2018-2019 (10 months) / Strategic Design & Research Lead / Paper Giant
📣 This project won Gold in the Social Impact category of the 2020 Good Design Awards, and was a finalist in the 2020 Premier’s Design Awards.
People with disability are poorly recognised, disrespected and unsupported in the criminal justice system
I served as Strategic Design & Research Lead in a 10-month industry-academia collaboration to create SupportingJustice.net, a website that provides practical resources for legal and court professionals and people with disability. Designed for ease of access and distribution, and provided in Easy English and standard versions, the website’s resources help connect people with disability in the criminal justice system with support, creating the opportunity for fairer outcomes.
The resources of SupportingJustice.net are just one step towards addressing the overrepresentation of people with mental ill health and cognitive impairments in the criminal justice system of Victoria, Australia. 2011 research estimated that 42% of male and 33% of female prisoners have an Acquired Brain Injury. Lack of appropriate supports for people with disability, coupled with stigma and discrimination, perpetuate cycles of disadvantage and lead to increased contact with the criminal justice system.
Designing with those closest to the problem
Creating SupportingJustice.net involved bringing together people who wouldn’t typically sit together in a non-courtroom context: people with lived experience, magistrates, lawyers, support workers. We identified and worked through problems and possibilities for SupportingJustice.net in numerous ways:
System mapping to identify points of intervention to make change
Co-design with people with lived experience, legal and court professionals and government services to co-create resource concepts
Prototyped and tested concepts with people with lived experience, housing support workers, lawyers, registrars and judicial officers
We also embedded human rights-based principles and language in the design process and the website itself.
Reflections & learnings
Inclusive research and engagement means working with advocates and peer support workers to establish most appropriate way of engaging people with lived experience. Important things to consider include the pace and timing of activities, and how people are made aware of what will happen, who will support them, and what will happen after.
Consultation with disability advocates and peer support workers is critical to ensure information is communicated appropriately e.g. Easy English research session information.
The value of system maps is in fostering connections and conversations around intertwined complexities and areas of potential intervention for change. System maps are simply a background to a narrative, and the maps benefit from constant visibility and iteration, not polish.
Giving people space to have “penny drop moments” about how components of a systems interrelate and where they sit within the system yields the best outcomes because once this occurs people feel less overwhelmed and clearer on where they can have influence on making change.