MEDIATEDPUBLICS FOR INCLUSION

CHRISTOPHER TAYLOR EDWARDS

MEDIATEDPUBLICS FOR INCLUSION

CHRISTOPHER TAYLOR EDWARDS

MFA TRANSDISCIPLINARY DESIGN

THESIS 2015

MEDIATED publics for inclusion are public spaces that are open up participation

to all. A traditional design approach to mediation might be through material

objects; however, there is opportunity for mediation through the social structures

within the spaces design creates. To understand this opportunity, I will explore

my research and present a case study on empowering communications access for

deaf and hard of hearing students1 in the workplace, the impact of that work, and

what this might mean for design.

This research is embedded within my personal biography: I was born

hearing but slowly became deaf over time, resulting in a communications

impairment. Partially because of the slow transition, I have experience in mixed

communications settings in the office place. Im also deeply familiar with the

personal change management strategies for addiction and recovery, where I

draw inspiration. All of this is in dialogue with my background in performance,

experience design, and ethnomethodologies. Transdisciplinary design as a

method of synthesis is well situated to respond to the social needs of the

workplace by exploring the context, identifying key issues, seeing possibility,

and offering solutions (Kolko 169). Through my inherently transdisciplinary

background, my research makes use of the opportunity provided by design

methods to examine communication in the office in a deeper way, uncovering and

amplifying solutions, and amplify those.

o1 INTRODUCTION

AN OPPORTUNITY

Isolation is the obvious enemy of cooperation.

RICHARD SENNETT IN TOGETHER (SENNETT 166)

1 Hereafter abbreviated as DHH which is a

common abbreviation in deaf studies.

2 3

o2 CONTEXT 4

o3 ANALYSIS 10

o4 CONVERGE 16

o5 IMPACT 24

o6 CONCLUSION 30

o7 APPENDICES 32

o8 BIBLIOGRAPHY 36

o9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 40

o2 CONTEXT

COMMUNICATION IN COLLABORATION

IN ORDER to understand the implications of

communications access, my work begins with the question

of communications in collaboration. As Richard Florida

notes here, the breakthroughs in innovative environments

are the result of the larger social interactions within

communities of collaborators. To see the implications for

communications barriers in these settings, I need to (re)

define accessibility. In an earlier attempt, I settled on what

I called the right to spontaneity (Edwards): the prerogative

to just show up.

This reframing of accessibility is also informed by

the view that there is a separation between impairment

and disability. Impairment is the personal trait (deafness

or blindness for example) while disability is external: it

is the way the social and physical environment impedes

participation (Abrams 75). When people with disabilities

Our biggest creative breakthroughs come

when people learn from, compete with, and

collaborate with other people.

RICHARD FLORIDA (FLORIDA)

AT RIGHT To see what forms of communication emerged, teams of hearing people worked together for 15 minutes, communicating as they typically would, and then for the remaining 45 minutes, I asked them not to speak.

5

WHILE these interventions offered

a window into emergent forms of

communications access, I wanted

to understand similar processes in

daytoday interactions between DHH

and the hearing world. I looked at DHH

in the workforce for obvious reasons,

but also because the career and

educational paths of mainstreamed

DHH represent larger social cultural

shifts, and as such, are an excellent

case study to understand the future of

work for all.

Through the LinkedIn groups for

DHH in the workforce, I met Dr. Linda

Gottermeier, a professor of audiology

at the National Technical Institute for

the Deaf in Rochester. Audiologists

are trained to be both technicians of

hearing loss and social guideposts: part

are faced with restrictions on access, their ability to make spontaneous

choices is restricted. Returning to the question of collaborative

environments, the spontaneous ability to mix and mingle at will is

the spark for innovation. When Melissa Mayer ended Yahoos remote

working policies, she noted that people are more collaborative and

innovative when theyre together (qtd in Lindsay). Yahoo is not the

first place to acknowledge the power of mixed environments and the

collaboration that happens at the edge of the main project work. This

is also understood to be the essential driver of the innovation in design

laboratory environments from Bletchley Park to XEROX Parc.

UNCOVERING COMMUNICATIONS IN COLLABORATION

With the focus on communications in collaboration, I recruited teams of

hearing people who were already collaborating to give me an hour of

their work together to try an intervention. I asked them to work together

for 15 minutes, communicating as they typically would, and then for

the remaining 45 minutes, I asked them not to speak to see what forms

of communication emerged and to gauge participant behavior. These

interventions, while unscientific, did show that functional collaborative

teams could still function with one of their metaphorical wheels off. I had

restricted communications, but communications still continued and the

work got done.

clinician, part therapist. Dr. Gottermeier

agreed to act as an outside advisor

and helped to frame the context

for the remaining parts of my work.

She emphasized that the experience

of DHH is an extended range: from

prelingual deaf to late deafened adult,

those with hearing appliances and

without, and from native signers to

native English speakers who sign as a

second language, if at all. This range

of possibilities made it important for

me to define both the context of my

intervention and from where on the

DHH spectrum I was working.

SHIFTS IN THE WORKPLACE

As communications in collaborative

working groups was my initial interest,

choosing the workplace as a site

for study was obvious. As a space

for communication, the office place

is home to both formal (task) and

informal (social) communication.

Taskbased communication (I

need this done) is not only formal

but formally accessible. Social

communication, however, (often called

grapevine) falls outside of traditional

accessibility frameworks. Its this social

communication that is especially tied

to economic and social mobility within

the workplace context.

Secondly and relatedly, the

workplace is its own site for economic

and social mobility, mirroring the social

communications at play. For DHH, the

workplace is fraught with difficulty:

DHH are too frequently un or

underemployed (at least in relationship

to their peers) although statistics and

research about DHH working adults is

not systemically available (Appelbam

DEFINITIONS

IMPAIRMENT VS DISABILITY

WHAT A BODY IS ABLE TO DO is,

first of all, various ... But what a body

can do also depends critically on

factors beyond the boundaries of the

physical body itself. Certain features

of that bodys built environment play

a role, as does its discursive setting. This

is a key move in disability advocacy:

the distinction between impairment

(a unique form of embodiment) and

disability (the way impairment is or is

not addressed by society)....

(Abrams 75)

CULTURAL SHIFTS

o2 CONTEXT6 7

THE CASE STUDY

MAINSTREAMED DEAF & HARD OF HEARING

The specific target segment for my research is small and in flux. It is a privileged group: the population of deaf and hard of hearing that make it to post secondary education is small. It is still valid, however, for what it represents for the cultural shifts around language and communications barriers.

NOT IN LABOR FORCE

16.5%

POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION

4.3%

DECLINE IN DHH YOUTH

26%

At right, sources: Holt, Judith, Sue Hotto, and Kevin Cole.

DEMOGRAPHIC ASPECTS OF HEARING IMPAIRMENT:

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Third Edition, 1994.

Research Support & International Affa. Gallaudet

University, 21 Mar. 2012. Web. 29 Apr. 2015. .

Allen, Thomas E. Who Are the Deaf and Hardofhearing

Students Leaving High School and Entering

Postsecondary Education? Research Support &

International AffairsG. Gallaudet University, 05 Dec. 2011.

Web. 29 Apr. 2015. .

et al. 265). The gap between DHH and

their peers is often a product of the

low high school graduation rates of

DHH, so the context of my research is

a rarified subset of highly motivated

DHH students who, against staggering

odds, have managed to make it

into a career path requiring college

education. Nonetheless, these current

outliers represent a social shift in

DHH and with proper guidance, could

become the norm.

SHIFTS IN EDUCATION

Education of DHH continues to evolve

beyond earlier views that assumed

this population was uneducable to

the creation of separate state and

cityrun schools for the deaf, a bold

and progressive idea at the time.

We are seeing now an increase

in mainstreaming where DHH are

educated alongside their hearing

peers. Like the rest of the public sector,

separate educational institutions for

DHH have seen funding cuts, causing

many deaf schools to close and

parents to decide that an underfunded

school far from home is suboptimal.

As well, 90 percent of all DHH children

are born to hearing parents (Peter).

Between the loss of funding and

hearing parents unfamiliarity with deaf

education, the impression is that deaf

school provide an inferior education.

Its estimated that 75 percent of DHH

students are currently educated

in mainstream settings (Antia).

Importantly, this shift to mainstreaming

is further enabled by an increase in

the technological support of improved

hearing aids and cochlear implants.

THE CONTEXT IN CONTEXT

The point of my work isnt to argue

whether these cultural changes are

positive or negative, but to identify

them as social trends. Compared to

previous generations, mainstreamed

DHH have an increased expectation

that the rest of their lives will be

accessible as well: that their choices

of colleges, careers, and public lives

will be on par or better than their early

educational experiences. Coupled

with the regulatory power of the

American with Disabilities Act, DHH

might expect mainstreamed lives as

an extension of their mainstreamed

educations, but encounter myriad

systemic impediments to this goal of

mainstreamed interaction.

One goal of my work is to bridge

the gap between the reality and the

ideal. Internetenabled connectivity

is making workplace and higher

education communities the site of the

same kinds of global flows that were

once only part of large international

cities. These emerging mixed

communications communities are not

unlike globalized education settings

such as at the New School, where

nearly a third of the student population

is international (International

Student and Scholarship Services),

showing the potential efficacy of

mixed communications systems in the

modern workplace.

o2 CONTEXT

75%MAINSTREAMED DHH

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ADAPTING THE SOCIAL TRIANGLE

In adopting Sennetts theory to

communications access in the

workplace, I have identified the

actors within the career context of

DHH, specifically those emerging

from college. At the top of the

triangle are the career navigators.

Within this context of my project, the

career navigators would be college

career services. Ive specifically

researched the tools that the Center

for Student Success at the New

School uses when advising students

oneonone about their future. Much

of the academic research on career

success for DHH comes from the

audiology community. At various

times throughout a persons career

path, others might serve in the career

navigator position (human resources,

placement firms, recruitment

organizations, etc.) and I will address

these actors as future points for

FIG. 4: STRENGTHENED THROUGH INTERDEPENDENCE

TO UNCOVER the dynamics of the office place, I looked at the work of the

sociologist Richard Sennett. Sennetts work is on the social dynamics of work

through the properties of craft and worker cooperation. Sennetts analysis makes

use of what he calls the social triangle, a descriptor for the bonds that connect

the actors in the workplace in collaboration (148178). The bonds of the social

triangle are uneasy and fraught with trust issues, and it is inherently unbalanced

as it includes both workers and supervisors. Furthermore, its highly competitive

as it includes peers who are seeking similar advancement (Sennett 129).

o3 ANALYSIS

UNCOVERING THE WORKPLACE

WORKER DEAF/HH DEAF/HHWORKERCOWORKER ALLIES ALLIESCOWORKER

BOSS

FIG. 1: UNEASY COLLABORATION

FIG. 3: WEAKENED BY TRADITIONAL ACCESSIBILITY

FIG. 2: WEAKENED BY MODERN CAPITALISM

BOSS

THE SOCIAL TRIANGLE To Sennett, the workplace social triangle is made weaker by modern capitalism (Fig 1 & 2) which makes cooperation less open (Sennett 129). In adapting the social triangle to DHH in the workplace, I note that modern accessibility frameworks have the same effect How might they be strengthened through interdependence? (Fig 3 & 4)

CAREER NAVIGATORS

CAREER NAVIGATORS

11

intervention later. The other points

of the social triangle include allies,

whether helpful hearing coworkers

and friends or other DHH, and of

course the DHH worker herself.

In Sennetts view, the bonds

that connect the parts of his social

triangle are weakened by capitalism

unbalancing cooperation (129). For

DHH in the workplace, we might say

the parts of the social triangle are

weakened by traditional accessibility

frameworks that arent structured

to support cooperation between

DHH and allies. As it functions now,

standard practices in the accessibility

ecosystem (translators, deaf, and

hearing) dont allow for unplanned

communication and in fact tend to

ignore it. The current model also

forces deaf and providers into an

antagonistic relationship where

each request for access means extra

APPLY

JOB LEADS

INTERVIEW

INSIDE CONTACTS

TRAIN

MEETING COLLEAGUES

WORK

COLLAB ORATION

PROMOTION

WORK RELATED GOSSIP

SUPERVISE

EMPLOYEE SENTIMENT

CAREER STAGESHIRING WORKING ADVANCING

SOCIAL NEEDS

SELF DEFINITION DISCLOSURE

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

NOTES & TIMELINE

IDENTIFYING ALLIES

CONVERSATION FRAMEWORK

money, especially if it goes unused

(although no one complains about the

cost of a wheelchair ramp if its not

used every day). The intention of my

work is to approach the bonds within

the social triangle as something that

can be strengthened, rebalanced, and

repaired. By viewing the strengthening

of the social triangle through the frame

of the office, workforce development,

and career mobility, Im taking

accessibility technology into the

narrative workforce development and

empowering DHH to navigate their

own careers.

INTO INTERDEPENDENCE

In addition to conversations around

Sennetts work and themes,

my research draws from the work

of NYU communications professor

Mara Mills, whose research is at the

intersection of disability studies and

media. Her work includes exploring

the relationship between DHH and the

development of information theory

(Mills). Within disabilities studies,

theres a complex narrative around

embodiment that Mills explores

through Donna Haraways Cyborg

Manifesto. The narratives of in disability

studies of embodiment lead me to law

scholar Kathryn Abrams exploration

of interdependence in disability

studies and how the legal framework

might support it (Abrams). The logical

application for Sennetts theories was

to explore systems that supported

interdependence in the workplace.

communications needed, from finding job leads to

workplace gossip, and understanding employee and

coworker sentiments. As I stated earlier, its the social

conversation (and therefore social needs) that fall

outside of traditional accessibility even in the most

accesscompliant hiring processes, such as government or

large corporation jobs.

TO UNDERSTAND where to intervene within the career

system, I mapped the career pathway from hiring

to promotion. For each stage, I identified the social

o3 ANALYSIS

JOURNEY MAP

13

PRECEDENT REVIEW

To match the social need with the

career stage, I looked to precedents

within personal changement and

career support, as well as adjacent

examples in consideration of a suite of

support tools and frameworks. I began

with examples within career nonprofits,

communities of recovery, and even

bottomup urbanism, looking for

examples on both packaging of tools

as well as language choices and toolkit

distribution models. I did a deep dive

on the programming and organization

of SCORE Association as a nonprofit

and volunteerled model for supporting

career development, then looked at

communities of recovery and personal

change like AA and Weightwatchers

for their programmatic decisions

(including workshop designs,

mentoring, and frameworks). Finally,

I reviewed Walking [Your City] as a

model of open distribution of material

support through the web. Results of

this analysis are in the sidebar.

I also performed a visual survey

of the workbook and guide landscape

for both careers and personal change

management from the classic career

book What Color Is Your Parachute,

to dieting guides, and career services.

What I found was a lack of tools

seemingly aimed at students about

to engage with their careers on

how to address communications

barriers. While considering what tools

would be useful, I was inspired by

the open distribution and aesthetics

of zines. The small, portable, and

handcrafted aesthetic seemed

appropriate for an early stage career

target audience as well as a model for

income generation.

o3 ANALYSIS

ZINES(HANDMADE, OPEN DISTRIBUTION)

SCORE ASSOCIATION(NONPROFIT)

COMMUNITIES OF RECOVERY(positive deviance)

WALK [YOUR CITY] (TACTICAL URBANISM)

CAREER BOOKS

WORKBOOKS

CAREER SERVICES

KEYWORDS ASSESSMENT

toolkits, urbanism, open platform, distributed, website

change management, storytelling, mentoring, meetings, framework, toolkits, structure

community, nonprofit, mentoring, support, workshops, framework, intergenerational

target appeal, distributed, craft aesthetic, small, portable, handmade, low cost, open distribution

Open source tools distributed online. Distribution intersects with career planning tools but more userfriendly. Opening the tools to be shared and built upon reflects a proposition to counter fetish of assertion through up cooperative dialogics (Sennett 18).

Communitysupported personal change management, from AA to Weight Watchers, include similar features: chapter and small group organization, an overarching structural framework, a strong sense of purpose, use of mentoring, and storytelling as a way to model behavior. Within the organizational development community this is akin to the positive deviance model where you identify successful outliers in a system and amplify their behavior through sharing amongst community members.

National nonprofit providing mentoring, workshops, and tools to support entrepreneurship. Extensive website, online video collection, meetings and forums as well as local chapters that make use of libraries and schools as points of contact. Functionally as an example of both mentorship as well as supporting nonprofit framework

Handcrafted, personalized story with strong element of community culture of building and sharing. Confessional format and social critique bridges formal group storytelling of SCORE and recovery models with a more personal relationship with the audience. Distribution is lowcost and more open. The form is recognizable to college students entering early stage of their careers.

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17o4 CONVERGE

CASE STUDY

TOOLS AND STRATEGIES FOR DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING IN THE WORKPLACE

to support selfdirected communications access.

In response, I developed a program, workshop, and

workbook called Crafting Access. Crafting Access

supports access to spoken communications in the office

place through an engaged framework of tools and new

models for career and conversational planning. Below, I

will explain how I came to this new model of workplace

interaction, the tools I developed to support it, and how

those were tested and explored.

DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING are often situated as their

own primary advocates at the career level as in life. Typically

supported accessibility paradigms require preplanning for

both the interpreter and the interpreted to be maximally

and fully utilized. This planned access is inflexible and often

puts the onus on the DHH to provide or make provisions for

their own metaphorical ramps. There is opportunity in this

place of personal inventiveness, thus the key question facing

career navigators and DHH alike is how to build a framework

FROM HACKING ACCESS

In daytoday interactions, deaf

and hard of hearing find ways to

communicate with nondeaf and

nonsigners using what we might

call access hacks. The definition

of a hack is a strategy or technique

adopted in order to manage ones

daily activities (Lifehack). These

types of lifehacks are developed in the

moment, individually, so it is important

that my work be technology agnostic

and not bound to specific platforms

that may not be consistently available

and change over time. DHH are the

best advocates for the technological

tools they employ to communicate,

and the many and natural ways that

differently abled people adopt and

modify technology for their daily use

is well documented within disability

history. DHH are no different, we are

natural life hackers. It follows that the

communications hacks that DHH are

already making use of help with the

social communication in the office,

as it is unplanned and outside the

traditional accessibility framework.

INTO CRAFTING ACCESS

If I might borrow from Sennett

again, craft is skilled and socially

engaged. Sennett notes the reflective

quality of craft and skill building.

Indeed, the definition of craft is an

activity involving skill (Craft); It is

considered and thought through. For

Sennett, its the difference between

remediation and reconfiguration

(Sennett 220). In application within

Crafting Access, this is the difference

between the communication hacks

mentioned above and communication

craft. In my view: its this reflection and

practice that separates communication

access hacks from access craft.

At the core of Crafting Access

is a different kind framework for

conversation. While hacking access,

the feedback loops are immediate and

often anxiety producing. Anyone that

has spoken in a new language can

relate to that isolating fear of making

a mistake. With Crafting Access, I

extend the feedback loop into a longer,

reflective practice that specifically

engages others in that skill building.

In order to arrive at the craft

of access, the question isnt one

of technology but the social skills

needed to deploy access hacks and

turn individual hacks into the craft

of access. To take individual hacks

into a socially engaged craft, Crafting

Access builds on the strategies and

tools that DHH already employ in

mixed communication workplaces:

from group chat and speechtotext

technologies, to pen and paper as

o4 CONVERGE

well as the identification of hearing

collaborators. In that way, Crafting

Access is also tools agnostic,

emphasizing social tools and not

technology.

With the increased number of

mainstreamed DHH students, those

responsible for assisting with career

development lack methods to properly

advise students on strategies for their

work lives. Making use of precedents in

sociology, organization development,

and psychology, Crafting Access

is both workshop framework and

selfguided workbook to be deployed

within the social triangle of the office

place and career navigation.

ABOVE While hacking access, the feedback loops are immediate and produce conversational anxiety. With Crafting Access, the feedback loops extend backward into a longer, reflective practice that specifically engages others in that skill building.

CRAFT HACK

PRESENT

19

21

THE FRAMING of the Crafting

Access process is to move DHH

from independent action through

selfdefinition to interdependence.

This a deliberate arc that moves

from individual assessment and self

determination to situating access as

socially connected. This move toward

interdependence also reflects the

overarching theme of converting

unskilled hacks into crafting access.

Each need that I identified in the

journey map is applied in order to

support this framework.

a window into emergent forms of

communications access, I wanted

to understand similar processes in

daytoday interactions between DHH

and the hearing world. I started with

interviews of DHH college students and

working adults and found that it was

hard to elicit embedded behaviors.

The testing of Crafting Access

grew out of not just a need to

understand the efficacy of the tools,

but to see whether the frameworks

of Crafting Access might elicit

selfawareness of the communications

hacks that DHH employ in daily

interactions. Although the workshop

participants were instrumental in

A suite of support materials

grew out of the career journey

map in connection with precedent

research. Following the story arc from

independence to interdependence,

the exercises that make up the

Crafting Access process focus on self

definition, disclosure, identifying allies,

and writing rules for engagement.

Embedded in each of these exercises

is development of personal tools to

support communications access is the

view of accessibility as empowerment

and selfdirected. Based on my

the evolution of the process and

supporting exercises, the workshop

was not codesign, rather an

experiencebased testing with surveys

before and afterwards.

Using experience blueprinting

(see Appendix B), I crafted this

experiencebased workshop process

to explore the tools of the workbook

and the conversational framework. As

I explained, these tools explored self

definition, disclosure, identification

of allies, and laying down ground for

communications. The sharing and

roleplay of office interaction strategies

was the central pivot moment between

the selffocused and socially focused

understanding of the precedents,

the question of agency in personal

change is of paramount importance.

You need to see yourself as making a

choice and being empowered to make

that choice, and each activity is framed

with this in mind.

THE TESTING WORKSHOP

The evolution of Crafting Access,

from the early provocations on

communications in collaboration

through precedent research into tools

and strategies, evolved along with an

exploration of ethnographic tools (see

Appendix A) to reveal interactions.

While the early interventions offered

exercises that make up the workbook.

Over the course of the workshop,

participants developed personal

action plans and strategies for new

office workers by exploring these

exercises. The workshop also explored

communications through playfulness

into strategy session for the DHH

participants around communications

hacks in the office. The workshop

was a place for building (or at least

discussing) the kinds of skills that lead

to the craft of access.

I opened the workshop by talking

about identity. We opened with a TedX

Stanford video by Rachel Kolb, a deaf

student, discussing her experience in

o4 CONVERGE

THE FRAMEWORK

RESEARCH & PROTOTYPING TIMELINE

11.2014 12.2014 01.2015 02.2015 03.2015 04.2015

PROVOCATIONS1 hour communications tests with hearing collaborators

INTERVIEWSDHH students and alumni

INTERACTION DIARIES V1Ethnographic selfreporting (chart)

DIARIES V2Fillin blank, lower reading age

WKSHOP SOFT LAUNCHMulitiple rapidfire tests with hearing of script and tools

WORKSHOPExperiencebased test with DHH

EXPANDING AUDIENCETesting with ESL, career services,mixed hearing/DHH

23

INDVIDUAL ASSESSMENT INTERDEPENDENCE

GUIDED DISCUSSIONFINDING ALLIES RULES OF ENGAGEMENTDEFINE & DISCLOSE

mainstream environments. Her speech

helped open the narrative of the

selfdirected access as empowerment.

Each participant took a name badge

at the beginning where I asked them

what they have and what they are.

The first exercise was a discussion

around how to define ourselves and

our disability. The second part was a

guided discussion. Using a storyboard

and prompts, each participant chose

a workplace scene, a person in the

office, a tool such as a chat program

or pen and paper, and then they

added what I called the wild card or

the communications hack employed.

We ran through this exercise two

times with two different kinds of

conversations.

LESSONS FROM TESTING

Before and after the workshop, I

administered surveys (see Appendix C)

to gauge the efficacy of the workshop.

While there were modest changes in

the way people perceived their self

agency, the most valuable part was

guided discussion. The importance

of the workshop as a place for

conversation about the access hacks

that the participants had developed

individually was the born out in testing,

however. One participant specifically

noted that Its very interesting and

useful when we discussed and share

experiences together. I learned

something new from others like how

to deal with an interview.

This result was not entirely

expected, though I should have

anticipated it as reflective storytelling

is also at the heart of both Positive

Deviance and recovery models of

personal change management. These

are rooted in using frameworks for

storytelling to identify the positive

actions you are already taking to

motivate and sustain personal change.

In the words of the founders of the

Positive Deviance change model, the

key is to engage the members of the

community you want to change in the

process of discovery, making them the

evangelists of their own conversion

experience. (Pascale and Sternin)

o4 CONVERGE

LEFT ABOVE Each tool was tested against the underlying story arc that emphasized the transition from independence to interdependence.

LEFT BELOW To prepare for workplace interaction, a storyboard framework included specific people and tools.

IN ORDER to amplify and extend Crafting Access, Ive

developed a theory of change document detailing potential

current and future intervention points in addition to ways to

fund Crafting Access going forward.

The theory of change diagram identifies several

different types of activities, some that have already been

implemented as well as future potential. The activities are

listed on the theory of change diagram from lowcost to

highcost, left to right, from free to lowcost distribution

through workshops, to identified income streams like

one on one coaching. The implications of this coaching

reach beyond the workplace. Ive introduced the Crafting

Access workbook and conversation framework to those

with communications barriers beyond the original target

audience: going through Crafting Access with a mixed

hearing and deaf married couple, for instance, was the

first time either of them had a thoughtful and reflective

conversation about how they communicate.

CURRENT IMPLEMENTATION

Within career services, Ive distributed my workbook and

conversational discussion framework at career fairs. As

I go forward placing the Crafting Access into the career

navigation landscape, there needs to be the strong social

component. While I understood that sharing around

strategies was effective in other settings, I wasnt prepared

for the participants to intuitively understand the value of

the guided storytelling, in particular, the idea that Crafting

o5 IMPACT

A TOOLKIT FOR COMMUNICATIONS ACCESS

CURRENT OUTCOMES

IMPACT CAREER SERVICES

25

LONGTERM OUTCOMES

WORKSHOP DISTRIBUTION CURRENT OUTCOMES

FACILITATING ONEONONE

26 27

2928

ASSUMPTION

ACTIVITIES

OBJECTIVES

Social systems turn impairments into disabilities. Access to social communications requires social tools.

Web & social media

Online communities

Free & paid workbooks

Lowcostworkshops

Paid 1on1 coaching

Develop freetopaid framework that supports interdependent accessibility.

Individual empowerment System interdependence

Facilitating 1on1 and group interactions

Distributing workbook and framework online

Impacting career services tools

Develop workshop distribution channel

Job coaching and intersecting with

career consultants

Make use of emerging behavior change tech

Relieve anxiety over access challenges through preplanning

Support conversations allies and impaired

Increasing agency and job satisfaction for DHH in their careers.

INTENDED SHORT TERM

OUTCOMES

INTENDED LONG TERM OUTCOMES

ASSUMPTION

Access participants wanted to do

the discussion framework with their

hearing collaborators.

While the workbook is framed

outward (asking participants to

schedule meetings and interactions

with their allies) for Crafting Access

to take hold, there will need to be

additional opportunities for guided

discussion between all parts of the

social triangle: between deaf and

allies as well as career navigators

and hearing workers. I see the

potential value amongst human

resources training and development to

implement the workshop format.

Additionally , Crafting Access has

an online presence, starting with social

media. This has helped to locate others

in adjacent conversations such as

AlterConference, the home of critical

discourse on the tech and gaming

communities, to the Interdependence

Project, a secular Buddhist movement

that, among other things, offers

mindfulness to career planning and

workplace development. Without this

public facing platform, Crafting Access

wouldnt have had the opportunity to

find these adjacent conversations.

FUTURE POTENTIAL

Implementing the Crafting Access

process in larger settings will need

to include that core interaction: the

workbook alone is not enough. In

order to repair the social bonds of the

workplace, DHH must also engage

in the craft of access within a social

context. Craft is outwardly facing and

connected but it also operates on a

longer time frame. To go back to my

original comparison, hacks are short

term fixes. For crafting access to

communications, conversation hacks

need to be understood in a time frame

longer than a momentary hack.

There is also the question of

sustained learning, especially for

hearing allies, which is partially

answered in the workbook. Both the

workbook and the toolkit testing

asked that DHH identify allies and

make a plan to meet with those allies

regularly in order to tap into the social

conversation. These meetings might

possibly reinforce any earlier learning

as well. There is also emerging research

into techsupported behavioral change:

whether delivered via text message or

Bluetooth beacon, notificationbased

reminders should not be ignored as an

opportunity to strengthen the social

triangle and support the crossing of

communications barriers..

o5 IMPACT

ORIGINALLY, I was resistant to the notion that Crafting

Access is, at its heart, a communication program. I think

that has the potential to erase deafness. Ive come, however,

to see deafness in the workplace as a case study to reveal

something larger about communications access. As such,

I can see the value in contributing to the discussions

around other communities that are navigating mixed

communications, from different spoken languages to autism

or introverts. I also see value to the career development

community in offering new tools in design thinking for

navigating multilingual communities. As a design program,

Ive built a workshopbased experience and toolkit that used

the sorts of interactive teaching methods that are the heart

of the inclusive classroom (Heslinga 2).

At the personal level, Crafting Access forms both in

content and practice a way of working as a deaf designer.

Central to Crafting Access is collaboration with others as

the key to communications access and mindfulness and

intention in crossing communications barriers. Through

this new process a different interaction template emerges:

from the solitary and anxiety producing feedback of

hacking access to the connected and reflective skills of

crafting access. Thus, establishing a way to navigate my

future practice. More broadly as transdisciplinary design,

it merges experience design, ethnomethodologies as well

as my personal story related to being a late deafened adult

and strongly familiar with the addiction recovery narrative.

As such, this transdisciplinary method is design that is

active, open, and iterative, while simultaneously being

methodological, structuring, and synthesizing.

Toward the end of Together, Sennett talks about the

sort of improvisational methods that true craftspeople

feel confident in deploying: improvisation is the key to

radical repairs of this sort, they most often occur through

small, surprising changes which turn out to have larger

implications. It is my belief that Crafting Access is the

kind of small repair at the personal and social level that

can lead to larger changes both in the development of

inclusive innovative office places and even the way design is

practiced itself.

FOR DESIGN ITSELF

The transition here is to understand what Crafting Access,

as a case study, might mean for design in general. Through

my work on this project Ive found a community of disability

and technology historians. Their work brings in a variety of

influences from embodiment to queer theory to architecture

and technology. All of them are working in communications

and media history. In other words, those who are most

engaged with the design for different bodies are working

without the background of the histories and narratives of

design. As a case study in design, Crafting Access might

suggest a new course for understanding the frameworks of

accessibility from within design itself.

Access often sits outside of design in both physical

places and social and cultural places. These publics have

access stuck on to them in such a way that accessibility

works for no one. Users and uses are separated, and those

who arent ablebodied are left to deal with physical and

metaphorical access ramps that only end up distancing

them from full participation.

If we consider what Judith Butler is saying above,

its more than just the sidewalks that support our walk.

Traditional design frameworks might only consider

the sidewalk and not the social system that enables it.

Crafting Access is one case study to consider these larger

questions of the social structure. Perhaps through those

considerations there might be an opportunity for design

consider accessibility without isolating uses.

o6 CONCLUSION

MEDIATED PUBLICS NOBODY GOES FOR A WALK WITHOUT HAVING SOMETHING THAT SUPPORTS THAT WALK,

SOMETHING OUTSIDE OF OURSELVES.

JUDITH BUTLER (QTD IN ABRAMS 76)

31

o7 APPENDIX A

ETHNOGRAPHIC DIARIESo7 APPENDIX B

WORKSHOP EXPERIENCE BLUEPRINT

CONTACT FROM JASON AT SDS

DEAF/HH ALUMNI

DEAF/HH STUDENTS

TOUCHPOINTS

CAREER SERVICES

DISABILITY SERVICES

SCHEDULING EMAILS (2)

WORKSHOP SPACE NAMETAG TOOLS FOR CAREER DEV WRKBK POSTER ROLE PLAY

DOODLE OF POTENTIAL DATES

PRIOR TO WORKSHOP AFTER WORKSHOPWORKSHOPINDIVIDUAL DEFINITION INTERDEPENDENCE

CONTACT FROM CTE

CONTACT FROM CTE

CONTACT FROM CTE

PRELIMINARY DISCUSSION ABOUT TOOLS / PROCESS

PRELIMINARY DISCUSSION ABOUT TOOLS / PROCESS

OUTREACH TO CAREER SERVICES / ALUMNI

POSTWORK SHOP TOOL ANALYSIS

POST WORKSHOP REVIEW

TOOL TESTING / DEPLOYMENT

FOLLOWUP ANALYSIS

AGREES TO ATTEND

AGREES TO ATTEND

SURVEYED ABOUT EXISTING SENSE SELF & WORK/CAREER

SURVEYED ABOUT EXISTING SENSE SELF & WORK/CAREER

NAMETAG SELF IDENTIFICATION

NAMETAG SELF IDENTIFICATION

INTRODUCED TO TOPIC OF SELF AGENCY W/ RACHEL KOLB VID

INTRODUCED TO TOPIC OF SELF AGENCY W/ RACHEL KOLB VID

START TOOLKIT: DEFINE SELF, DISCLOSURE

START TOOLKIT: DEFINE SELF, DISCLOSURE

ROLE PLAY TYPES OF CONVO, IDENTIFY ALLIES, WRITE 10 RULES

ROLE PLAY TYPES OF CONVO, IDENTIFY ALLIES, WRITE 10 RULES

COMPLETE FOLLOWUP SURVEY

COMPLETE FOLLOWUP SURVEY

SCHEDULE MEETING WITH ALLY TO DISCUSS RULES, REPORT BACK

TOOLKIT DEFINITION ALLIES 10 RULES

SLIDE SHOW / ROLE PLAY PROMPTS

SURVEY OF POSTWORKSHOP STATE

SURVEY OF PREWORKSHOP STATE

I RESPONDED BYWHAT THEY DID

INTERACTION DIARY NAME DATE DEAF/HH/OTHER

Everyday you encounter people. Take note of your interactions. Record your what they did, how you responded, felt, and wanted. Please also note your energy level after each exchange.

HOW I FELT WHAT I WANTED ENERGYTIME

THANK YOU! Please return your completed form (scan it or take a picture) to christophertayloredwards (at) newschool (dot) edu

EACH DAY, WE MEET PEOPLE AND TALK WITH THEM. How do you feel? Follow the example below. Write what you wanted. Then write what you did. Then write how you responded. How did that make you feel? What did you wish were different? Then draw a picture of the conversation. Use as many pages as needed.

AT (where? home? school? the store?), I TALKED TO (who? a shopkeeper? a friend? a stranger?)

BECAUSE I WANTED (to buy something? go some place?) SO I (wrote or typed notes? signed?)

AND THAT PERSON (what did that person do to respond?). I WISH THAT I (had help? had a

magic device?). I FELT (how did this conversation make you feel?).

AT , I TALKED TO

BECAUSE I WANTED SO I

AND THAT PERSON . I WISH THAT I

. I FELT .

AT , I TALKED TO

BECAUSE I WANTED SO I

AND THAT PERSON . I WISH THAT I

. I FELT .

AT , I TALKED TO

BECAUSE I WANTED SO I

AND THAT PERSON . I WISH THAT I

. I FELT .

AT , I TALKED TO

BECAUSE I WANTED SO I

AND THAT PERSON . I WISH THAT I

. I FELT .

NAME DATE CIRCLE ONE: DEAF OR HH PAGE OF

TIME?

TIME?

TIME?

TIME?

TIME?

DRAW A PICTURE.

DRAW A PICTURE.

DRAW A PICTURE.

DRAW A PICTURE.

DRAW A PICTURE.

BELOW Ive adopted the service blueprint as a key method to scripting shorter experiences, like the workshop. Through blueprinting, I considered the relationship between the story

LEFT First version of an interaction diary for ethnographic self-reporting. Early trials of this behavior was met with confusion.

arc and experience of the workshops stakeholders, focusing on key touchpoints and needed support materials.

RIGHT An audilogist with significant experience with prelingual deaf advised that I lower the reading age to fourth grade. I experimented with a more causual format via Mad-Libs-style diary. While this revision was met with less resistance, it still wasnt a successful intervention.

33

35

o7 APPENDIX C

TESTING SURVEYSo7 APPENDIX D

TOOLKIT TESTING EXERCISES

CRAFTING ACCESS: PREWORKSHOP SURVEY

1. How do you self identify? How you describe your hearing. Deaf (part of cultural Deaf community) hard of hearing deaf (hearing loss but not a cultural statement) I dont / other

2. Have you worked in an office where both hearing and deaf communicate together? Y / N

3. How comfortable are you comfortable are you working with hearing people? Hate it 0 10 Very comfortable

4. Do you believe your career path will require you to work in hearing environments? Y / N

5. How concerned are you about being to communicate in future hearing environments? Very concerned 0 10 Looking forward to it

CRAFTING ACCESS: AFTER WORKSHOP SURVEY

1. What was your favorite activity? Define Yourself worksheet Guided discussion with the cards Find your Ally worksheet Communicate with Me / 10 Rules worksheet

2. How do you self identify? How you describe your hearing. (same options as pre-workshop)

3. What did you think about the Define Yourself worksheet?

4. How comfortable are you comfortable are you working with hearing people? Hate it 0 10 Very comfortable

5. Is this a change from how you felt before the workshop? Y / N

6. What did you think about the Guided Discussion with the cards and the story writing?

7. How concerned are you about being to communicate in future hearing environments? Very concerned 0 10 Looking forward to it

8. Is this a change from how you felt before the workshop? Y / N

9. For the Communicate with Me (10 rules) worksheet would you share it with your friends and allies? Y / N

10. What did you think about the Find Your Ally worksheet?11. What did you think about the Communicate With Me

worksheet?12. Will you use any part of the toolkit of worksheets

again? * Define Yourself Find Your Ally Communicate with Me / 10 Rules none

BELOW AND RIGHT Text of the pre- and post-workshopsurveys created to gauge the efficacy of the experience and the tools. While there were modest changes in the way people perceived their self agency, the most valuable part was the comments in regard to storytelling and sharing strategies.. .

BELOW FROM LEFT TO RIGHT The testing workshop explored self-definition in two exercises, the name tag and then the Define Yourself activity. The workshop ended with

ally mapping in Find Your Ally and excerise in developing your own rules for engagement. In the back is the storyboard framework for the Guided Discussion.

COMMUNICATE WITH ME

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

COMMUNICATE WITH ME

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

FIND YOUR ALLYFIND YOUR ALLIES AND MAKE A PLAN TO TALK

WITH THEM REGULARLY.

NAME

CHECKIN

FIND YOUR ALLYFIND YOUR ALLIES AND MAKE A PLAN TO TALK

WITH THEM REGULARLY.

NAME

CHECKIN

DEFINE YOURSELFDEAF? HARD OF HEARING? OR COMMUNICATIONS

ISSUES? HOW DO YOU DEFINE YOURSELF?

I AM

I HAVE

DEFINE YOURSELFDEAF? HARD OF HEARING? OR COMMUNICATIONS

ISSUES? HOW DO YOU DEFINE YOURSELF?

I AM

I HAVE

I AM I HAVE .

I AM I HAVE .

I AM I HAVE .

I AM I HAVE .

I AM I HAVE .

I AM I HAVE .

37

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o8 BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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o8 BIBLIOGRAPHY

CHRISTOPHER TAYLOR EDWARDS is a design and digital strategist with a background

ethnographic urbanism, experience design, and performance art. Through his participatory

research, diagramming, modelling, and storytelling, Christopher engages with community

stakeholders to build environments, organizations, and experiences for social inclusion. His

emerging practice engages the psychology of time and space, the pedagogy of empathy,

and human development.

o9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

THANK YOU

Lara Penin, Ph.D.Dr. Linda Gottermeier, Au.D.

Alex Thornton

Carol CaoAngela ChenMaxime ColeonNikheel IyeerLinnuo Zheng

David CookRobyn GirardVirginia Shou

Jason LuchsAriel Merkel

Lisa Ann OConner

Everyone at Hands in Motion but especially Andrew, Carolyn, Wendy, and Dani

ADVISOROUTSIDE ADVISOR

EDITOR

DHH STUDENTS

DHH GRADUATES

DISABILITY SERVICES

CAREER SERVICES

TRANSCRIBERS

WHEN I STARTED this work, I had intended it to be just a case study for a specific method of work: open, participatory, and

experience based. Instead I have found this project situated within a vast community both at the academic level and the

much more personal level. With my deepest gratitude, thank you all that helped, guided, prodded, and otherwise kept me

on track but always digging deeper. Especially Lara, Linda, and, of course, Alex.

MFA TRANSDISCIPLINARY DESIGN THESIS 2015