Community Research at LiveWorkPlay

Update: see some results from the Vid-Ability project!

Concordia University Professor Ann-Louise Davidson has been involved with LiveWorkPlay since 2004. She actively participated to the On Our Own Together project and received SSHRC funding to conduct a research project with over a dozen LiveWorkPlay members.

Through her research described below, Dr. Davidson animated collaborative action research activities and used technology such as live action video and podcasting as a means to help members solve real problems related to community and residential integration processes. Video topics include transportation issues, food preparation, computer-mediated communication, and face-to-face social interaction.

Professor Davidson is affiliated to the Learning For Life lab at the Education Department, Concordia University, Montréal. She is currently the principal investigator of a research project in which she is producing instructional videos based on real-life scenarios to build community and residential integration abilities for people with intellectual disabilities.

Her current project, called Vi-Ability (gaining abilities from videos) builds on a first series of self-advocacy videos (as noted above) produced collaboratively with SMILE members. Many components of the self-advocacy videos were the decision of members (such as the topic of videos, how to proceed for filming the videos, the message conveyed, and the editing of the videos).

In general terms, the self-advocacy videos strived to help members voice problems they were facing while going through a community and residential integration process. Building on the understanding that most people with intellectual disabilities learn best through hands-on experience and demonstration, members were invited to use video to teach peers their methods for solving specific problems.

For example, one individuals shows another how to make travel plans with the web-based OC Transpo travel planner. In this video the individual demonstrates her capability in using the OC Transpo travel planner, but also explains the difficulty she faces when dealing with language processing. In another video, the bus route from LiveWorkPlay to the St. Laurent shopping centre is demonstrated, utilizing visual symbols as reference points. There is also discussion of practical challenges with bus travel, such as misunderstandings associated with the use of priority seating allocated to people with disabilities.

The second series of videos will consist of instructional videos oriented toward the development of specific life skills. The new video series emerge from a request by the LiveWorkPlay co-founder and CEO: “We need short hands-on videos that members can use here (at LiveWorkPlay headquarters) or at home and on-the-go”. These videos will be produced at the Concordia University Department of Education with Professor Davidson’s team of highly skilled and community-involved graduate students from the Educational Technology program. The videos will be designed for use in the hands of SMILE members to see what impact they can have in supporting their struggle to gain autonomy with particular attention to the pursuit of full inclusion in the community.

Contact info:

ann-louise@education.concordia.ca

Department of Education LB-579 


1455, de Maisonneuve Blvd. W. 


Montreal, Quebec
 H3G 1M8

(514) 848-2424 x 5476