Present Moment at DSALA x Habitable Worlds LA

AI-generated image depicting the failure of facial recognition technology at an airport, an experience that many people with facial differences grapple with daily.

Present Moment's Greta Byrum will speak on a panel at the Disability Studies and Advocacy x Habitable Worlds Conference at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles on March 28.

Facial recognition technology is broadly implemented in society today. At the DSALA & Habitable worlds-conference of 2026 at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, a panel organized by Mette A. E. Kim-Larsen will highlight the challenges it brings to the facial difference community. The existing research on the topic and the ethics of facial recognition technology, as well as the advocacy, which is currently coming from the facial difference community, will also be discussed.

Panelists:

AUTUMN GARDINER - lived experiences with facial difference and facial recognition

After experiencing AI facial recognition challenges firsthand, Autumn Gardiner has been an outspoken voice on the issue and worked with legislators in her home state of Connecticut to improve protocols at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). During the presentation she will share her personal experiences with AI facial recognition technology, as well as challenges faced by others in the facial difference community whom she has connected with on this issue.

HANNAH SAUNDERS (Face Equality International) - data, knowledge, and research

Hannah will outline what we know - and don't know - about facial recognition technology and its application to people with facial differences. Survey data and anecdotal reports suggest that this technology may be failing people with facial differences. This can mean anything from trouble accessing bank accounts to difficulty getting through passport control and even barriers in using online job application processes. But what does this mean? What do we still need to find out? And, most importantly, where do we go from here?

RASHEERA DOPSON-ROBINSON - Lived experiences and bringing existing scholarship on racial algorithmic bias to the topic of facial difference

Rasheera will both talk about her lived experiences with facial recognition technology and how existing scholarship on racial algorithmic bias can be brought into conversation with the critical scholarship on facial recognition technology.

METTE A. E. KIM-LARSEN - disability in the digital space

Biometrical facial recognition is widely implemented in contemporary computational systems which grant access to activities such as financial services and registration for Social Security. Occasional failures of these systems to recognize deviating facial features as signifying a “face” entails the denial of active participation in digital citizenry. The systemic digital production of disability for people with facial differences will be explored through the lens of disability studies and feminist science and technology studies.

GRETA BYRUM - ethics and advocacy related to facial difference and facial recognition

When facial recognition technology (FRT) fails to “see” non-normative faces for the purposes of identification, sentiment analysis, and other kinds of sorting and prediction, people with facial differences are excluded from access to critical services. Technology companies have approached communities to improve FRT training data - but to be more identifiable also increases risk. How might facial difference communities collectively create ethical terms of partnership with tech companies on the design, development, and application of AI-enabled technologies? What other forms of advocacy and/or resistance might be available?