How can design support the formation of publics? What processes can support publics’ formation? According to J. Dewey’s, publics are groups of people that have a mutual concern and gather together to act on it. In this project the matter of concern at stake was dyslexia. Dyslexia is a condition that entails non-normative ways of processing information. Research has predominantly focused on neurological, pedagogical, or psychological aspects of dyslexia; in this project we focused on the social construction of dyslexia. Through the development of digital platforms, interactive artifacts, and public events we challenged many of the social constructions and provided opportunities for mutual learning among parents, teachers, and experts. One of the outcomes was the “Settimana Europea della Dislessia“, an annual event that has been now taking place for three years, attracting thousands of people in the region of Trentino (IT). This project was one of the case studies in my PhD thesis, where I proposed a methodology for supporting the formation of publics. My thesis is publicly available under an Attribution-ShareAlike creative commons license.
Maria Menendez-Blanco 