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Prof Leela Damodaran
Professor of Participative Design and Change Management
Interests and experience
Leela is a psychologist with a long track record of successful applied research specializing in the behavioural aspects of information and communications technologies (ICT’s). She has an extensive portfolio of research supported by a variety of sponsors including UK and European research funding bodies, local government and commercial organizations. A significant amount of her current work focuses on older people, in particular to identify barriers and facilitators to sustaining use of ICT’s, prolonging independent living through their use. Her interests include designing for social and digital inclusion; citizen engagement and participation strategies and managing change and transition. She engages with many policy-makers and stakeholder groups of relevance to digital technologies (including assistive technologies), informing policy and design decisions relating to infrastructure, products, systems and services in the Information Society such that the outcomes genuinely serve the needs of citizens.
Leela is the Head of the e-society research group in the Department of Information Science which is part of the Research School of Informatics. The group focuses on human and social aspects of informatics and the impact of technology upon individuals, organizations and society, addressing such topics as:
- The ‘Digital Divide’
- Barriers to social inclusion
- Public access to information
- Stakeholder participation and change management
- Social and organisational implications of ICTs
- Participative and inclusive methods for sociotechnical design
- Citizen engagement strategies; capacity building; knowledge management; human-centred design; social shaping of technology
She is also chair of the Digital Technologies and Social Inclusion (DTSI) consortium. Their report proposes strategies for promoting social inclusion and enhancing public access to information. Published at: www.digitaltelevision.gov.uk.
Current research
SUS-IT: Sustaining IT use by Older People to Promote Autonomy and Independence
Leela is the Principal Investigator of the Sus-IT project, part of the New Dynamics of Ageing programme. This collaborative research project is developing new ways of sustaining older people in independent, effective lives through the use of information technology. With society facing a huge demographic shift towards an ageing population the capacity of older people to sustain an active ICT presence becomes essential.
The project is exploring the actual and potential barriers to sustained, long term and effective use of ICTs as we age. Innovative research methods (eg use of prototypes, forum theatre and ‘sandpit’ activities) are being applied both to investigate the issues and to develop a range of potential sociotechnical solutions to promote and support sustained use of ICTs in society.
For further information on the project visit: http://www.newdynamics.group.shef.ac.uk/ and http://sus-it.lboro.ac.uk/
KT EQUAL
Leela is a member of the KT EQUAL consortium, (Knowledge Transfer for Extending Quality Life) funded by the EPSRC. KT EQUAL is designed to bring together researchers, practitioners and policy makers with an interest in the wellbeing of older people through communicating the latest ageing-related research. The consortium includes experts in engineering, construction, architecture, participatory and inclusive design, rehabilitation, psychology, change management and public engagement, enabling them to work collaboratively with each other and with older people to promote knowledge transfer in innovative and effective ways. Further information is available on the KT-EQUAL website http://www.kt-equal.org.uk
Other Recent studies include:
“Assisted Living Technologies for older and disabled people in 2030” – a study commissioned by Ofcom and led by Plum Consultants to develop future scenarios based on the services required to promote social and economic inclusion of older and disabled people over the coming 20-year period. From these scenarios, the study identified the key technological developments required, including a detailed discussion of drivers for or barriers to change, and a quantification of the technologies' impact on wired and wireless networks. Published by Ofcom
June 2010
The INCLUSIVE DIGITAL ECONOMY NETWORK (IDEN) PROJECT funded by the EPSRC Digital Economy Programme to promote awareness and understanding of the issues associated with empowering older people and other potentially marginalized groups to participate in the Digital Economy.
PRaDSA (Practical Design for Social Action), funded by the AHRC/EPSRC Designing for the 21st Century programme. The goal of this project was to develop and extend the capability of social action organisations to creatively design new practices by appropriating and adapting ICTs. The project aims to develop a new understanding of designing in social action settings, conduct detailed contextual studies of design in practice and create a collection of practical resources to support the work of practitioners (and others) including workshop materials and easy-to-use (open-source) on-line community communications systems.
SAFETYNET: a 12 month network funded by the cross-council New Dynamics of Ageing Programme (Nov 2006 - Oct 2007) to explore the implications of age-related capability changes on the information and support needs of older ICT users. This project generated a successful application for funding the ‘Sus-IT’ collaborative research project.
Survey of the implementation of local e-Government in the UK
Evaluation Study of Charnwood Borough Council Citizen Panel
External activities
- Member of Ofcom Strategic Advisory Board (OSAB) www.osab.org.uk
- Committee member for the 11th European Conference on e-Government – (ECEG -11)
- Member of the Editorial Board of ‘Methodological Innovations Online’
- Invited reviewer for special issue of Interacting with Computers Journal on Designing for Civil Society
- Chair of the Digital Technologies and Social Inclusion Consortium
- Chair of the study team on e-Democracy for the BCS Sociotechnical Group
- Member of the advisory panel for the project ‘Encouraging disadvantaged people to use the Internet’. (This project is funded by the IBM Center for the Business of Government in the US and hosted by the Rehabilitation Resource Centre, City University, United Kingdom)
- Members of the advisory group of Independent Age project on Social and Digital Inclusion
Selected publications
- Damodaran, L. and Olphert, C.W. “User responses to assisted living technologies (ALTs) – a review of the literature”, Journal of Integrated Care, Volume 18, issue 2, April 2010
- Damodaran, L., Hardill, I. and Olphert, C.W. “Some ethical considerations about informed consent by older people to assisted living technologies (ICT) and the participation of older people in ICT research” ISG 7th World Conference, Vancouver May 2010
- Damodaran, L. and Olphert, C.W. “Collaborating with older people to explore requirements for ICTS: methods and challenges” British Society of Gerontechnology Conference, Brunel University
- Olphert, C.W., Damodaran, L., Balatsoukas, P. & Parkinson, C. (2009) Process requirements for building sustainable digital assistive technology for older people. Journal of Assistive Technology, 3 (3), pp. 4-13.
- Damodaran, L. and Olphert, C.W., Informing Digital Futures: Strategies for Citizen Engagement, Springer, Dordrecht, 2006, 226 pp.
- Olphert, C.W., Damodaran, L. and May, A., ''Towards Digital Inclusion - Engaging Older People in the Digital World'', Proceedings of the Accessible Design in the Digital World Conference, Dundee, August 2005.
Publications: [Details]
Contact details
Tel: +44 (0) 1509 635652
Fax: +44 (0) 1509 223053
Email: l.damodaran@lboro.ac.uk
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