{"id":23846,"date":"2024-03-07T10:10:19","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T02:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/?post_type=media-release&p=23846"},"modified":"2024-03-07T10:10:20","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T02:10:20","slug":"using-covid-lessons-to-unlock-the-digital-world-for-people-with-disability","status":"publish","type":"media-release","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/media-release\/using-covid-lessons-to-unlock-the-digital-world-for-people-with-disability\/","title":{"rendered":"Using COVID lessons to unlock the digital world for people with disability"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in many innovations in how we interact digitally \u2014 and a Curtin University research project has won significant funding to ensure people living with disability can also benefit from what\u2019s been learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Australian Research Council has awarded Professor Katie Ellis<\/a> and her team more than $1 million as part of its Mid-Career Industry Fellowships Program, to investigate how digital services can be made more inclusive and accessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Director of Curtin\u2019s Centre for Culture and Technology<\/a>, Professor Ellis said the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted many shortcomings in how digital platforms cater to people with disability \u2014 which had many consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDuring the initial stages of the pandemic, there was no substantial effort to consult with people with disability or their representative organisations about their communication needs,\u201d Professor Ellis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis delayed the development of disability-specific policy and the dissemination of clear, consistent, and accessible information about the pandemic across relevant platforms: as a result, people with disability experienced increased risk of contracting the disease, severe disease or death and of new or worsening health conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs the pandemic progressed, innovative digital communication strategies were developed in Australia and internationally that could inform long-term digital inclusion for people with disability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In collaboration with the Centre for Inclusive Design, Professor Ellis said the research project aimed to improve the lives of the 20 per cent of Australians who identify as having a disability and meet Australia\u2019s Disability Strategy 2021-31 priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDigitisation can be immensely beneficial: more than half of Australians with disability use assistive or mainstream digital technology to participate in everyday life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut it can also perpetuate the exclusions these people experience within society \u2014 be it social, health, employment, or educational settings \u2014 because we still do not fully understand their broad and individual needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur research team will work with people with disability to provide evidence-based recommendations to government, industry and community groups who create digital platforms to address these challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curtin University Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research Professor Melinda Fitzgerald<\/a> congratulated Professor Ellis and her team on securing a highly sought-after ARC grant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis project is a great example of Curtin researchers striving to achieve real world impact through collaborative partnership,\u201d Professor Fitzgerald said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell done to Professor Ellis and all involved.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in many innovations in how we interact digitally \u2014 and a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4457,"featured_media":23847,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-23846","media-release","type-media-release","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-and-culture"],"acf":{"experts":false,"post_components":false,"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":[{"title":"","qualification":"","link":"","description":"","faculty":""}],"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":[22646,22257]},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/AdobeStock_336757070-1000x500.jpeg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Sam","last_name":"Jeremic","display_name":"Samuel Jeremic"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/23846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/media-release"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/23846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23846"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=23846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}