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This research on deinstitutionalisation and high quality community-based services has helped transform the political and public debate, informing the management of services and improving the quality of life of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) by changing the practices and attitudes of staff. It has led to people leading more active and fulfilling lives and experiencing more choice and control. These impacts have reached far beyond the UK, extending to Ireland, Central and Eastern Europe, Australia and elsewhere.
Research by Melanie Nind of the University of Southampton and her collaborator (Hewett) has had a national and international impact on the practice of professionals who teach people with severe learning disabilities. The Intensive Interaction approach is included in UK National Curriculum guidance, the Government's Strategy for people with learning disabilities, and it is used across education, psychology, social care and speech and occupational therapies. Nind's research has shaped the implementation of Intensive Interaction, and provided practitioners in Eastern Europe, New Zealand, and Australia with new data and concepts that help to inform practice to enrich the lives of a vulnerable population.
The key impacts of the research into the non-entertainment use of computer games technology and virtual worlds at the Serious Games Institute (SGI) have been:
The reach of these impacts extends to partners both within the UK and overseas. Beneficiaries include companies, health professionals, educators, young people and their parents.
The ICTE Research Centre at UWS has transformed the way advanced technologies are used as tools within education and training, covering a range of sectors across Europe, and has contributed to policy formation, economic impact and benefits to society. Focussing on Web 2.0 technologies and specifically serious games, underpinning technologies have been applied to a range of educational disciplines at all levels of education and within organisations. External engagement has ranged from the level of individual teachers to the level of regional and national policy, and individual partner organisations have benefited economically from adopting and adapting these underpinning technologies.
The Enabling Self-management and Coping with Arthritis Pain through Exercise (ESCAPE) intervention, refined at UWE Bristol, has led to reduced pain and increased function in people with osteoarthritis (OA). These benefits follow a brief exercise and self-management intervention based on developing self-efficacy, facilitated by a physiotherapist in primary care. This intervention is cited within the NICE guidelines, and has been adopted at sites across the NHS as an evidence-based, clinically effective and cost-effective intervention. The intervention is within the NICE cost-effectiveness threshold for investment and has resulted in savings in healthcare budgets. It has also achieved Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) status — an evidence-based, peer reviewed case study evaluated on quality improvements, savings, evidence and ease of implementation, thus providing a resource for staff and commissioning bodies charged with making quality improvements and savings within the NHS.
Human-computer usability research within the university's Sensory Disabilities Research Unit (1993-2002) led to the construction of accessibility guidelines that are widely used, with an estimated reach to a maximum of 30 million people in the EU. PAS 78: Guide to Good Practice in Commissioning Accessible Websites and BSI BS8788 Web Accessibility Code of Practice met 2010 web accessibility law in the UK and subsequent EU legislation. Similarly, BS EN 15823:2010: Braille on Packaging for Medicinal Products met UK, EU and International Standards for Braille on medicine packaging. Further research resulted in award-winning guides for blind users of Windows software that improves accessibility to work.
Our research has created a framework that sustains new forms of effective collaboration for distributed workers and learners in `live environments'. The framework has resulted in a software toolkit and online guidelines designed for the new collaborative spaces: from avatar and embodied worlds to live video meetings. One part of the framework has transformed the work of international universities and multi-disciplinary research institutes, improving their 3D, avatar-based work and `embodied' learning spaces, while another aspect has created our FlashMeeting (FM) video-meeting tool. Released in 2003 (predating multi-party Skype™ by seven years), this research brought multi-party, in-browser, video meetings to thousands worldwide, including recording and analytic features that have only now started to emerge commercially.
An innovative approach towards researching story-telling and its relevance in games design has resulted in cultural and economic impact in the creative sector and generated novel approaches that have influenced creative practice in the games industry. As a direct result of the research, an independent games development studio has been established and two commercial game titles have been released, with commercial sales to date of approximately £1.65m. The first release, Dear Esther, has been a major commercial success, has also won several industry recognition awards and is cited as directly responsible for the genesis of a new gaming genre.
This research on those with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) who exhibit challenging and/or criminal behaviour has impacted on public policy, professional practice, and carers' and service users' quality of life, both in the UK and internationally (e.g. Japan, New Zealand). The impact has been maximised by the researchers serving on government advisory committees, writing government policy documents and delivering training to service providers and their staff. The research was also fundamental in establishing the need for networks to support service users and their families, leading to the formation of the Challenging Behaviour Foundation.
SubSafe is a high-fidelity, real-time interactive simulation of a Royal Navy (RN) submarine. The SubSafe programme has improved the delivery of spatial awareness and safety training for RN recruits, over and above legacy practices (such as PowerPoint, "chalk-and-talk" and technical manuals). It has also played a major role in influencing industrial and defence agency uptake of simulation technologies across a range of applications. UK (MoD), Australian and Canadian national strategies relating to future exploitation of simulation in training and concept visualisation have been positively influenced by the success of this programme. SubSafe has also been instrumental in launching a new, innovative games-based simulation company.