I am a part-time AAC user currently studying at Monash University Australia. I'm hoping for a future where AAC will stop being seen as a deficit, but a benefit for all. Ready to join me? 

Kim Marriott: Now I'd like to invite our next speaker, Jing Hu. As I said, MATS is providing PhD scholarships which target people with disabilities, to train our next generations of AT researchers, and one of the scholarships was awarded to Jing. She's going to tell us a little bit about her PhD and her experience with assistive technology. 

Jing Hu: Hi, this is Jing's other, more authentic voice in what is supposed to be Australian English.  I’m a Chinese woman, dark hair, wearing a dotted rusty red silk shirt, and light yellow dacks today. 

When we talk about accessibility and inclusion, consciously or subconsciously we conjure up an image of the Other, a physically, mentally, or ethnically different Other who we feel morally charged to bring into our own world. Someone like me.  

After years of being denied equal opportunities for education and employment in my home country simply because of these differences I cannot command, I am truly grateful to come to Monash and MATS, to be part of this amazing academic community, to do research with world-leading researchers who also question what accessibility and inclusion means not only for the Other, but for the Self.

Coming from an intercultural communication background,  my research is focussed on exploring the lived experiences of university students who use assistive technology, such as the one I am using now, to substantially support communication in situations where oral or written form is required for academic or social interactions. Technically it's in a growing field of augmentative and alternative communication, AAC for short. 

Currently, AAC is only reserved for people with communication disabilities. Unlike many other AAC studies, I'm more interested in how AAC could be potentially used not only to help students with disabilities, but even more importantly, help all students achieve their aspirations, just as it helps me stand here and communicate with you all. 

My choice of AAC techniques is very different from other AAC users. But the acts of having this choice and actualising it in a specific context where it proves beneficial despite the physical, mental, or ethnic differences, however, will work for everyone.  

Based on this core idea of Universal Design, I hope that my research in AAC can contribute to a much broader understanding of its great potential in UDL, universal design for learning, which benefits not only a few “weirdos”, but for every student.

It takes insider perspectives to understand what choices need to be effectuated and how. Instead of treating people with physical or mental differences as objects of study, it is important to break boundaries between researcher and participant by empowering the latter to decide how the research should work for them, not vice versa, as Kim and Meredith mentioned in their talks. 

Before this talk, I asked my HDR colleagues to share their research briefs so I could check if they’re telling the truth about MATS. Then I put their research briefs into a Word Cloud Generator. Let's see what key words will turn up, loosely in the shape of a cloud. 

Communication. Movement. Creative. Collaborations. Experiences. Interactive. Blind. Health. 

What do these words tell us? These are not just random buzzwords. They tell a story about how MATS brings together the human experience with technological innovation. When we see these words emerging as key themes, it reminds us that technology isn't just about devices and code - it's about connecting people. It's humanities driven. 

They show how the humanities and arts breathe life into scientific innovation and guide us to recognise an innate symbiotic relationship between the Self and the Other. 

Assistive technology is not helping Other people like me to have access to “your” world, but to bring “your” world closer to whom I‘ve come to know as my Self because of "you". This is a valid statement because an able, native, better Self image would not exist without a disabled, foreign, less good Other, and vice versa. 

Good AT design should not just ask what sort of things They need, but also what We need. This is a fundamental attitude we need to change. It’s not a question of who says who’s included, who’s the Other. We’re in this together. I’m proud to see MATS is amplifying our voices from inside out through collaborative research. 

This is crucial - because when we combine the soul of humanities with the capabilities of science, we create solutions that don't just work technically, but resonate humanly in every one of us.

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