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This contribution shows perspectives of experts from different disciplines and professional backgrounds in order to elaborate on maker approaches such as do-it-yourself prosthetics and collaborative tools. As a result, aspects of open source practices related to medical and assistive technologies will be critically reflected upon. In addition, implications of heterogeneous interests, economic implications and everyday achievements of social material assemblages produced through participatory design research are discussed.

In order to address an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspective on the relationships between body (differences) and technology, it is necessary to bring together studies from both Science and Technology Studies (STS) and crip technoscience as well as approaches from participatory design research and practice. This challenge was addressed by a roundtable organized as part of the third network meeting of the Dis/Ability and Digital Media Research Network on 16 September 2020.

Against the backdrop of “crip technoscience” DIY and collaborative open source practices are not only understood as valuable alternatives to standardized medical prosthetics and assistive devices. These bottom-up approaches which draw from the expert knowledge of disabled users (Hamraie and Fritsch, 2019) also facilitate devices that defy categories such as “prosthetic” or “medical aid” not only aesthetically but semantically, too.

The Network Dis/Abilities and Digital Media intends to integrate media and technology studies with disability studies on a theoretical level. This round table discussion delivers proof of how – on the practical level – technology and dis/ability need to be thought of as relational and co-constitutive (Mills and Sterne, 2017).

This paper examines the extent to which 3D printed children's prostheses function as enabling technology. The focus lies on the experiences of children with upper limb body differences using 3D printed prostheses in the context of (posthuman) cyborg theories.

This article is based on several years of field research applying a grounded theory approach. (Health) technology and the body are examined with special regard to the vulnerability of the technology user who is, also, the technology designer. Taking these children's particular vulnerability and sensitivity into account, the method of “cultural probes” was further developed applying distributed socio-(bio-)technical probes, which conceive soma design as the matter of a socio-material world.

It was shown that the e-NABLE device is not only a socially enabling somatechnic but can itself be limiting, vulnerable and painful for children due to its materiality. The somatechnical construction of children's bodies and identities are presented as heroic figures, which, in part, produces and experiences a corporeal being that is based on and identifies with these heroes and heroines – but may not always be in the interests of children with disabilities. In order to meet these children's needs, the author argues in line with crip technoscience that 3D printed prostheses should be co-developed with (and specifically for) them.

This paper is the first of its kind to consider the daily lives of children with 3D printed prostheses and their experiences as knowers and makers of such. This paper adds to the body of knowledge in the field of crip technoscience and enabling technologies.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon 10.1108/JET-02-2022-0017