Abstract Storytelling is a vital tool for empowering marginalized groups, including those with intellectual disabilities. We can enhance their storytelling experiences through technology, making them more accessible and engaging. In this context, we introduce EmpowerBox, a multisensory storytelling toolkit co-designed with eight participants during a two-day workshop. By embracing multisensoriality—through light, vibration, sound, and tactile elements—the project encourages engagement in storytelling beyond conventional modes of expression. We present how participants crafted their stories and how the process sparked moments of social connection. Our findings highlight the transformative potential of assistive technologies in storytelling and underscore the broader societal benefits of fostering inclusive, creative collaboration.

People with intellectual disabilities often experience inequalities that affect the standard of their everyday lives. Assistive technologies can help alleviate some of these inequalities, yet abandonment rates remain high. This is in part due to a lack of involvement of all stakeholders in their design and evaluation, thus resulting in outputs that do not meet this cohort’s complex and heterogeneous needs. The aim of this half-day workshop is to focus on community building in a field that is relatively thin and disjointed, thereby enabling researchers to share experiences on how to design for and with people with intellectual disabilities, provide internal support, and establish new collaborations. Workshop outcomes will help to fill a gap in the available guidelines on how to include people with intellectual disabilities in research, through more accessible protocols as well as personalised and better fit-for-purpose technologies.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, we all suffered from several restrictions and measures regulating interaction with one another. We had to wear masks, use hand sanitizer, have open-air meetings, feel a combination of excitement and frustration, and eventually depend on online video calls. The combinations of these additional requirements and limitations, while necessary, affected how we could involve users in the different stages of design. It has profoundly hindered our chances of meeting in person with people with temporary or permanent disabilities. In our project, involving people with intellectual disabilities in the museum context, we also had to deal with museums being closed and physical exhibitions being canceled. At the same time, guardians and caregivers often turned to a stricter interpretation of anti-COVID measures to protect people with intellectual disabilities. This paper aims to discuss these challenges and share our lessons about coping with challenging and unpredictable situations by using improvisation.