To Empower or Provoke? Exploring approaches for participatory design at schools for neurodiverse individuals in India

As we push the boundaries of participatory design (PD) to empower children across the world, barriers to participation for those currently underserved require further attention. This includes neurodiverse individuals at special schools in India, whose day-to-day experiences are heavily influenced by the larger socio-cultural context of the schools comprising diverse stakeholders with diverse agendas and motivations. In this paper, we consider how-to PD at special schools in India. Employing the lenses of genuine participation and cultural translation, we critically examine two design projects with neurodiverse individuals: a gesture-based application to promote joint attention and using a mobile app to promote composting and entrepreneurial skills. We identified several challenges for adapting PD to the context of special schools in India. Reflecting on our experiences and coupled with previous literature on PD with similar contexts, we suggest potential solutions for these challenges. This includes how-to negotiate roles and responsibilities among stakeholders, handle conflicts among stakeholders’ socio-technical aspirations, balance power differentials and censorships, and identify possibilities for long-term real-world impact. Our work paves the way to adapt PD, from a provocation or privilege to a possibility, to empower neurodiverse individuals in all corners of the world.