Christian Bayerlein

I am a web developer and activist currently living in Koblenz, Germany. I'm a nerd, loving Science and Science Fiction - especially Star Trek. I travel a lot, seeing the world is one of my big passions. I love to hang out with friends and go to the cinema as well as enjoying arts and culture.

I'm a wheeler with SMA and because of my disability, I need help around the clock. I organize my assistance in the employer model, meaning that I run a small business to employ my staff. At the moment I have 9 assistants.

As a political activist, I fight for the rights of disabled people, e.g. for better accessibility or the right to live in the community. I have a big interest in technology and accessibility and give talks on the topic and participate in several projects focussing on empowerment.

As a hacker and maker in the field of technology, I'm constantly creating ideas and projects, such as a heat blanket that can be powered from my wheelchair and a prototype for a routing web app for people with reduced mobility. I also developed an adapter box that allows me to connect my special micro joystick to a normal PC. I regularily participate in hackathons, especially on accessibility, and give talks on tech conferences. At the 2023 TED conference, I flew a drone using muscle impulses and gave a talk as a co-speaker together with Conor Russomano of the neuro-tech company OpenBCI about possibilities which can be created with BCIs, and the intersection of accessibility, assistive technology and disability.

The other big topic, I'd like to push forward is disability and sexuality. I run a blog on the topic, called "Kissability" . I also give talks on the topic and participate in several cultural projects focussing on positive views on (disabled) bodies and empowerment. As more known projects, I have been one of the main protagonists in both Adina Pintilie's feature film "Touch Me Not" - winner of the Golden Bear at the 2018 Berlinale, - and in her visual art project “You Are Another Me: A Cathedral of the Body” - selected for the 2022 Venice Art Biennial. Both projects are challenging societal norms and stereotypes. Our willingness to share our experiences on camera, we hope, empowered marginalized bodies and challenged misconceptions about disability and sexuality. I'm also part of the perfomance project "Army of Love" initiated by Ingo Niermann. In this speculative setting, we try to explore ways to overcome the commercialization of love and the discrimination based on attractiveness and to bring about a more just, inclusive and loving society by creating a group that practices complete love and offers comprehensive, sensual love including care, desire, sex, and respect to anyone who needs it.