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A group of people sit around a table covered with colourful illustrations representing creativity and teamwork. In the centre is a large yellow circle with a light‑bulb icon, surrounded by drawings such as gears, an eye, a magnifying glass, an open book, and arrows connecting the symbols. The individuals appear to be collaborating or brainstorming, with notebooks, coffee cups, and devices on the table.

ASSETS 2026: Workshop – Designing With, Not For: Inclusive Methodologies for Co-designing With People With Diverse Abilities

Date: 21 October 2026
Time: 8:00 am – 4:00 pm
Online
More info
Third-party event
A group of people sit around a table covered with colourful illustrations representing creativity and teamwork. In the centre is a large yellow circle with a light‑bulb icon, surrounded by drawings such as gears, an eye, a magnifying glass, an open book, and arrows connecting the symbols. The individuals appear to be collaborating or brainstorming, with notebooks, coffee cups, and devices on the table.

Designing accessible technologies and services plays a vital role in facilitating social and civic inclusion for people with diverse abilities; yet inclusion is equally vital to creating them. The methods through which research and design are conducted should themselves be inclusive, so that people with diverse abilities can participate as co-designers and co-owners of the work. Nevertheless, researchers working across ability-diverse populations often find themselves without a clear starting point. Existing guidelines are scarce and often difficult to adapt to specific contexts and communities. Translating resources into practice requires tailored vocabularies and procedures that are rarely documented or shared.

Our workshop brings together researchers and practitioners working with people with diverse abilities to begin mapping the landscape of inclusive methodological approaches.

Our goal is to surface what people are already doing including adaptations, workarounds, and community-specific practices that rarely make it into publications.

The outcome will be a shared resource that includes case studies and approaches that can be used as inspirational starting points that researchers can adapt to their own contexts and communities.

Workshops: four hours, split across two sessions:

  • First block: 8:00am – 10:00am (UTC)
  • Second block: 2.00pm – 4.00pm (UTC)

[We invite researchers, designers, and practitioners to join this workshop, with the goal of mapping the landscape of inclusive methodological practices. We welcome participation from a range of backgrounds and career stages, including early-career and experienced researchers, educators, practitioners, and community advocates, who are engaged in or curious about designing with people with diverse ab ilities, including older adults, people with disabilities, neurodivergent individuals, and those with diverse communication styles and needs. At least one author of each accepted submission should attend the workshop, either in person or online. All participants must register for at least one day of the ASSETS conference.

Submission Deadline: 18 August 2026. Submissions may be sent to Sophia Ppali and Laurence Myers at the following email addresses: S.Ppali@tudelft.nl and L.Myers@tudelft.nl.]