Workshop on Technology Design for and with Neurodivergent Users: Considerations from Research Practices

Despite the increase in design practices involving neurodivergent users, there is a growing opportunity to critically reflect on the design methods, approaches employed, and artifacts created thus far for neurodivergent users. This workshop brings together experts in neuroinclusion to discuss the methodological approaches currently adopted, main limitations in recruitment, co-design practices, research, and design activities.

We also seek to identify approaches well-suited to facilitate a paradigmatic shift in which first-view perspectives of actual neurodivergent users inform the research and development of interactive systems. We invite the community to submit their considerations from research and development, experience reports, as well as methodological approaches to ensure neuroinclusive designs that meet the unique needs of neurodivergent users.

Submission Guidelines

We invite participants to submit a short paper in an accessible format to the workshop. The page limit is 6 pages, excluding references. The Springer LNCS format will be used. The topics of the submission should match the workshop topics, i.e., design considerations for including neurodivergent users in the research and development of interactive systems, and improving current practices. We expect the submissions to include a positionality statement where authors state their profiles and models (theoretical frameworks) adopted, sharing their unique lens, connections, and experience working for and with neurodivergent communities. The submission of manuscripts will be handled via easychair. The submissions will be peer-reviewed by a committee of experts, recruited from the organizers’ network, for evaluation purposes and selection of submissions before the workshop. The criteria for evaluation include the merit of the paper, scientific quality, and alignment with the topics of the workshop. A tentative schedule is defined below:

• Submission: May 15, 2025
• Notification of acceptance: June 10, 2025

List of Topics

• Experiences designing for and with neurodivergent people
• Challenges and limitations in current interactive technologies
• Neuroinclusive applications created to meet users’ requirements
• Proposals for novel methods that facilitate more neuroinclusive design and research practices
• Design considerations and critical reflections, seeking to improve current approaches to enhance recruitment of and engagement with neurodivergent communities

Committees

Program Committee

• Vivian Genaro Motti is an Associate Professor at George Mason University investigating workplace accessibility for neurodivergent adults and assistive smartwatch applications for emotion-regulation.

• David Gollasch is a PhD student at the TU Dresden, Germany with research interests in diversity-sensitive interaction design as well as structured methods and processes around software variability and AI to build adaptive user interfaces.

• Meinhardt Branig is a PhD student at the TU Dresden, Germany with research interests in accessibility, data physicalization and tangible interaction with focus on user-group diversity.

• Bruna Cunha is an Assistant Professor at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, with extensive experience in health interventions, older adults, and computational assistive technologies designed to address diverse users’ needs.

Venue

The conference will be held in Belo Horizonte - Minas Gerais - Brazil. In September 2025 - co-located with Interact 2025.

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to vmotti@gmu.edu