions for Autistic Children”, Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC ’17), 39-49 (2017).

K. Spiel, L. Malinverni, J. Good, C. Frauenberger, “Participatory Evaluation with Autistic Children”, Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’17) Honorable Mention, 5755-5766 (2017).

K. Spiel, C. Frauenberger, E. Hornecker, G. Fitzpatrick, “When Empathy is Not Enough: Assessing the Experiences of Autistic Children with Technologies”, Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’17) Honorable Mention, 2853-2864 (2017).

K. Spiel, S. Bertel, F. Kayali, ““Not another Z piece!” – Adaptive Difficulty in TETRIS”, Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’17) Honorable Mention, 5126-5131 (2017).

J. Makhaeva, C. Frauenberger, K. Spiel, “Creating Creative Spaces for Co-Designing with Autistic Children – The Concept of a “Handlungsspielraum””, Proceedings of the 14th Participatory Design Conference: Full papers – Volume 1 (PDC ’16) 1, 51-61 (2016).

C. Frauenberger, J. Makhaeva, K. Spiel, “Designing Smart Objects with Autistic Children: Four Design Exposés”, Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’16) Honorable Mention, 130-139 (2016).

K. Spiel, J. Makhaeva, C. Frauenberger, “Embodied Companion Technologies for Autistic Children”, Proceedings of the TEI ’16: Tenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI ’16), 245-252 (2016).

S. Wetzel, K. Spiel, S. Bertel, “Dynamically Adapting an AI Game Engine Based on Players’ Eye Movements”, Proceedings of the 2014 ACM SIGCHI symposium on Engineering interactive computing systems (EICS ’14), 3-12 (2014).

K.Spiel, “Surveil and Calculate”, XII. Conference Culture and Computer Science , 161-172 (2014).

Peer-Reviewed Magazine Articles

K. Spiel, “‘You Will Have To Choose One Of Two Options’ — Being Nonbinary In A Binary World”, Engines of Difference , (March 2021).

T. Tanenbaum, I. Retting, H Schwartz, B. Watson, T. Goetz, K. Spiel, M. Hill, “A vision for a more trans-inclusive publishing world: guest article”, COPE Editorial , (January 2021).

K. Spiel, “What are you reading?”, interactions 27, 6 (November 2020).

K. Spiel. Dancing around Disability Disclosure — Balancing Paternalism, Panic, and Pride on the Academic Job Market. In: National Center for Institutional Diversity – Medium. September 2020.

C. Sabie, K. Brunnmayr, K. Weinberger, R. Singer, R. Vrecar, K. Spiel. This is not the new normal: Studying During a Pandemic. interactions magazine. (August 2020)

J. Mankoff, A. Ross, C. Bennett, K. Spiel, M. Hofmann, J. Rode. 2019 Access SIGCHI Report. ACM SIGACCESS Accessibility and Computing. March 2020.

K. Spiel, O. Haimson, D. Lottridge. How to do better with gender on surveys: A guide for HCI researchers. Interactions Volume 26 Issue 4, July-August 2019
Pages 62-65, (2019).

K. Spiel. Body-positive Computing as a Means to Counteract Normative Biases in Fitness Trackers. XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students Volume 25 Issue 4, Summer 2019, Pages 34-37 (2019).

K. Spiel, E. Brulé. Curious and Dangerous – Nonbinary Identities in Participatory Design. In: National Center for Institutional Diversity – Medium. June 2019.

K. Spiel. Just don’t make it too predictable: Structuring Academic Work with ADHD. In: The Sociological Review – Blog. available at: www.thesociologicalreview.com/blog/ (December 2017)

Book Chapters

Spiel, Katta (2025). “Researching Disability and Play, Where’s the Fun in that?” In: Harley, Daniel and Voorhees Gerald. ADE for Games. Play Story Press. doi: 10.17613/m3epv-3q950.

Spiel, Katta (2024). “Researching Infrastructures Through the Self: Autoethnography as a Meaningful Tool for Infrastructure Analysis From the Margins”. In: Sage Research Methods: Diversifying and Decolonizing Research. London. doi: 10.4135/9781529682915.

Spiel, Katta (2023b). “Digitalisierung & (Gender) Inequalities”. In: Digitale Transformation an österreichischen Hochschulen: Wirkung der nationalen MOOC-Plattform iMooX. at auf die digitale Transformation der Hochschulen. Ed. by Martin Ebner, Sandra Schön, and Charlotte Zwiauer. Verlag der Technischen Universität Graz, pp. 146–157.

Spiel, Katta (2023e). “Transreal Tracing – Queerfeministische Spekulationen zu Behinderung und Technologie”. In: Glade, Nadine. No Body is Perfect?! transcript.

A. Weiss, K. Spiel. Ein Ruf nach mehr Partizipation in der Gestaltung sozialer Serviceroboter. in: K. Braun, C. Kropp (ed.): In digitaler Gesellschaft – Neukonfigurationen zwischen Robotern, Algorithmen und Usern, transcript (2021).

A. Balugdzic, A.-H. Brendler, A. Heimerl, J. Klein, J. Lihl, L. Meier, J. Sichting, K.Spiel. Filme bilden. in: L. Eckert, S. Martin (ed.): Film-Bildung, Schüren, Marburg, 2014

Invited Contributions

K. Spiel, “Die Möglichkeit der Solidarität“, Lambda Nachrichten (2025).

VIMÖ, VARGES, Ekat Osipova, Hugh Schmidt, and Katta Spiel (2024). “Intersex Genital Mutilations: Human Rights Violations of Persons With Variations of Sex Anatomy”. In: NGO report to the 8th periodic report of Austria on the convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (CAT).

Spiel, Katta (2023a). “Accounting for all kind of researchers in university digital infrastructures”. In: CAESAR Blog.

K. Spiel, “Deep Breaths”, Pipe Wrench – The Big Fat Issue, (2022).

K. Spiel, K. Gerling, “Virtual Bodies”, The Architectural Review, (2022).

K. Spiel, “Critical Thinking at the Foundation for Engineering Ethics Education”, SEFI Editorial , (2021).

K. Spiel, “Geschlecht in technologischer Infrastruktur”, Gleichbehandlungsanwaltschaft – Geschlechtersensible Sprache – Dialog auf Augenhöhe — Leitfaden , (2021).

K.Spiel, SIGCHI Outstanding Dissertation Award: Evaluating Experiences of Autistic Children with Technologies in Co-Design, CHI EA ’20: Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , 4pgs (2020).

K. Spiel. Commentary For alt.chi paper by S. Harrer: Of Mice and Pants: Queering the Conventional Gamer Mouse for Cooperative Play.

K. Spiel. Commentary For alt.chi paper by R. Williams: Cyborg Perspectives on Computing Research Reform.

B. Bengler, F. Martin, N. Bryan-Kinns, C. Frauenberger, J. Makhaeva, K.Spiel, R. Vishkaie, L. Jones. Demo hour. In interactions 25 (December 2017) pages 8-11

K. Spiel. Datenverarbeitung. In: Eject – Zeitschrift für Medienkultur, 1/2014, Weimar

K. Spiel. Out of Sight – Navigation and Immersion of Blind Players in Text-Based Games. In: Port – studentisches Magazin der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, 2013, Weimar. (selected contribution for Media Systems)

K. Spiel. Boys Can’t Cry. In: Eject – Zeitschrift für Medienkultur, 2/2011, Weimar