Co-design as Pedagogy: Identifying Materiality, Designed Form, and Learning Activities with/for Visually Impaired Children

Abstract

This research bridges the fields of design and education, scrutinising the hurdles that developing countries—China in particular—face when crafting high-quality pedagogical resources for visually impaired children. While inclusive design principles for children with special needs are widely accepted, the methods and effectiveness of these approaches remain contentious. Design guidelines emphasise personalised support, yet many schools lack the specialised expertise, tactile materials, and structured multisensory activities needed to enact those guidelines. As a result, the promise of inclusivity often remains aspirational, leaving visually impaired children with fragmented or insufficient learning experiences. Cultural-Historical Activity Theory is employed as the theoretical framework, highlighting that learning is a collaborative process, shaped by a shared object of learning and influenced by participants’ intrapersonal experiences within their broader sociocultural context. The research adopts a case study methodology, with data collected through interviews, instructional observations, prototyping, documents, and collaborative workshops. The study involved 27 visually impaired children, 8 teachers, and 3 experts, with 89 days of classroom routines observed. The findings reveal how teachers conceptualise and implement design strategies through multiple interactive layers—individual, team, community, social and institutional. Throughout, I argue that co-design can be used as a method to actively include visually impaired children in practising their learning to the context, emphasising the importance of the relations and socio-material arrangements that structure these design practices. As such, this thesis contributes primarily to the research on collaborative design and learning design that have implications for designers and educators who wish to engage in shaping inclusive activities for learning.