How Community-Generated Design Choices Shape Interdependence in Neurodiverse Playground Learning

• In Event: AERA Research in Progress Roundtable Session Four
  In Invited Roundtable: Research-in-Progress RT016 (Saturday)

Abstract

Designing inclusive learning environments that support interdependent socialization between neurodivergent and neurotypical children remains challenging. Although UDL emphasizes collaboration, it has often been operationalized through peer tutoring. Disability studies and HCI scholars advocate for bidirectional, interdependent design beyond accommodation, yet little is known about how interdependence unfolds in collective, physical spaces or how community-generated designs shape it. We introduce a technologically augmented playground activity incorporating role-based mutual dependence and symbolic communication, which emerged organically from community co-design sessions to foster interdependence. We are analyzing children’s play using Multimodal Interaction Analysis to identify how community-generated designs enable or constrain interdependence. By centering community-generated ideas within interdependent design, this study shows how locally imagined features can inform more inclusive play spaces.

Authors

• Isabella Teresa Seccia, University of California - Irvine

• Jessica Blake-West, Boston College

• Kelsyann Cervera, University of California - Irvine

• Kat Allen, Tufts University

• Andres Sebastian Bustamante, University of California - Irvine

• June Ahn, University of California - Irvine