Ilianna Ginnis

Illustration: Portrait of Ilianna Ginnis by Antra Svarcs.

Empathy is the ability to relate to another person’s needs and desires. It has the power to influence both tangible and intangible connections to one another and to our environment. Empathy is the key to my work as a designer – it empowers me to drive change within design and the built environment.

As a sister to an individual who is non-verbal and who has an intellectual disability, I grew up with a deep understanding and empathy for those with diverse communication and cognition. Assisting my younger sister to communicate within public spaces became my life passion, and made me aware there is limited engagement with and representation for people who are cognitively diverse and non-verbal. This has directed my career path and enabled me to assist individuals with similar communication difficulties.

I have since embarked on a PhD with the Design Health Collab at Monash University to develop guidelines within architecture and design for including people who are non-verbal and have diverse cognition in the design process. These guidelines will begin to challenge design processes to consider how they engage with non-verbal users and to implement change that meets unique needs within different environments. Additionally, my PhD aims to educate designers on how we as practitioners can become more aware of the diversity in communication and cognition towards becoming more inclusive. Currently, disability is addressed within architecture, however communication accessibility and neurological diversity, such as intellectual disability and autism, are not considered, which is the gap my research addresses. My hope is that the guidelines developed through my PhD will become the mandatory standard in design and architecture industries.

I graduated with a Bachelor of Interior Architecture (Honours) in 2020. Currently, I practice as an access consultant and neuro-inclusive design specialist at Architecture & Access and as a research officer and teaching associate at Monash University. Working at the intersection of design and academia has allowed my work to be informed by both research and practice. I can achieve designs that are truly purpose-built, meaning co-designed and co-created with non-verbal users and their multidisciplinary network (speech pathologists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and psychologists).

As a designer, I strive to employ strategies that ensure the inclusion of non-verbal communicators. In communication, especially non-verbal, the feedback process is an important part of engagement. Non-verbal communicators rely on facial expressions, gestures and modelling to exchange information with their communication partners. When applied to design processes, behaviour becomes the main ‘voice’ in the conversation. A great example of the inclusion of non-verbal communication in the design process is choices – offering the individual two sample textures or materials and observing their response. Another is observing the user in their space to gain an understanding of personality.

Image: Courtesy Ilianna Ginnis.

Non-verbal communicators’ intentions and symbolisation differ from person to person. Forms can include “generalised movements and changes in muscle tone, vocalisation, facial expression, orientation, pause, touching, manipulating or moving with another person, acting on objects and using objects to interact with others, assuming positions and going to places, the use of conventional gestures, depictive actions, withdrawal and aggressive and self-injurious behaviour.”¹ This is why empathy in my work as a designer is important – so that I am able to sit and engage with the uniqueness of each individual. The non-verbal user’s choices are used to create design outcomes based on their preferences and how they function in their specific spaces.

My teaching role at Monash University has also allowed me to work with upcoming designers in understanding and applying neurodiversity to design processes and projects. Students in communication and industrial design are dedicated to developing solutions that respond to the diversity of disabilities and have a positive attitude to learning communication access within design practice.

My goal is to create recognition for individuals with diverse communication. Spatial designers and architects can model these forms of communication in design processes to offer opportunities for engagement and interaction, enabling inclusion and a ‘voice’. Communication access is extremely important and relevant, particularly within the practice of design, where the expression of needs, desires and function is crucial to the user. The next step is for the receiver of the message to accept these forms of communication, allowing for inclusivity and communication access.

¹ Griffiths, C. and Smith, M. (2017) ‘You and Me: The Structural Basis for the Interaction of People with Severe and Profound Intellectual Disability and Others’, Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, 21(2), pp.103–17.

Ilianna Ginnis is an interior designer and PhD candidate within the Design Health Collab at Monash University.