This experience report offers the perspective of the first author, Chloe, a woman with intellectual disability, on participation in technology co-design and her views of how technology, particularly social robots, can be designed for everyone’s benefit. The core of the report are quotes from Chloe in response to questions of the research team, with some context in terms of literature and background for her experiences. A short discussion contributed by the academic researcher authors reflects on relationship building throughout series of co-design research projects and highlights future directions for inclusive co-design research, the nuances between co-design research participants and co-researchers.

In this workshop, we invite researchers, practitioners and designers to reflect on ethical issues arising from Distributed Participatory Design (DPD) research with children. As participatory design research practices require rethinking and innovative adaptation in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, distributed, asynchronous and online (D)PD approaches may provide solutions to participation barriers. However, in light of this adaptation, additional ethical complexities may arise. Ongoing collaborative discussion is required to identify and address the different types of ethical issues which may arise when planning and conducting DPD projects with children. This workshop builds on previous workshops held at IDC 2021 and 2020, which provided insights into developing a protocol for a world-wide DPD project with children.

In this paper, we outline a Distributed Participatory Design (DPD) research protocol. The protocol is presented through the lens of the World’s Largest DPD Project with children, a hypothetical project in which children address the issue of climate change. The DPD research protocol is based on the protocol template recommended by WHO’s Research Ethics Review Committee (ERC) and on the data from two conference workshops with a total of 45 participants. The contribution of this paper is two-fold: 1) an initial version of a generic DPD research protocol; 2) an exemplification of how to appropriate this protocol for a specific project. We expect this protocol will be iteratively refined and will serve as inspiration for future research practices in Child-Computer Interaction (CCI).

In this workshop, we invite researchers and practitioners as participants in co-designing the protocol for the world’s largest Distributed Participatory Design (DPD) project with children. Participatory Design – whose inclusive benefits are broadly recognised in design – can be very challenging, especially when involving children. The current COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to further barriers to PD with such groups. Recent key barriers include social distancing and government-imposed social restrictions due to the additional health risks to vulnerable children and their families. This disrupts traditional in-person PD (which involves close socio-emotional and often physical collaboration between participants and researchers). However, alongside such barriers, we have identified opportunities for new and augmented approaches to PD across distributed geographies, backgrounds, ages and abilities. We invite the CCI community to examine Distributed Participatory Design (DPD) as a solution for overcoming these new barriers, during and after COVID-19. Together, we offer new ways to think about DPD, and unpick some of its ambiguities. This workshop builds on work conducted in a similar workshop in IDC 2020, and this year will focus on the planning and design of the protocol for the world’s largest DPD project with children.

Despite its inherent challenges, participatory design (PD) has unique benefits when designing technology for children, especially children with special needs. Researchers have developed a multitude of PD approaches to accommodate specific populations. However, a lack of understanding of the appropriateness of existing approaches across contexts presents a challenge for PD researchers. This workshop will provide an opportunity for PD researchers to exchange and reflect on their experiences of designing with children with special needs. We aim to identify, synthesize and collate PD best practices across contexts and participant groups.

In this paper, we focus on the question of design of technology for Deaf children, and whether the needs of these children are different from their hearing counterparts in a technology design setting. We present findings from literature together with our own observations to determine if there are distinguishing characteristics for Deaf children that may influence design sessions with them. We found that Deaf children generally have reduced literacy and slower academic progress, reduced social and emotional development, reduced empathy and a level of nervousness in novel situations, delayed language development, and limited or delayed spoken language. We also found that Deaf children are active and innovative in approaching communication, have sensitive visual attention in their peripheral vision, enhanced attention to small visual changes, and a capacity for visual learning. Finally, cultural issues within the Deaf community mean that Deaf children should be free to interact on their own terms in a design situation. We suggest that these differences merit the development of a design approach specific to the needs of Deaf children.