FEATURE ARTICLE
Designing inclusive built environments for non-verbal communicators with severe intellectual disabilities Ilianna Ginnis Ilianna is an access consultant at Architecture & Access and a current PhD candidate within the Design Health Collab at Monash University. Ilianna has a personal connection to the field of accessibility as her younger sister, Michelle, is a non-verbal communicator with an intellectual disability, which has fuelled Ilianna's dedication to making the built environment more inclusive. Her PhD research speculates on how design processes begin to consider persons with severe and profound intellectual disabilities and non-verbal communication, allowing designers to integrate users into complex processes as narrators of their own experiences.
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magine what it would be like if people could not understand your form of communication. For the 1.2 million Australians who are non-verbal and minimally verbal communicators1, this is their daily reality. Individuals who are non-verbal communicators and have intellectual and developmental disabilities are commonly neglected both in design processes and research2, therefore, their voices are not heard and the limited education and exposure to their needs often leave them misunderstood.
I am dedicated to addressing this issue through my research, which seeks to empower individuals with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities, particularly those who are non-verbal communicators, by allowing them to narrate their own life experiences. My doctoral study is designed to develop a set of guidelines that not only facilitate co-design methods for designers and built environment practitioners to effectively engage with non-verbal communicators but also offer recommendations for enhancing spatial features.
1 “Speech Isn’t the Only Way to Have a Conversation | #AskForChange | Scope,” Scope Australia (blog), February 19, 2020, https://www.scopeaust.org.au/blog/communication-access/speechisnt-the-only-way-to-have-a-conversation/ 2 Katie Gaudion et al., “A Designer’s Approach: How Can Autistic Adults with Learning Disabilities Be Involved in the Design Process?,” CoDesign: CoDesign with People Living with Cognitive and Sensory Impairments 11, no. 1 (2015): 49–69, https://doi.org/10.1080/15710882. 2014.997829.
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ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTANTS IN ACCESS AUSTRALIA / ACCESS INSIGHT / SUMMER 2023-2024
