Future Work in Equity in Healthcare Design (RPA Pilot / Seed Project)

"Disability rights advocates frequently critique design education projects in which students seek to solve problems “for” disabled users without first establishing whether disabled people wanted that “problem” solved in the first place. I would like to develop programming that helps design students and professionals understand how dynamics like ableism, ageism, sexism, and racism enter the design process and how they can be avoided, and how they can do design research that respects and centers users. This obviously applies in the initial design research phase, however, my work on spatial ability assessment has given me a deep understanding of how bias becomes encoded through choices made in later phases of the design process, such as during validation testing. Bias can become encoded in measurement tools used in healthcare, whether they are physical devices (such as pulse oximeters which are less accurate on people with darker skin tones), or software-based decision algorithms.
Understanding how to avoid embedding bias in medical technology is critical not only in product design but also in bioengineering and other healthcare-related disciplines, and I hope to find research partners among UK faculty who would like to collaborate in this area.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts are not a one-and-done project. I plan to continue my
involvement in efforts to promote the goals of DEI in my research, and I am excited to become a
contributor to ongoing efforts in the Product Design Department and in the broader UK academic
community."