The impacts of deaf culture on designing with deaf children

Abstract

This paper will discuss the impacts Deaf culture and the traits of individual Deafness have on the conduct of co-design with Deaf children. A series of design sessions were undertaken with a design team composed of young Deaf children, the first author as an adult designer, members of an Early Childhood Development Program's staff, and the parents of the young Deaf children. From the interactions of the design team, lessons about the impact of Deaf culture and individual Deafness have been identified. Designers wishing to work with young Deaf children must consider the impacts Deafness and Deaf culture will have on their design activities if they wish to maximise Deaf children's involvement in and contribution to those design activities.