A designer's approach: how can autistic adults with learning disabilities be involved in the design process?
- Submitting institution
-
Royal College of Art(The)
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- Gaudion1
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
-
10.1080/15710882.2014.997829
- Title of journal
- CoDesign
- Article number
- -
- First page
- 49
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 1
- ISSN
- 1745-3755
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- -
- Year of publication
- 2015
- URL
-
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15710882.2014.997829?journalCode=ncdn20#.VnQXgzb1ikA
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
3
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- This paper describes an immersive design research project in which Gaudion, the lead researcher, worked closely over several years with a hard-to-reach community of autistic adults with learning difficulties. It presents a long-term, complex and multi-layered research process of creative investigation which has been acknowledged as genuinely ground-breaking in the field of autism research, particularly for its pioneering use of participatory design methods. Given that people with autism spend most of their lives as adults, this article provides evidence and advocacy for an inclusive approach to working with autistic adults, in a field where most existing research focuses on children.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Gaudion was lead author on a peer-reviewed paper published in Co-design: International Journal of CoCreation in Design and the Arts (Taylor and Francis), which discussed her Doctoral research into designing with autistic adults with limited speech and learning disabilities. This group is traditionally excluded from co-creation activities. This research illustrates how autistic people can be included in design research despite their sensory sensitivities and limited verbal communication.
This paper asks how autistic adults with learning disabilities can be involved in the design process. It describes an empathic three-way relationship between the autistic individual, the designer-researcher, and care support staff/family members. It reflects on three design studies based on interaction with three domestic environmental contexts: garden, everyday objects and interior. The study also shows key design outputs and the development of tools and methods that enabled autistic adults to participate in the research.
The work has a number of points of originality. Most participatory design research in the field addresses engagement with autistic children– this study works with hard-to-reach adults. More focus is placed on working with high-functioning people on the autistic spectrum– this study deliberately works with people with limited speech, learning disabilities and high levels of dependency. Most research in the field emphasises the deficits of people with autism– this study focuses on a ‘triad of strengths’ comprising sensory preferences, special interests and action capabilities.
This research has been shared and disseminated internationally at a number of conferences within the academic, design, autism and wider public community: Oslo school of Architecture & Design (2015), The International Conference of Design, User Experience, and Usability, Toronto (2016) and The 6th International Conference for Universal Design in Nagoya (2016). It was a case study in ‘Design Thinking for the Greater Good: Innovation in the Social Sector’, Columbia Business School publishing (2017).
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
