Communication and Non-Speaking Children with Physical Disabilities: Opportunities and Reflections from Design-Oriented Research

与使用自然言语的儿童相比，严重肢体残疾的非语言儿童体验世界的方式不同。由于身体缺陷，这些儿童的社交、游戏和学习机会有限，对以后的生活构成了重大的社会风险因素。针对技术可能如何减少社会风险因素的问题，交流辅助技术主要侧重于设计能够产生电子语音或支持儿童达到典型发展里程碑的技术。然而，这些技术的弃用率仍然很高，这表明需要重新思考辅助技术如何反映非语言严重肢体残疾儿童及其社会群体的当代关切。为了应对这些挑战，我的博士论文试图为涉及非语言严重肢体残疾儿童的交流设计提供新的方法。最重要的目标是打破被广泛引用的观点，即交流以言语为中心，并通过信息传递在个人一级发生。通过一系列实证研究，我的博士研究表明，通过应用承认儿童价值观、多模式和共同构建的沟通的多个替代框架，以新的方式设计数字中介沟通是可能的。我的研究在三个不同方面为研究和实践提供了新的见解。首先，它为研究AAC和人机界面领域的传播提供了一个新的视角，在这些领域，现有的工作基本上被语言驱动的和以赤字为导向的观点所主导。其次，这些发现为让“难以接触到”的儿童参与研究和设计工作做出了方法论上的贡献。最后，第三，实证性的发现通过识别新的机会以及在本文中使用设计纪录片作为启发设计的工具的新方法来促进设计。在这些发现的基础上，该奖学金将传播我的博士研究的结果，并开始通过集中于表现和设计儿童交流体验的方式来产生新的讨论。我打算与来自学术和非学术环境的越来越多的专业人士建立更紧密的联系，他们可以向这些见解提供信息并从中获得信息。为了实现这一目标，在学术界内，我将通过在同行评议期刊上发表书面出版物以及在人机交互、增强型和替代性沟通以及多模式沟通领域的相关会议记录来分享我的博士研究成果。在学术界之外，我将与来自特殊教育和主流学校、辅助技术和医疗保健领域的从业者建立联系。通过一个包含其中的小项目，制作关于这些发现的“一口大小”的视频纪录片，我打算为未来的设计工作产生新的讨论和联系。通过这样做，该奖学金将为我提供令人兴奋的机会，以发展我作为一名早期职业研究人员的技能，并计划进一步研究，以我在残疾、设计和沟通方面的特定研究兴趣为基础并扩大我的研究兴趣。

Non speaking children with severe physical disabilities experience the world differently compared with children who use natural verbal speech. Connected to their bodily impairments, these children have limited opportunities for social interaction, play and learning, posing significant social risk factors for later life. Responding to how technologies might reduce social risk factors, assistive technologies for communication have largely focused on designing technologies that enable electronic speech generation or supporting children to meet typical developmental milestones. However, the abandonment rate for these technologies continues to be high, which suggests a need for rethinking how assistive technologies might reflect the contemporary concerns of non-speaking children with severe physical disabilities and their social groups.To respond to these challenges, my doctoral thesis sought to inform new ways of designing for communication involving non-speaking children with severe physical disabilities. The overarching goal was to disrupt the widely cited view that communication centres around speech and happens at the level of the individual through the transmission of information. Through a series of empirical studies, my PhD research demonstrated that it is possible to design for digitally mediated communication in new ways by applying multiple, alternative frames that acknowledged children's values, multimodal and co-constructed communication. My research contributed new insights for research and practice in three distinct ways. First, it offered a new perspective for studying communication in the fields of AAC and HCI where existing work has largely been dominated by linguistically-driven and deficit-orientated perspectives. Second, the findings made a methodological contribution for involving 'hard to reach' children in research and design work. Finally, third, the empirical findings contributed to design by identifying new opportunities as well as new ways of using design documentaries as a tool for inspiring design in this context.Building on these findings, this fellowship will disseminate the findings of my PhD research and begin to generate new discussions by focusing on ways of representing and designing for children's communication experiences. I intend to build stronger links with a growing network of professionals from both academic and nonacademic settings who can inform and be informed by these insights.To achieve this goal, within academia, I will share the findings of my PhD research through written publications in peer-reviewed journals and relevant conference proceedings within the fields of human computer interaction, augmentative and alternative communication and multimodal communication. Outside of academia, I will connect with practitioners from special education and mainstream schools, assistive technology and healthcare settings. Through a contained, small project that produces 'bite-sized' video documentaries about the findings, I intend to generate new discussions and connections for future design work. In doing so, the fellowship will offer exciting opportunities for me to develop my skills as an early career researcher and plan for further research that builds on and extends my specific research interests in disability, design and communication.