Oussama Metatla
Associate Professor of HCI and co-director of BIG.
My work is associated with BIG::Diverse & BIG::Tech. My research themes and interests include cross-sensory interaction, crossmodal cognition, diverse-ability interaction, fabrication, inclusive design & shape-change.
I'm interested in how HCI as an applied field of inquiry can contribute to making human society more inclusive of disabled people. I do this by investigating how cross-sensory interaction could be used to design more inclusive interactions between disabled and non-disabled people across a range of domains. I use a mixed-methods approach in my research, combining theory with field work, co-design, and controlled studies and evaluation.
Between 2016 and 2021, I was awarded an EPSRC Early Career Research Fellowship that helped me push the agenda of inclusive education technologies for blind and visually-impaired children in mainstream schools.
Between 2023 and 2028, I have been awarded an ERC Consolidator grant to consolidate my research agenda on diverse-ability interaction, focusing on investigating how theories of cross-sensory perception and embodied cognition could radically change the landscape of inclusive assistive technology design.