Intimacy is a complex, multifaceted subject of importance within disability rights movements.Disabled individuals are entitled to the same universal human rights (e.g., marriage, sexual and reproductive self-determination) as everyone else.Assistive measures that support equity in their personal lives remain central to these movements.However, the research community's relatively narrow focus of what "intimacy" is (i.e., primarily concerned with sex) combined with factors, such as context, cultural sensitivities, power dynamics and complex ethics, has resulted in its limited exploration in HCI Accessibility Research.Among the relatively small body of HCI literature, most works approach disabled intimacies through a primarily deficit-oriented and heteronormative lens.Notably, ASSETS has featured only two papers on this subject in the past 23 years [53].Moreover, few studies in HCI explore the methodological and ethical considerations of researching disabled intimacies, and even fewer are disability-led and include queer perspectives [53].In this half-day virtual workshop, we invite engineers, technology design and development researchers, industry practitioners, accessibility * These authors contributed equally to this research and share first authorship of this publication.

Mental health and well-being research increasingly recognizes the potential of data to support preventative care and foster meaningful sensemaking. However, traditional health data visualizations often overlook emotional depth, contextual relevance, and lived experiences. In response, four HCI researchers conducted a 35-day field study, examining their well-being data as participants and co-designers to reimagine their relationship with self-tracking technologies and health data representations. Grounded in participatory, soma-inspired, and design fiction principles, this study encouraged participants to move beyond passive data consumption through creative experimentation, embedding personal experiences and collaborative exploration to challenge conventional representations and reimagine well-being through design. The findings demonstrate how collaborative sensemaking can reframe well-being interventions as creative processes that empower individuals’ lived experiences. By foregrounding reflection and shared interpretation, this work contributes to the discourse on how creative explorations with biodata redefine our relationship with wearable technology, highlighting the role of trust in understanding sensitive data collaboratively.

Access to public spaces is of the utmost importance for social cohesion, inclusion, and civic engagement.Nevertheless, a large majority of public spaces remain incredibly uncomfortable environments for neurodivergent individuals due to, for instance, the unpredictability of such spaces and the sensory stimuli within them.Smart City technologies present an exciting opportunity to improve the accessibility and enjoyment of the spaces where they are deployed by, for instance, offering users the ability to customise a space to their specific sensory needs.However, the research topic of public space technologies for neurodivergent individuals remains scattered and sparsely documented.This critical review analyses the existing domains of inquiry, contributing a theoretical framework based on Spatial Justice and Neuroqueer Technoscience and suggests future research avenues informed by this framework.We advocate for the participatory co-creation of a neurodivergent-affirming landscape of public space technologies that both support neurodivergent needs and promote neurodivergent joy.

Accessibility research has gained traction, yet ethical gaps persist in the inclusion of individuals with disabilities, especially children. Inclusive research practices are essential to ensure that research and design solutions cater to the needs of all individuals, regardless of their abilities. Working with children with disabilities in Human-Computer Interaction and Human-Robot Interaction presents a unique set of ethical dilemmas. These young participants often require additional care, support, and accommodations, which can fall off researchers’ resources or expertise. The lack of clear guidance on navigating these challenges further aggravates the problem. To provide a basis on which to address this issue, we adopt a critical reflective approach, evaluating our impact by analyzing two case studies involving children with disabilities in HCI/HRI research. Flowing from these, we call for a shift in our approach to ethics in participatory research contexts to one that is processual, situational, and community-led.

While public charging infrastructure for Electric Vehicles (EVs) in the form of cars or vans attracts significant investment, charging infrastructure for electric wheelchairs and mobility scooters has been neglected. With the expansion of EV charging points over the past decade, local governments and mobility providers have only recently started to take note. Concurrently, municipal governments in the US and researchers in the EU have begun working with developers to envision an electric wheelchair (or equivalent mobility scooters) public charging infrastructure, while acknowledging the absence of current facilities. This is especially the case in the UK, where, at this time, there are no known public charging points for mobility vehicle users. As part of an international (student) research exchange event, we worked with community partners to capture the lived experience of electric wheelchair use in the urban environment, identifying key priorities and current barriers with them. Using a Design Fiction approach, we explored how speculative futures about public charging provision can help with awareness-raising and impact public policy in relation to this important issue.

Neurodivergent children spend most of their time in neurodiverse schools alongside their neurotypical peers and often face social exclusion. Inclusive play activities are a strong vehicle of inclusion. Unfortunately, games designed for the specific needs of neurodiverse groups are scarce. Given the potential of robots to support play, we led a co-design process to build an inclusive robotic game for neurodiverse classrooms. We conducted five co-design workshops, engaging 80 children from neurodiverse classrooms in designing an inclusive game. Employing the resulting design insights, we iteratively prototyped and playtested a tabletop robotic game leveraging off-the-shelf robots. Reflecting upon our findings, we discuss how the longitudinal co-design process (rather than the resulting game) was key in allowing children the space to learn how to accommodate accessibility needs and create inclusive play experiences. We posit the use of co-design to enhance children’s interpersonal relationships, fosters feelings of ownership, and encourages appropriation practices as a strategy to sustain inclusive experiences that extend beyond project timelines or artefact designs.

Research on robotic ostracism is still scarce and has only explored its effects on adult populations. Although the results revealed important carryover effects of robotic exclusion, there is no evidence yet that those results occur in child-robot interactions. This paper provides the first exploration of robotic ostracism with children. We conducted a study using the Robotic Cyberball Paradigm in a third-person perspective with a sample of 52 children aged between five to ten years old. The experimental study had two conditions: Exclusion and Inclusion. In the Exclusion condition, children observed a peer being excluded by two robots; while in the Inclusion condition, the observed peer interacted equally with the robots. Notably, even 5-year-old children could discern when robots excluded another child. Children who observed exclusion reported lower levels of belonging and control, and exhibited higher prosocial behaviour than those witnessing inclusion. However, no differences were found in children's meaningful existence, self-esteem, and physical proximity across conditions. Our user study provides important methodological considerations for applying the Robotic Cyberball Paradigm with children. The results extend previous literature on both robotic ostracism with adults and interpersonal ostracism with children. We finish discussing the broader implications of children observing ostracism in human-robot interactions.

Play is a central aspect of childhood development, with games as a vital tool to promote it. However, neurodivergent children, especially those in neurodiverse environments, are underserved by HCI games research. Most existing work takes on a top-down approach, disregarding neurodivergent interest for the majority of the design process. Co-design is often proposed as a tool to create truly accessible and inclusive gaming experiences. Nevertheless, co-designing with neurodivergent children within neurodiverse groups brings about unique challenges, such as different communication styles, sensory needs and preferences. Building upon recommendations from prior work in neurodivergent, mixed-ability, and child-led co-design, we propose a concrete participatory game design kit for neurodiverse classrooms: PartiPlay. Moreover, we present preliminary findings from an in-the-wild experiment with the said kit, showcasing its ability to create an inclusive co-design process for neurodiverse groups of children. We aim to provide actionable steps for future participatory design research with neurodiverse children.

Inclusion is key in group work and collaborative learning. We developed a mediator robot to support and promote inclusion in group conversations, particularly in groups composed of children with and without visual impairment. We investigate the effect of two mediation strategies on group dynamics, inclusion, and perception of the robot. We conducted a within-subjects study with 78 children, 26 experienced visual impairments, in a decision-making activity. Results indicate that the robot can foster inclusion in mixed-visual ability group conversations. The robot succeeds in balancing participation, particularly when using a highly intervening mediating strategy (directive strategy). However, children feel more heard by their peers when the robot is less intervening (organic strategy). We extend prior work on social robots to assist group work and contribute with a mediator robot that enables children with visual impairments to engage equally in group conversations. We finish by discussing design implications for inclusive social robots.

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is characterized by the presence of at least two distinct identities in the same individual. This paper describes a co-design process with a person living with DID. We first aimed to uncover the main challenges experienced by the co-designer as well as design opportunities for novel technologies. We then engaged in a prototyping stage to design a wearable display (WhoDID) to facilitate in-person social interactions. The prototype aims to be used as a necklace and enable the user to make their fronting personality visible to others. Thus, facilitating social encounters or sudden changes of identity. We reflect on the design features of WhoDID in the broader context of supporting people with DID. Moreover, we provide insights on co-designing with someone with multiple (sometimes conflicting) personalities regarding requirement elicitation, decision-making, prototyping, and ethics. To our knowledge, we report the first design process with a DID user within the ASSETS and CHI communities. We aim to encourage other assistive technology researchers to design with DID users.