YoungDeafDesign: Participatory design with young Deaf children

Abstract

It is common in HCI research to involve children in the design of their own technology. However, no design methods exist to design with young Deaf children. To address this gap, I have created YoungDeafDesign, a design method for designing with young Deaf children. YoungDeafDesign was originally intended to be a design method for working with young Deaf children as equal design partners, according to Druin’s levels of involvement (Druin, 2002) . However, in YoungDeafDesign as it is presented here, the children’s involvement level falls between design partner and informant, as the communication gap between hearing designers and young Deaf children prevents the dialogue which is required for working with children as design partners. The YoungDeafDesign method addresses children’s youth, language level, individual Deafness and cultural Deafness, enabling adult, hearing designers to design technologies with and for this unique group of children.YoungDeafDesign will be described in this paper through the lens of patterns and themes which are common in designing with children (Korte, 2020) , and which were evaluated for applicability to designing with young Deaf children through a series of twenty-five design sessions conducted with young Deaf children (3–5 years), staff members from the children’s preschool programme in the role of sign language interpreter or support assistant; and at times, the children’s parents. This led to a synthesis of the relevant aspects of existing methods into a new design method for designing with young Deaf children.The existence of YoungDeafDesign will enable the creation of technologies to assist young Deaf children and their families in ways which address young Deaf children’s needs and abilities.