We are organising a workshop on Inclusive Digital Fabrication Technologies which will run as part of ICMI’2020 conference D
Emerging hardware and software prototyping platforms have democratized digital fabrication (i.e. open-source microcontroller and online software platforms), enabling the takeoff of the “Maker” movement. They are reshaping the design-fabrication circle: researchers and design practitioners are able to sketch, fabricate and evaluate their creative ideas and solutions fairly easily and cheaply. However, very few of these platforms and tools leverage people’s multisensory capabilities in the process of fabrication. Focusing on multisensory making processes could support accessibility and inclusion of people with sensory and other impairments. Digital fabrication tools have the potential to empower disabled makers and designers in building their very own assistive technologies and to make technologies in general more inclusive of people with and without disabilities. Yet this potential is still to be realised. In this workshops we will share experiences and reflect on ways to develop multisensory and inclusive making and fabrication tools. The workshop builds on the insights and community developed through previous events ran at CHI’2018 and CHI’2019 with the broader aim of developing a research agenda for inclusive technologies for people with and without disabilities.
Read the workshop proposal here:
We aim to bring together several communities to explore this topic: HCI experts on inclusive technologies, experts in cross-sensory design/tools, as well as in digital fabrication. We call for papers and endeavour to map existing and prospective research on the following topics:
- Novel fabrication techniques: How could we increase the accessibility of novel fabrication techniques, which should also improve their use by the general public?
- Cognition and perception in fabrication: How do we leverage cognition and perception research to facilitate inclusive fabrication, making and innovation? We are particularly interested in the contribution that researchers on sensory substitution and cross-modality could bring to the table, as well as insights into how engaging in making helps people in developing new skills.
- Collaborative fabrication, innovation and inclusion: How to increase the accessibility of fabrication not only for individual needs but also for collaborative activities?
- Design supporting toolkits: How to keep consistent engagement with the toolkits to bind processes of learning, fabrication/making, innovation and production?
- Community building: How can novel fabrication techniques support learning for all potential users of digital fabrication tools? How to increase multisensory accessibility through cross-sensory sharing between learning/making peers, over distance and time course, and across generations? How to involve other actors of the maker movement?
- Evaluation: How to evaluate the multi-facet process of inclusive fabrication?What theoretical and practical account need to be considered? At the current stage, we are still in need of an evaluation framework to first evaluate fabrication outcomes including its quality, efficiency, the cost of time, effort and materials; second, usability of inclusive fabrication toolkits; third, fabrication/making experiences, either as individuals or as groups.
Important dates:
- Workshop paper due: Friday, July 31, 2020
- Paper notification: Monday, Aug 17, 2020
- Camera-ready paper: Monday, Aug 24, 2020
- Workshop date: October 25 or 29, 2020
We invite submissions of short papers and extended abstracts (2-4 pages) and posters according to ICMI ‘call for papers’ instructions (http://icmi.acm.org/2020/index.php?id=cfp).
How to submit:
- Please refer to the ‘Guidelines for Authors’ on ICMI webpage for the format of your submission.
- To submit to this workshop, please send your submission in PDF to following email address:
Organisers
- Dr. Oussama Metatla, University of Bristol
- Dr. Feng Feng, University of Bristol
- Dr. Anne Roudaut, University of Bristol
- Dr. Emeline Brule, University of Sussex
- Dr. Michael J Proulx, University of Bath