THC at the National Disability Summit

     

The Hopkins Centre Researchers Camila Shirota, Kelsey Chapman & Dinesh Palipana attended the National Disability Summit in August, where both Camila and Kelsey took to the stage. 

Kelsey was part of a panel that spoke about difficulties and innovations with accessing services in regional and remote areas. The panel spoke about difficulties with reliance on telehealth, lack of choice and control- particularly in remote and rural areas, and the need for increased innovative and co-designed services. The importance of dignity and citizen driven solutions emerged from this panel discussion and was echoed across other presentations throughout the Summit. 

Camila spoke about how HabITec is "Reimagining Disability through Co-Design", by implementing co-design in the context of rehabilitation technology development. It was a timely and relevant presentation, as co-design was mentioned by multiple other speakers as a critical element to successful initiatives, and for future initiatives, to better consider the needs and requirements of multiple stakeholders. Camila presented a number of case-study examples of HabITec projects, as well as the framework that guides HabITec's co-design approach. Despite being the only Engineer in the room, Camila's presentation easily engaged the audience, who related to the struggles of up-taking technology in rehabilitation and the need for improvements in this field.