OTTRS Speaker Series: “Design as a Bridge: finding common ground across disciplines and lived experiences”
UMD students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends—join us for the OTTRS (external link, opens in a new tab) Speaker Series. (Registration Required)
Abstract:
What does it take to design together when we bring different disciplinary languages, lived experiences, and ideas about what matters? In interdisciplinary research, finding common ground is itself a design challenge. Drawing on my research on accessible communication technologies, I will explore how design can create opportunities for researchers, people with disabilities, clinicians, and care partners to learn from one another and shape shared directions for research. Through examples spanning augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and AI-supported tools for people with aphasia, I will discuss how collaborative design activities and prototypes can make assumptions visible, bring different forms of expertise into conversation, and help teams negotiate what to build and why. These collaborations also raise questions about whose knowledge guides decisions, how participation is supported, and what happens when priorities diverge. I will reflect on the work of building common ground while preserving meaningful differences, including differences in how people communicate and what they want technology to support. This talk will offer a perspective on design as a practice for developing shared questions, navigating disagreement, and creating technologies grounded in the lives of the people who use them.
Bio:
Stephanie Valencia²
Stephanie Valencia is an Assistant Professor in the College of Information at the University of Maryland. Her research in human-computer interaction and accessibility explores how technology can support communication, agency, and self-expression for people with speech and motor disabilities. She works with people with disabilities, clinicians, and care partners to design and study communication technologies, including augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems and AI-supported tools. She earned her Ph.D. in Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University and has a background in biomedical engineering. Her interdisciplinary path has taken her from autism research at Yale to the hardware startup world, bringing a curiosity about how people think, communicate, and create together to each new setting.
Additional Information:
Please contact infoevents@umd.edu at least one week prior to the event to request disability accommodations. In all situations, a good faith effort (up until the time of the event) will be made to provide accommodations.
For parking information and directions, please visit the Transportation Services website (external link, opens in a new tab) or view the campus map (external link, opens in a new tab).
Speaker(s): Stephanie Valencia Valencia, Assistant Professor, College of Information, University of Maryland