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Work, Inclusion and Technology
Department of Rehabilitation Sciences
Student sits at her desk and looks at her laptop. © Aliona Kardash​/​TU Dortmund

Team AIT at Mensch und Computer 2026 in Duisburg: Workshops on Neurodiversity and Inclusive Systems

Frauke Mörike, Jana-Sophie Effert und Valerie Tan vor den Folien des Workshops zu Neurodivergenz und Lebensübergängen © Frauke Mörike
This year, Mensch und Computer 2026 took place right here in the Ruhr region, in Duisburg. Team AIT participated with two co-organized workshops and contributions of our own. The focus was on how technology can support neurodivergent people during vulnerable life transitions, and on how inclusive interactive systems can be designed.

This year, the Mensch und Computer 2026 conference (MuC) took place in Duisburg, right here in the Ruhr region. As Team AIT, we took the opportunity to participate with two co-organized workshops and contributions of our own. Both look at the relationship between inclusion and exclusion in human-technology interaction from different perspectives.

"Neurodiversity: Socio-Technical Life Transitions as Decisive Momentum for Inclusion and Exclusion Processes"
Jana-Sophie Effert initiated and coordinated this workshop together with Frauke Mörike and further participants from ihri at TU Dortmund, the Ferdinand Steinbeis Institute, Uppsala University, CJD, and Ruhr West University of Applied Sciences. It brought together numerous researchers from Germany and abroad as well as practitioners.

The discussion focused on how technology can better support neurodivergent people, particularly during vulnerable life transitions such as starting a job. Such transitions can be decisive for whether processes of social inclusion or exclusion are reinforced. One presented contribution by Jana-Sophie Effert addressed the vulnerable phase of grief.

"Between Empowerment and Exclusion: Socio-technical Approaches to Modeling, Designing and Evaluating Inclusive Interactive Systems"
This workshop grew out of a collaboration between research groups in Rehabilitation Technology, Rehabilitation Sociology, ihri, and AIT at the Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences at TU Dortmund, the Human-Machine Interaction and Accessibility research group at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), and OWL University of Applied Sciences. It centered on the question of how inclusive interactive systems can be modeled, designed, and evaluated so that they promote participation and avoid exclusion. For the KI-InnOMATIV project, Jana-Sophie Effert presented a contribution on collaboration initiation workshops that co-establish collaboration.