Cocreating Rights Enabled by Design [RED] for IoT in Intellectual Disability

The ‘RED Framework - Cocreating Rights Enabled by Design [RED] for IoT in Intellectual Disability’ project, explores how ‘The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ [CRPD) can be integrated into design practices and embedded into the Internet of Things (IoT), focusing specifically on applications in intellectual disability [ID]. The project is funded through, and sits within, the Taighde Éireann Research Centre for Future Networks and Communications  CONNECT Centre and lead by Professor Eleanor Bantry White, University College Cork (UCC), the project is an interdisciplinary collaboration between UCC, Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) and community partner Praxis Care. The project team also collaborates closely with the id+ Futures Project   in the School of Applied Social Studies, UCC, colleagues in UCC’s Institute for Social Science in the 21st Century (ISS21), to maximise impact in advancing inclusive research and innovation practices.

The CRPD, ratified by Ireland in 2018, asserts the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities, and its guiding principles encompass respect for inherent dignity, autonomy including the freedom to make one’s own choices, and full participation and inclusion in society [1]. The transformational potential of IoT for people with ID and in fulfilling the goals of the CRPD is significant, whereby IoT can enable unprecedented independence, participation, activity and choice in everyday life among people with ID. However, technology design often fails to consider within-group diversities amongst people with ID, who have diverse capabilities and preferences, requiring technologies to be personalized, accessible and flexible. Moreover, researchers require new knowledge and skillsets to understand the lived experiences of ID, facilitate participation of people with ID in design processes and effectively integrate the CRPD into IoT solutions.

The interrelated objectives of the ‘RED Framework’ project are to operationalise the CRPD in IoT research and innovation in ID, empower researchers to integrate the CRPD into their practices, and facilitate increased participation of people with ID in research and innovation. The project will generate a participatory methods toolkit, quality standards and training resources to improve inclusive practices in research and innovation. This participatory project is informed entirely through co-creation processes, helping ensure that solutions are built with the communities they are designed to serve.

For further information on the ‘RED Framework’ project, please contact the projects’ principal investigator, Professor Eleanor Bantry White (e.bantrywhite@ucc.ie) or Dr. Catriona Curtin (catriona.curtin@ucc.ie) who is a postdoctoral researcher on the project.

References:

[1] United Nations. 2007. United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/conventionfull.shtml