Interactive Sensory Objects for and by People with Learning Disabilities

In Search of a Decision-Making Framework for Involving Users Who Have Learning Disabilities or Sensory Impairments in the Process of Designing Future Technologies

“…Hollinworth et al comment positively on the impact of using inclusive research methods with users with learning disability. They noted that their co-researchers were so highly engaged to the extent that they were keen to share the project with their peers [42]. They also suggest that they experienced an increase in confidence and empowerment, but present no explicit evidence for this claim.…”

“…Four papers reported using an approach other than UCD, PD, HCD or hybrid [35,36,41,42]. All of them involved users with learning disability and adapted their approach in some way to cater for their needs (all except one do not specify how many users they involved).…”

“…Apart from occasionally using the language of inclusion with terms such as 'codiscovery', there is no other referral to the inclusive design literature or discourse. Three papers, all reporting on the same project (Sensory Objects Project) position their approach as inclusive research [35,41,42].The researchers actually use the term 'inclusive design' to describe their approach, however the reference to researchers and co-researchers along with reference to the work of well-known participatory/inclusive research studies would suggest that they are sympathetic to inclusive research and perhaps see no difference between inclusive design and inclusive research [57]. This conflation of the two terms inclusive research and inclusive design may also reflect the multi-stakeholder nature of the project team.…”

“…This needs further investigation however, and it is important to remember one of the conclusions from a study that did involve users with learning disability regarding not under-estimating the interest and ability of people with learning disability to use technology [35]. Those studies where approaches other than UCD, PD and HCD had been adopted with users with learning disability involved experienced multidisciplinary teams that had years of experience of involving people with learning disability, which perhaps gave them the knowledge and the confidence to find other creative design approaches [35,36,41,42].…”

“…• involving people with learning disability and sensory impairments in PD and HCD results in usable technologies [18,19,37]; • using PD, hybrid and 'other' approaches with users with learning disability and sensory impairments can lead to high levels of engagement and commitment [34,42,46]; • designers working with users with learning disability learn a lot about themselves and the needs of people with learning disability and sensory impairments when they adopt PD, HCD or 'Other' approaches to design [35,38,48].…”