IOE academic wins best paper award for designing technologies for disability

Dr Ibrahim won the award at the ACM Interaction Design and Children (IDC) conference 2020. During the event she presented the paper with fellow UCL Knowledge Lab researcher Dr Mina Vasalou and Dr Michael Clarke (Faculty of Brain Sciences). They spoke about whether the design documentaries method can alter the processes in which technology assisting children with disabilities is designed.

Design documentaries take inspiration from documentary filmmaking. They are an established design method that tells video stories in a narrative form, conveying multiple dimensions of people’s lived experiences.

The researchers argue that by embedding design documentaries in the design of technologies for disability, it can help bring children's lived experiences and priorities to the process. This is important in stages where it is not always possible to involve children. This can help the designer think of new ideas to create technology to support children with severe speech and physical impairments.

The reviewers were impressed by Dr Ibrahim’s paper and noted that it offered insights that are important for future research in the area and that it could be of benefit to the wider child computer interaction community.

Dr Ibrahim said: “I was thrilled to receive the award as our research highlights an important development in designing technologies for disability that move beyond a deficit-oriented perspective. The ACM IDC conference is the premier international conference for sharing new research in the areas of child-centred design, learning and interaction, so a great opportunity to showcase this research here. I’m hoping to extend this further in my upcoming ESRC postdoctoral fellowship.”

Links

• Read the paper: ‘Can design documentaries disrupt design for disability?’
• View Dr Seray Ibrahim’s research profile
• UCL Knowledge Lab
• Department of Culture, Communication and Media