Designing with the Neurodiverse | Ilianna Ginnis | TEDxMonashUniversity

In her TEDx talk, Ilianna explains the extraordinary challenge that someone with intellectual disability faces in being included in society, and how architectural design can be explored to not only assist non-verbal communicators but to empower them with the tools to build a personalised home. Ilianna's craft has always been driven by her desire to create a more inclusive world for her younger sister Michelle, who has an intellectual disability. Her talk is insightful into the relationship between design and neurological stimulation, and dares to inspire the future of architecture. Ilianna Ginnis is an Interior Architectural Designer and a current PhD Candidate at Monash University. Ilianna is also a caregiver for persons with disabilities as well as an allied health assistant to speech pathologists. Ilianna prides herself on designing with consciousness, creating interventions that extend the ordinary intentions of architecture, multi-disciplinary as well as sensory design for people with neurodevelopmental disabilities, focusing on communication, specifically behavioural and non-verbal, to stimulate design processes. Her aim is to achieve empathy through the exploration of interior architecture with a fundamental focus on intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability. Her PhD speculates on how design processes begin to consider persons with severe and profound intellectual disability and non-verbal communication, allowing designers to integrate users into complex processes as narrators of their own experience. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx