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Aims:

Our vision is of a world without barriers to participation and with equitable opportunity for all. We are enabling students to drive disability innovation for a fairer world and to address disability challenges by co-designing solutions and sharing knowledge through:

1. Critical thinking skills & subject knowledge: Students will be able to analyse and critique diverse range of information, and apply this thinking to the disability innovation ecosystem, including political, cultural and economic context; emerging and assistive technology; assistive product services used by disabled people; and policies to support delivery of products and services.
2. Participatory design skills: Students will demonstrate the ability to work inclusively using participatory methods to design, develop and evaluate future global technology interventions.
3. Transferable Skills: Students will be able to apply their skills and knowledge across a range of tasks and activities demonstrating their ability to effectively develop, discuss and communicate ideas to people from different contexts and backgrounds.

Intended learning outcomes:

On successful completion of the module, a student will be able to:

1. Students will be able to think critically, formulate this thinking and reflect back thoughts around and across topics including:
   1. Theory, models and practice of Disability-inclusive social development.
   2. Models of disability and social development (e.g., Active citizenship and governance.)
   3. The role of evolving and emerging technologies and thinking (e.g., disability interactions.)
   4. The opportunity for breakthrough technologies when developing solutions with and for disabled people.
   5. Approaches and challenges in innovation and entrepreneurship in the creation and delivery of products of value to disabled people.
   6. The challenges inherent in developing assistive technologies at scale.
   7. Explain the particular issues in doing research which arise in relation to disability.
2. Students will demonstrate the ability to work with disabled people using participatory methods to design, develop and evaluate technology powered interventions. Specifically, students will demonstrate the ability to:
   1. Collaborate with disabled people and their communities to collect evidence on a topic of concern or interest.
   2. Design, deliver and evaluate a new product, service or policy.
   3. Describe and present the results of co-design workshops to create a new product or service.
3. Students will be able to use the knowledge and skills they have learned to:
   1. Deliver concise, informative presentations.
   2. Debate topics.
   3. Create and manage effective project places.
   4. Develop self-reflection.
   5. Communicate in a cross-disciplinary team.
   6. Advocate with and for disabled people.

Indicative content:

The following is indicative of the topics the module will typically cover:

This module is designed to provide students with an overview of disability, technology and innovation as a foundation for the remainder of the MSc Disability Design and Innovation. By attending lectures, participating in workshops and seminars, and conducting their own projects; students will learn about what disability is and is not; active citizenship; the roles of technology in the context of global disability; innovation; what key emerging technologies can and cannot do; and how they work.Ìý

Expert external speakers are invited to contribute to this module, bringing different perspectives and specialist knowledge that will provoke students to further thought. There will be opportunities for discussion of ideas and perspectives within the class.

The module is in two parts. Part 1 contains the principal taught content and introduces students to disability, development and global advances in technologies, such as robotics, AI, mobility, augmented and assisted communication, technology for mental disability, and sensors. In Part 2 students will be taught about the process of innovation using real-world case studies. They will also develop and present a solution to a problem related to the case studies.

Requisites:

To be eligible to select this module, a student must be registered on a programme and year of study for which it is a formally available.