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Please note this module is run at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº East.

Module description:

This module focuses on the design of technologies for people who have a disability; this can be through the process of creating assistive technologies, how we get assistive technologies to people and train them in use or making mainstream technologies and places more inclusive.

Projects can focus on any part of the design cycle, for example, an ethnographic study to elicit user requirements, physical prototype design, testing of an existing solution via the design of an experiment. It can even be a critical analysis of designs in a particular area, or the testing of a new method. However, you must work with disabled people within any project.
It is a project-based module where students will work with disabled people to develop technology which bridges the gap between the capabilities of the person and those required to conduct a task. Students will work on projects with disabled people to design for the extreme market of disability.

The module is complemented by guest talks and tech demos by: disabled people and experts within the field of HCI, disability and development, smart cities and clinicians. As the majority of disabled people live in resource-poor settings a number of the case studies will be taken from the Global South

Each week will have a class activity, these allow you to develop your project ideas starting with reviewing and sharing relevant literature through to design methods and experiment or physical prototype design.

Module learning outcomes:

Through this module students will

• Be able to describe the difficulties faced by people with a disability in using mainstream technologies.
• Be able to apply the principles and dimensions of Disability Interaction to a range of technology interface problems
• Be able to pick appropriate interaction design methods to create and assess technology use for and with disabled people
• Describe best practice for design of assistive technologies and those which aid accessibility to minimize abandonment of the technology (e.g. reduced learning curve, ability to adapt to life changes as a disability improves or worsens).
• Elicit user needs from persons with a disability and formulate these into product requirements.
• Prototype technologies which bridge the gap between a person’s capabilities and those which are required to complete a task.
• Test with end users their developed technologies and incorporate feedback into the design.