Seray Ibrahim.pdf

Seray Ibrahim from UCL Institute of Education conducted PhD research on designing for communication with children with severe speech and physical impairments. The 4-year project involved 1 year of fieldwork with 5 primary school-aged children who used augmentative and alternative communication devices. The research used qualitative fieldwork, observation, video analysis, workshops, and ethnographic methods, informed by a social semiotic multimodal perspective. Ibrahim aims to share reflections on this research and its contributions, including methodological and theoretical implications, and hopes to communicate with a communication theory audience. The research has potential contributions to fields such as learning, communication, and design, and highlights the importance of considering the experiences of marginalized children in the field of Children-Computer Interaction. Ibrahim has experienced challenges in formulating the contributions of her research, particularly in balancing methodological discussions with other contributions, such as discourses on power and understanding communication.