Inclusive technologies
QUT has developed a research program on inclusive technologies, built on a partnership with people with intellectual disability. In addition to providing designs and design guidelines for technologies that are accessible and promote inclusion, the team has also developed unique methodologies to support people with intellectual disability to have a voice in the processes of co-design.
These research findings have emerged through our research team observing technology use in community centres, exploring new technologies together with people with intellectual disability and their support workers. Our main partners so far have been Endeavour Foundation and Autism Queensland, with funding from the Australian Research Council, the CRC Autism, and the Endeavour Foundation Endowment Challenge Fund.
The team is now eager to engage with new partners, such as community organisations and business partners to continue the research in more diverse context that could provide more of these opportunities:
- Inclusive Work: We explore the integration of technology in the workplace, facilitating learning and remembering, offering accessible work tools, and providing companionship and community-building opportunities.
- Inclusive Housing: We create technology solutions, including “Magic Mirrors” and conversational agents, to foster independence and support within the housing environment.
- Inclusive Driving: We investigate the use of social robotics, cognitive aids and Ai tools to support driving and autonomous vehicle experiences.
- Inclusive Learning: We support content development and personalisation, including through generative AI, to empower vocational and on-the-job learning.
- Inclusive Informal Learning: We envision that social robots can be well integrated into community spaces like museums, cafes, and workplaces to engage more inclusively with all users, including the disabled.
Engaging people with a disability in the process of design and feedback provides an educational and empowering activity for identified participants, and an opportunity for community organisations and business partners to be recognised as a contributor to QUT’s research project as a partner.
Our current projects
Inclusive Robotics
Inclusive Tech @Work
Pictorial Communication
Techshops
Former projects include:
- New Information Access Technologies for People with Intellectual Disability (concluded)
- Nature Apps – Social Gardening and Citizen Science by people with intellectual disability (concluded)
- Virtual reality disability training: a technology comparison impact investigation (concluded)
- Co-designing with minimally-verbal children on the autism spectrum (concluded)
Learn here how you can take part in our research to try and create new technologies.We are also always looking for more students with skills in HCI and/or machine learning to join our team!
Hear or read more about how and why we are conducting this research:
Laurianne in the “I can’t stand” podcast
Laurianne in Link Disability Magazine
Chief Investigators
Other Team Members
PhD students (current)
PhD students (completed)
- Saminda Balasuriya (completed)
- Theja Kuruppu Arachchi (completed)
- Filip Bircanin (completed)
- Andy Bayor (completed)
- Cara Wilson (completed)
- Ravihansa Rajapaske (completed)
Other team members
- Maria Hoogstrate
- Michael Esteban
- Saminda Balasuriya
- Bouchra Senadji
Former team members
- Sirin Roomkham
- Ahmed Abbas
- Leandro Guedes
Partners
Publications
- Wilson, Cara, Sitbon, Laurianne, Brereton, Margot, Johnson, Daniel, Koplick, Stewart (2016) 'Put yourself in the picture': designing for futures with young adults with intellectual disability. In Parker, C (Ed.), Proceedings of the 28th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction, pp.271-281.
- Bayor, Andrew Azaabanye, Sitbon, Laurianne, Ploderer, Bernd, Bircanin, Filip, Brereton, Margot (2019) 'TechShops': Engaging young adults with intellectual disability in exploratory design research. In Cox, A, Kostakos, V (Eds.), Extended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp.1-8.
- Rajapakse, Saumya Ravihansa Bandara, Brereton, Margot, Sitbon, Laurianne, Roe, Paul (2015) A collaborative approach to design individualized technologies with people with a disability. In Gibbs, M, Smith, W, Carter, M, Vetere, F, Ploderer, B (Eds.), Proceedings of the 27th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference (OzCHI 2015), pp.29-33.
- Sitbon, Laurianne, Hoogstrate, Maria, Yule, Julie, Koplick, Stewart, Bircanin, Filip, Brereton, Margot (2018) A non-clinical approach to describing participants with intellectual disability. In Choi, J H J, McKay, D, Kelly, R, Waycott, J, Lugmayr, A, Morrison, A, Buchanan, G, Stevenson, D, Billinghurst, M (Eds.), Proceedings of the 30th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction (OzCHI 2018), pp.128-132.
- Rajapakse, Saumya Ravihansa Bandara, Brereton, Margot, Sitbon, Laurianne (2021) A respectful design approach to facilitate codesign with people with cognitive or sensory impairments and makers. CoDesign, 17 (2), pp.159-187.
- Wilson, Cara, Brereton, Margot, Ploderer, Bernd, Sitbon, Laurianne (2019) Co-design beyond words: 'Moments of interaction' with minimally-verbal children on the autism spectrum. In Cox, A, Kostakos, V (Eds.), CHI 2019 - Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings, pp.1-15.
- Sitbon, Laurianne, Brereton, Margot (2020) Co-design to include users with intellectual disability in information interaction research. CHIIR '20: Proceedings of the 2020 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval, CHIIR 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval, pp.481–483.
- Sitbon, Laurianne, Farhin, Shanjana (2017) Co-designing interactive applications with adults with intellectual disability: a case study. In Soro, A, Vyas, D, Waycott, J, Ploderer, B, Morrison, A, Brereton, M (Eds.), Proceedings of the 29th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference (OzCHI 2017), pp.487-491.
- Brereton, Margot, Sitbon, Laurianne, Abdullah, Muhammad Haziq Lim, Vanderberg, Mark, Koplick, Stewart (2015) Design after design to bridge between people living with cognitive or sensory impairments, their friends and proxies. CoDesign, 11 (1), pp.4-20.
- Rajapakse, Saumya Ravihansa Bandara, Brereton, Margot, Sitbon, Laurianne (2018) Design artefacts to support people with a disability to build personal infrastructures. In Chow, K, odom, W, Cerratto-Pargman, T (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2018 Designing Interactive Systems Conference, pp.277-288.
- Rajapakse, Saumya Ravihansa Bandara, Brereton, Margot, Roe, Paul, Sitbon, Laurianne (2014) Designing with people with disabilities: adapting best practices of DIY and organizational approaches. In Loke, L, Leong, T, O'Hara, K, Wadley, G, Robertson, T (Eds.), Proceedings of the 26th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference on Designing Futures: the Future of Design, pp.519-522.
- Wilson, Cara, Brereton, Margot, Ploderer, Bernd, Sitbon, Laurianne, Saggers, Beth (2017) Digital strategies for supporting strengths- and interests-based learning with children with autism. In Morris, M R, Findlater, L (Eds.), Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, pp.52-61.
- Sitbon, Laurianne (2018) Engaging IT students in co-design with people with intellectual disability. In Cox, A, Perry, M (Eds.), Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp.1-6.
- Balasuriya, Saminda Sundeepa, Sitbon, Laurianne, Brereton, Margot, Koplick, Stewart (2019) How can social robots spark collaboration and engagement among people with intellectual disability?. OZCHI'19: Proceedings of the 31st Australian Conference on Human-Computer-Interaction, PervasiveHealth: Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, pp.209-220.
- Farhin, Shanjana, Sitbon, Laurianne, Brereton, Margot (2018) Insights from people with ID on a transport application. In Choi, J H J, McKay, D, Kelly, R, Waycott, J, Lugmayr, A, Morrison, A, Buchanan, G, Stevenson, D, Billinghurst, M (Eds.), Proceedings of the 30th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction (OzCHI 2018), pp.123-127.
- Balasuriya, Saminda Sundeepa, Sitbon, Laurianne, Brereton, Margot (2022) A Support Worker Perspective on Use of New Technologies by People with Intellectual Disabilities. ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing, 15 (3), pp.Article number: 21.
- Andradi, Manesha, Bircanin, Filip, Sitbon, Laurianne, Brereton, Margot (2021) Expanding Designing for One to Invite Others Through Reverse Inclusion. ASSETS '21: The 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, ASSETS 2021 - 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility.
- Sitbon, Laurianne, Brereton, Margot, Bircanin, Filip (2023) Reframing search and recommendation as opportunities for communication for people with intellectual disability. Human-Computer Interaction.
- Sitbon, Laurianne, Berget, Gerd, Brereton, Margot (2023) Perspectives of Neurodiverse Participants in Interactive Information Retrieval. Foundations and Trends in Information Retrieval, 17 (2), pp.124-243.
- Balasuriya, Saminda Sundeepa, Sitbon, Laurianne (2023) Designing gardening applications to engage people with intellectual disability in gardening activities. In Bowen, Judy, Pantidi, Nadia, McKay, Dana, Ferreira, Jennifer, Soro, Alessandro, Blagojevic, Rachel, Lawrence, Chris, Vanderschantz, Nic, Keegan, Te Taka, Turner, Jane, et al. (Eds.), OzCHI '23: Proceedings of the 35th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference, ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, pp.415-422.
- Guedes, Leandro, Balasuriya, Saminda, Sitbon, Laurianne, Landoni, Monica (2023) Artistic Fusion: Exploring the Potential of AI-Generated Artwork in Enabling Creative Expression with People with Intellectual Disabilities. In Bowen, Judy, Pantidi, Nadia, McKay, Dana, Ferreira, Jennifer, Soro, Alessandro, Blagojevic, Rachel, Lawrence, Chris, Vanderschantz, Nic, Keegan, Te Taka, Turner, Jane, et al. (Eds.), OzCHI '23: Proceedings of the 35th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference, ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, pp.648–656.
- Balasuriya, Jayaran Kaduge Saminda Sundeepa (2023) Identifying and integrating diverse roles of stakeholders for co-design of technology in disability support context
- Bircanin, Filip (2022) Co-designing with adults with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities to enable active communication technology use
- Sitbon, Laurianne, Favre, Benoit, Zhang, Jinglan, Bayor, Andrew A., Koplick, Stewart Adam, Bircanin, Filip, Brereton, Margot (2020) A framework for information accessibility in large video repositories. CHIIR '20: Proceedings of the 2020 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval, CHIIR 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval, pp.387–391.
- Bircanin, Filip, Sitbon, Laurianne, Hoogstrate, Maria, Abbas, Ahmed K., Hajizadeh Saffar, Alieh, Brereton, Margot (2025) Beyond the Buckets of Support: Designing for Agency and Interaction in Personalised Disability Systems. In Yamashita, Naomi, Evers, Vanessa, Yatani, Koji, Ding, Xianghua (Sharon), Lee, Bongshin, Chetty, Marshini, Toups-Dugas, Phoebe (Eds.), CHI '25: Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
- Hajizadeh Saffar, Alieh, Sitbon, Laurianne, Beaumont, Chris P. (2025) Communication with Individuals with Intellectual Disability Using Generic Images: Exploring Contexts, Requirements, Opportunities, and Challenges. In Yamashita, Naomi, Evers, Vanessa, Yatani, Koji, Ding, Xianghua (Sharon) (Eds.), CHI EA '25: Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
- Bircanin, Filip, Brereton, Margot, Sitbon, Laurianne, Ploderer, Bernd, Esteban, Michael (2025) Co-designing in the middle: supporting adults with intellectual disabilities to meaningfully participate in design. CoDesign.
- Bayor, Andrew A., Brereton, Margot, Sitbon, Laurianne, Ploderer, Bernd (2025) ICT use and competencies of school children with intellectual disabilities in low-resource settings: the case of Ghana in sub-Saharan Africa. Universal Access in the Information Society, 24, pp.375–391.