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.

Non-verbal communication is essential for the social inclusion of individuals with an intellectual disability, affecting interactions with others as well as technological systems. This study focuses on non-symbolic communication of people with intellectual disability through generic images without specific or detailed subject matter. A key challenge in this medium is discerning the underlying intentions behind images selected as visual prompts for conversation.

This research explores the conditions and opportunities for citizen science applications to enhance their accessibility to people with intellectual disability (ID). In this paper, we present how the knowledge gathered by co-designing with a group of 3 participants with ID led to a design judged accessible and engaging by another group of 4 participants with ID. We contribute the key elements of that design: static subject, visual engagement, embodiment and social connectedness.