Finley Tams-Gray

Co-designing inclusive and sustainable alternative future speech technologies for expressive augmented communication

This interdisciplinary project will co-design alternative futures for living richer lives in a fairer, more sustainable world.

Many disabled people use speech generating devices as part of their augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Typically, assistive technologies are made for disabled people, sometimes (positively) with disabled people; the aim of this project is to enable design by these communities, harnessing the ‘Maker Movement’ and hacking culture.

AAC users are the pioneers of synthetic speech. They own and embody these voices in their everyday lives yet have little say in the shaping of them.

Working with people who use AAC for their lived experience and productive imaginations, this project will include participatory design, cultural probes, experience prototyping and speculative design.

The aims of this research are to conceive and design services to empower disabled communities to develop their own AAC, resulting in disruptive envision states of far wider relevance and value.

Supervisor team: Professor Graham Pullin and Dr Tom Griffiths