Chenyue zhang

Designing for Voice: Cross-Cultural Approaches to Inclusive Expression and Ethical Design

My practice-based PhD investigates how co-design and community participation can enable people with learning disabilities (PWLD) to reshape how they express and represent themselves.

Working across the UK and China, two distinct cultural and institutional contexts, the research explores how disability is perceived, supported, and expressed through participatory practice.

Through collaborative workshops that combine drawing, storytelling, and visual communication, participants are invited to articulate their own voices and challenge social stereotypes. Rather than designing for disabled communities, the project focuses on designing with them, positioning participants as creative agents rather than recipients of care.

By integrating service design and product design methods within an ethical and inclusive framework, the research treats design as a medium of care, agency, and cultural translation, seeking to move beyond accessibility toward identity justice.

Supervisors

• Mike waller
• Carmen Yau

Researcher Biography

I am an artist and design researcher whose practice explores disability, participation, and social inclusion through co-design and visual storytelling. I have facilitated inclusive creative workshops with local community organisations in London, supporting people with learning disabilities and dementia through person-centred approaches that combine movement, sound, and visual art.

My broader design practice investigates how communities express identity and voice through collective making. I participated in a speculative design project that was exhibited at Dutch Design Week 2023, which explored public reactions to biotechnology and ethics through design. My current PhD continues this socially engaged approach, using co-design as a method to empower communities to express and redefine their identities through creative practice.