Inclusive Design team
Professor Jutta Treviranus
Prof Jutta Treviranus
Director and Founder of the Inclusive Design Research Centre (IDRC) & the Inclusive Design Institute (IDI)
Toronto, Canada
Jutta Treviranus is a full Professor at the Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCADU) in Toronto, Canada. She is the Director and Founder of the Inclusive Design Research Centre (IDRC) and the Inclusive Design Institute (IDI).
Treviranus is a world expert in the field of Inclusive Design and has made appearances at the White House and United Nations. She has "led many international multi‐partner research networks that have created broadly implemented technical innovations that support inclusion." Her work has included designing open source content and helping implement accessibility legislation, standards, and specifications. In 2013, the Governor General of Canada awarded Treviranus the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal. ZoomerMedia chose Treviranus as one of Canada's Top 45 over 45 in 2012.
Treviranus graduated from University of Toronto in 1981 with a B.Sc. in Occupational Therapy. In 1994, she earned a M.A. in Special Education from University of Toronto; she completed her PhD at SMARTlab, University College Dublin, Ireland in 2018.
As a university professor, she established a new Master of Design in Inclusive Design (MDes ID) programme at OCAD University in 2010. The MDes ID programme teaches the fundamentals of Inclusive Design. “Part of the reason I came to OCADU was because there was the opportunity to start a new graduate program.” What is unique about the MDes ID programme is that the students in the programme are selected for their diversity – from a very wide range of interests and expertise.
Her work is credited for inspiring the major cultural shift from ‘User Experience Design’ to ‘Inclusive Design’ at Microsoft and many other major tech companies worldwide.
Dr Silvia Baldiris Navarro
Professor at University of the Internet (Madrid Spain)
Dr Silvia Baldiris Navarro
Colombia, South America
Professor Navarro is an experience researcher and project manager in the field of Inclusive Design and Assistibe Technology. She has collaborated on multiple projects with the IDI of Toronto and currently leads Inclusive Design Activities for South America.
She is a Professor at the UNIR: the University of the Internet in Madrid Spain, and was previously a programme lead and lecturer at the University of Girona.
Silvia is currently a Researcher at the Fundacion Universitaria Tecnologico Comfenalco, in her native Cartagena de Indies,, Colombia.
She is passionate about Inclusive Learning tools and the personalisation of educational technologies to reach underserved communities, and has published extensively in this a
Dr. Eva de Lera
Founder of Studio Qualia718
Dr Eva de Lera
Switzerland, Spain & Wider Europe
Eva de Lera the Founder of Studio Qualia718, a boutique research and consulting firm dedicated to positive innovation. She also served as the Executive Director of Raising the Floor-International (an international not-for-profit association committed to the advancement of social equity through digital inclusion), and at the Advisory Board of the Doug Engelbart Institute (committed to boosting Collective IQ to solve important challenges).
Dr. Lera contributes to challenges-that-matter by ideating and openly sharing new-at-the-time concepts and strategies, such as 1993’s Art-a-Ride (inviting communities to create lo-cost stylish wheelchairs, specially thought for kids & teens), 2006’s myfriendshomes (promoting traveling through 6-degrees-of-separation friends’ homes, choosing the degree of trust), 2013’s LeaderSigns (inviting world leaders to use sign language during major events), 2017’s Smiling4Change (my 5-day NY walk spreading the benefits of smiling, even if fake, for a nicer & more peaceful world), and 2016’s Tilakka.art (introducing and disseminating the experience-label concept, to encourage placing authentic and unique audio-stories/experiences in products/prints/spaces to create stronger bonds and connections, and help retain the person’s attention right then and there). Tilakka’s App offers a better experience when scanning a text or audio file, QR scanner 2.0, designed for capturing experiences (vs. redirecting to additional information).
As a researcher of emotions, she has authored several publications in educational technology, inclusive technologies and human computer interaction, including the Joy of Learning, Emotion-Centered Design (ECD) and the Ten Emotion Heuristics (adopted by Microsoft UX Global team in 2020).
Dr Manisha Amin
CEO of the Centre for Inclusive Design
Dr. Manisha Amin
Sydney, Australasia
Dr Manisha Amin is an innovation leader and a cultural and social change champion, focused on helping organisations harness the power of thinking from the edge. She is CEO of the Centre for Inclusive Design, a social enterprise which helps companies to build and design products, services and policies that are inclusive, valuable and usable for as many people as possible.
CFID’s research demonstrates that products and services designed with unique needs in mind can reach four times the size of the target audience, significantly impacting the bottom line.
Currently, millions of Australians across the country are unable to access products and services because of poor design. This number includes people living with a disability (18%) and the elderly (14%), however there are millions of Australians who are also vulnerable to exclusion due to location (28%), gender (50%),health (20%) ethnicity or financial status. Manisha and her team provide simple solutions that allow everyone the opportunity to participate in economic, social, civil, political and cultural life.
Prior to joining CFID, Manisha worked in innovation, design, environmental advocacy and non-profits including Barnardos, Cancer Council, Guide Dogs Australia. She is passionate about social justice and business growth, and believes that when we combine the two we get gold.
She has a PhD in Arts and Social Science, a Masters in Professional Writing, and a Bachelor of Business (Marketing), from the University of Technology, Sydney. Manisha is also on the Board of ADHD Australia and is a published novelist.
Dr Bo Zhang
Team Lead on Innovation Strategies and Intercultural Exchange China-Ireland
Dr. Bo Zhang
Shanghai, China
Dr Bo Zhang conducted a full-time PhD at UCD. She began her 4 years at SMARTlab with a Scholarship, in the autumn of 2013. Her PhD created and tested context-specific virtual worlds for Chinese-Irish cultural exchange. It has since been furthered the development of the Academy4theFuture platform and toolkit.
Prior to conducting her PhD, in December 2013, she won the competitive Travel Scholarship to speak at the London BETT Global Conference. In January 2014, as a team leader, she joined the 3D Printer Competition which was organised by The Academy Innovation in UCD which she won.
In 2014, on merit, she was selected to take part in both the New York University and IDCR of OCAD University-Ontario College of Art and Design University to join two international conferences respectively. In October 2015, she represented UCD as a player of UCD International Ladies’ GAA Team to participate in the 20th Edition of the 2015 FEXCO Asian Gaelic Games in Shanghai, China, when she won the silver medal. Currently, Bo is participating in several projects of SMARTlab and the IDRC at UCD alongside working as a Laboratory Demonstrator/ Tutorial Tutor in Computer Science at UCD.
For the past several years Bo has been lecturing in Educational Technologies in China whilst also developing innovation platform solutions for intercultural exchange. Bo is proficient in the C , Java and Python computer languages and an expert at developing technology-enhanced learning tools, 3D design and web design. Throughout her career,, she has gained useful applied research and technological skills from her hands-on approach to educational technology and continued engagement in digital media projects.