ADA Stories
Re-imagining inclusion on campus: we foster empowered belonging through storytelling.
The problem
Inclusion is a dynamic lived experience that changes with time, place and context. Traditional surveys only scratch the surface when it comes to capturing its nuances.
Our approach
ADA Stories explored creative methods to integrate and understand inclusion, with a focus on uncovering less visible experiences (and spaces) of belonging. It engaged in story-driven ways to imagine, understand and map lived experiences of inclusion within our campus environments.
The experiences of people from socioeconomically, educationally disadvantaged and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, people with diverse gender identities, members of the LGBTIQ+ community and people living with disability were of particular interest.
The outcomes
The team undertook activations during UNSW’s Diversity Festival, graduations, and Paddington Community Day to gather positive and negative stories of inclusion for elevation across three initiatives:
My Name is… captured more than 1,500 memories and personal reflections, including experiences of alienation, ‘othering’, and exclusion associated with people’s names. It helps decolonise our understanding of names for greater inclusion. Story murals were displayed at Paddington and Kensington campuses. The team also developed a digital solution that embeds the pronunciation of a name in UNSW email signatures, Teams, and Moodle profiles. These have been accessed by thousands of people.
StoryMap explored how students and staff feel in UNSW ADA’s spaces, creating proof-of-concept trails that highlight diverse stories of place that bring our campuses to life.
The story contribution platform was incorporated within the School of Social Sciences in selected research methods courses. During this initiative, students contributed stories using a range of methods and applied various analytic techniques.
Immersive Experience developed an interactive 360 virtual reality (VR) film based on selected stories. Our stories of inclusion and exclusion give audiences an experiential understanding of diverse perspectives.
The project was embedded in our learning, teaching, and research training curriculum as part of a specific initiative. Students studying multimedia engaged with the Immersive Experience and raw data to create their own digital experience.
Project learnings continue to inform faculty initiatives, such as onboarding and gifted education programs at UNSW GERRIC. These outcomes have the potential to be scaled across UNSW.
By sharing and listening, we can better appreciate our diversity and build a more inclusive community.
Project team
The team included:
- People from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
- Members of the LGBTIQ+ community.
- Academic, education-focused, and professional staff.
- Student representatives from across the ADA community.
Work with us
The UNSW Innovation Hub tackles diverse problem-solving projects, varying in size, complexity and subject matter. We specialise in complex challenges that require collaboration, a design-led approach, and that can’t be addressed by a single discipline.
If you have a project proposal or potential partnership that you would like to discuss, please get in touch.
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