Disability design and innovation in computing research in low resource settings

80% of people with disabilities worldwide live in low resourced settings, rural areas, informal settlements and in multidimensional poverty. ICT4D leverages technological innovations to deliver programs for international development. But very few do so with a focus on and involving people with disabilities in low resource settings. Also, most studies largely focus on publishing the results of the research with a focus on the positive stories and not the learnings and recommendations regarding research processes. In short, researchers rarely examine what was challenging in the process of collaboration. We present reflections from the field across four studies. Our contributions are: (1) an overview of past work in computing with a focus on disability in low resource settings and (2) learnings and recommendations from four collaborative projects in Uganda, Jordan and Kenya over the last two years, that are relevant for future HCI studies in low resource settings with communities with disabilities. We do this through a lens of Disability Interaction and ICT4D

Creating an Inclusive Architectural Intervention as a research Space to Explore Community Wellbeing

Abstract: This paper outlines a two-year active design research project coordinated in collaboration with Public Health Northern Ireland and set in the city of Derry/Londonderry to explore how inclusive design methodologies can produce interventions to improve community wellbeing. The research focuses on the waterfront of the River Foyle and how an inclusive architectural intervention challenged the areas’ negative associations. In the last decade, the waterfront has become synonymous with mental health crisis and suicide. This has led to the phrase “I'm ready for the Foyle” becoming embedded within the communities’ language as a colloquial term for stress. This project seeks to extend inclusive design within the community, creating wellbeing spaces around the bridges and banks of the river, with outcomes focused on drawing people to the area as a place of celebration and life affirming activities. The project has helped to develop Inclusive Design as a means of engaging a whole city in the redesign of public spaces for improved wellbeing

Music Theatre without Voice: Facilitating and directing diverse participation for opera, musical, and pantomime

Much has been published in recent years about different areas of disability theatre and fringe theatre that is interested in inclusivity and music. Some productions and companies have become prominent players. Within the area of opera, musical, and pantomime, however, the concept of inclusive music theatre lacks a critical space for evolving a shared vocabulary in praxis. Deploying methods from the field of practice arts research, this PhD thesis investigates inclusive music theatre as coherent aesthetic paradigm. The research articulates through studio and performance work what constitutes participatory music drama and consolidates a discrete set of engagement strategies under the umbrella of ‘music theatre without voice’. A renewed, polyvalent notion of voice emerges in all this as sensorial tool, image of creative agency, and political metaphor. The thesis extends the idea of voice into a multisensory discourse (olfactory, gustatory, visual, tactual, and aural), reaching out to differently-abled communities with a particular focus on learning disability and non-verbal communication. In doing so, the dramatic praxis opens up a discussion into how inclusive music theatre appears as an embodied practice away from naturalised norms of linguistic, intellectual, or physical ableism. The thesis further sheds light on the position of the facilitator-director within inclusive work as a liminal figure between co-creating and artistically guiding devising and rehearsal processes. To problematise this fluid role, co-creative leadership is explored through a variety of practice research projects, evidencing methods of how to facilitate and direct successfully in these contexts. The projects presented include a pantomime devised with young adults from the autistic spectrum; a melodramatic story for women with learning disabilities; a multi-sensory opera experience for women with learning disabilities. The thesis further updates the practice in times of Covid with research into digital facilitation. It also investigates techniques of musical storytelling within an LGBTQ setting to reveal the adaptability of the practice articulated. The PhD introduces and coins the term faciliteur for a participatory director within the inclusive work field to advance academic discussion as much as practical considerations

An inclusive learning environment in early childhood care and education: a participatory action learning and action research study.

Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.This study sought to explore an inclusive learning environment in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) using a participatory action learning and action research (PALAR) design. Situated in the ECCE context, the study attempts to address a significant gap in the literature by exploring inclusion in the under-researched ECCE sector. Using a PALAR design, this collaborative research also attempts to address a methodological gap by enabling the voice of and benefitting a marginalised sector in the education workforce. ECCE refers to the care and education of young children from birth to four years of age before formal schooling commences. In ECCE the learning environment has three components; the physical space where learning occurs, the temporal factors and the social factors. Firstly, the physical learning environment includes the various indoor and outdoor play areas. Secondly, the temporal learning environment comprises the timing and transitioning of the various activities. Thirdly, the social learning environment creates opportunities for socialisation between different role-players. With this in mind, the teacher skilfully tailors these three components to ensure that children have access to and are able to participate, achieve and are respected in the ECCE programme. Also significant is that this sector of education remains predominantly ‘unprofessionalised’ with little job security and low salaries. Thus, ECCE receives little government funding with vast discrepancies in the quality of education provision for the rich and the poor. Moreover, these ECCE centres are becoming increasingly diverse, and teachers grapple with the inclusion of children of diverse backgrounds and of varied identities, including gender, socio-economic status, language, ability and race, into the learning environment. With these varied identities in mind, this study adopts a broad view of inclusion that encompasses all diversities, not just disability or learning barriers. Additionally, there is no standardised or universal understanding of inclusion; hence many researchers concur that the concept of inclusion is broad and has varied meanings in varied contexts. Thus each ECCE centre would require a set of guidelines for inclusion that would apply to their unique context. Therefore, the focus of this study is to explore how a group of ECCE teachers and teacher trainers explore an inclusive learning environment in their unique context. The specific research objectives of the study are: • To explore the current situation regarding inclusive learning environments in ECCE • To explore how we create inclusive learning environments in ECCE • To explore why we need to create an inclusive learning environment in ECCE the way we do. Consequently, the above objectives provided an impetus for an eight-month-long, virtual learning participatory workshop held with six ECCE teachers and two ECCE teacher trainers. Using a PALAR methodology, data was gathered through a baseline checklist, purposeful conversations, photovoice, reflective drawings and reflective journals. PALAR research adopts a critical emancipatory research paradigm, which seeks to give voice and agency to practitioners in the field. The study is underpinned by critical theory and critical pedagogy that enables a ‘collective meaning-making’, resulting in greater epistemic justice throughout the research cycles. The generated data is interpreted and analysed using Critical Thematic Analysis (CTA) where data is interpreted using two levels of closed and open coding, to reveal emergent themes that are subsequently related to wider ideological issues. The research objectives inform three iterative cycles of planning, acting, observing and reflecting. Data generated in cycle one reveals a misunderstanding of inclusion, a need for conscientisation or personal awareness of hegemony in the learning environment, traditional teaching methods and a lack of relationship-building within role-players in the respective ECCE centres. The second learning cycle is informed by the second research objective and attempts to address the challenges revealed in cycle one. Consequently, cycle two, therefore, allowed for praxis – a product of iterative, collaborative reflection and action, with the co-researchers in an attempt to effect change in the learning environment. Themes in this cycle emphasised the removal of dominant ideologies regarding the concept of inclusion, greater conscientisation resulting in the removal of stereotyping and welcoming of all diversities. Cycle two also revealed an inclusive play-based pedagogical approach and ways to build relationships between all role-players at ECCE centres. The third cycle served as feedback sessions to the groups that assisted with synthesising the findings with deeper ideological issues. The study outlines a context-specific understanding of inclusion that could be applied to the broader ECCE sector. Findings reveal that inclusion is an inner journey that begins within teachers, resulting from their own levels of awareness or conscientisation. Becoming inclusive means removing current ways of being and doing and revisiting false beliefs enmeshed unknowingly in the hidden curriculum. It is a process of continuous examination, of unlearning and relearning that leads to action in the form of pedagogical practices and relationship building. This authentic and deep level of inclusion is not governed by policies but is a result of an inner urge for social justice, democracy and human rights for all. Inclusion is thus useful in achieving a more socially just ECCE learning environment. Seeing that ECCE is a critical period to form attitudes and values for life, this study also offers a commitment to social justice and equality concerning the wider world. With a paucity of research in the South African ECCE sector; this study should form a springboard for further research

Precompetitive consensus building to facilitate the use of digital health technologies to support Parkinson Disease drug development through regulatory science

Innovative tools are urgently needed to accelerate the evaluation and subsequent approval of novel treatments that may slow, halt, or reverse the relentless progression of Parkinson disease (PD). Therapies that intervene early in the disease continuum are a priority for the many candidates in the drug development pipeline. There is a paucity of sensitive and objective, yet clinically interpretable, measures that can capture meaningful aspects of the disease. This poses a major challenge for the development of new therapies and is compounded by the considerable heterogeneity in clinical manifestations across patients and the fluctuating nature of many signs and symptoms of PD. Digital health technologies (DHT), such as smartphone applications, wearable sensors, and digital diaries, have the potential to address many of these gaps by enabling the objective, remote, and frequent measurement of PD signs and symptoms in natural living environments. The current climate of the COVID-19 pandemic creates a heightened sense of urgency for effective implementation of such strategies. In order for these technologies to be adopted in drug development studies, a regulatory-aligned consensus on best practices in implementing appropriate technologies, including the collection, processing, and interpretation of digital sensor data, is required. A growing number of collaborative initiatives are being launched to identify effective ways to advance the use of DHT in PD clinical trials. The Critical Path for Parkinson’s Consortium of the Critical Path Institute is highlighted as a case example where stakeholders collectively engaged regulatory agencies on the effective use of DHT in PD clinical trials. Global regulatory agencies, including the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency, are encouraging the efficiencies of data-driven engagements through multistakeholder consortia. To this end, we review how the advancement of DHT can be most effectively achieved by aligning knowledge, expertise, and data sharing in ways that maximize efficiencies

The State of AI Ethics Report (June 2020)

These past few months have been especially challenging, and the deployment of technology in ways hitherto untested at an unrivalled pace has left the internet and technology watchers aghast. Artificial intelligence has become the byword for technological progress and is being used in everything from helping us combat the COVID-19 pandemic to nudging our attention in different directions as we all spend increasingly larger amounts of time online. It has never been more important that we keep a sharp eye out on the development of this field and how it is shaping our society and interactions with each other. With this inaugural edition of the State of AI Ethics we hope to bring forward the most important developments that caught our attention at the Montreal AI Ethics Institute this past quarter. Our goal is to help you navigate this ever-evolving field swiftly and allow you and your organization to make informed decisions. This pulse-check for the state of discourse, research, and development is geared towards researchers and practitioners alike who are making decisions on behalf of their organizations in considering the societal impacts of AI-enabled solutions. We cover a wide set of areas in this report spanning Agency and Responsibility, Security and Risk, Disinformation, Jobs and Labor, the Future of AI Ethics, and more. Our staff has worked tirelessly over the past quarter surfacing signal from the noise so that you are equipped with the right tools and knowledge to confidently tread this complex yet consequential domain