Inclusive design research

Professor Hua Dong – who joined the University in 2018 – has long championed inclusive design to ensure that design considers users’ diverse capabilities and needs, and benefits all potential users.

Professor Dong co-leads the Loughborough Responsible Design Group and is the international convenor of the Inclusive Design Special Interest Group at the Design Research Society (DRS).

She regularly gives invited keynote talks on inclusive design worldwide. This year, she is organising the 10th Cambridge Workshop on Universal Access and Assistive Technology, and the Responsible Design for the Ageing Society session for the HCI International.

She is a programme committee member of the DRS2020, and an international judge for Japan’s first design competition on Sustainable Development Goals.

She is widely published and became Fellow of the DRS in 2019. Her collaborative research on inclusive design with KU Leuven was published in 2019 by Design Studies and the International Journal of Design, and her book Inclusive Design: Chinese Archive was published in May 2019.

In collaboration with the Chinese Alibaba Group, she has produced the first inclusive design guidance in China – launched by Ant Financial in 2019. She recently showcased inclusive design research at the British Science Festival.

In 2019, she won Newton Fund support for Sustaining Inclusive Design Collaboration through Co-design Platforms. She and her team are collaborating with Mimar Sinan Fine Art University, the Cambridge EDC, DRS, FixED, Six Dots Foundation for the Blind, and Spinal Cord Paralytics Association of Turkey.

As well as establishing an online knowledge exchange resource and platform, the project will deliver inclusive design training to design educators and disability organisations to influence future designers, design briefs and processes.