Supporting diverse learners and educators

Featured Projects

• Erasing Imaginary Lines, Healing the Land was an exhibit that took place at the Yellowhouse Art Centre on Galiano Island, BC, from October 5-30, 2024. It presented the work of the Xetthecum digital ecocultural storymap, an intergenerational, cross-cultural and community-led project focused on creating an ecocultural storymap of an area known as Xetthecum in the Hul’q’umi’num’ language (Retreat Cove, Galiano Island). The exhibit also featured projects that are related to or that inspired the Xetthecum project, including species maps of Galiano Island created by local artists, an overview of Whiteswan Environmental’s work, and a digital project gallery.

  

  Opening Event

  The exhibit opening was part of The Salish Sea Symposium, an event organised by IMERSS (Institute for Multidisciplinary Ecological Research in the Salish Sea). The symposium featured a panel discussion on Centering Indigenous Knowledges in Community Science, Scholarship, and Art (with Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre Smiles, Rosemary Georgeson, Jessica Hallenbeck, Kusemaat Shirley Williams, Briony Penn, and moderated by Jeannine Georgeson). It also featured an exhibit and art auction at the Galiano Inn titled Salish Sea Diatoms (featuring electron microscope images of diatoms by Lama Mark Webber), an IMERSS fundraising dinner, and various biodiversity-related activities around Galiano Island, including a demonstration of the Sentinels of Change light trap at Whaler Bay and a community scanning electron microscopy lab, featuring Dr. Elaine Humphrey.

  

  

  Exhibit Description

  The following text was presented on the gallery wall:

  This exhibit presents the work of an intergenerational, cross-cultural and community-led project focused on creating an ecocultural storymap of an area known as Xetthecum in the Hul’q’umi’num’ language (Retreat Cove, Galiano Island). The Xetthecum digital ecocultural storymap is a place where you can learn about the local biodiversity, Hul’q’umi’num’ species names, and the cultural values of various species. The map documents the region’s ecological communities and cultural features from the perspective of contributing Indigenous and non-Indigenous community members.

  Led by IMERSS in collaboration with Whiteswan Environmental (WE), this project is a small step toward the dismantling of settler colonial systems that have invisibilized Indigenous people and their ways of being for generations. The Xetthecum storymap is part of a larger effort to create ecocultural maps at other sites across the region, to help restore traditional Indigenous practices and access to place throughout the Salish Sea. Meanwhile we hope the Xetthecum storymap can serve as an educational resource and a demonstration of what’s possible, and that it can help foster a community of practice that will carry this work forward.

  As a diverse, collaborative project team made up of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous members, our story includes having honest conversations about the damaging impacts of colonialism, building relationships and learning to trust one another, and allowing ourselves to feel uncomfortable, fumble together, and learn from our mistakes. We invite you to explore the storymap, share your feedback, and become part of this evolving story too. Huy ch q’u!

  

  Project Timeline

  A large timeline was created for the exhibit, telling the story of the project from its inception in 2020 to the present. The meandering timeline, with questions in thought-bubbles appearing along its path, reflects the emergent and exploratory nature of the project. The three phases of the project are mapped out along the timeline with text descriptions of each phase. Different versions of the storymap, including both design explorations and implemented prototypes, are presented along the timeline with text descriptions, screenshots, and QR codes linking to each one. Events related to the project, such as a BioBlitz and two community gatherings, are also presented on the timeline with brief written descriptions and photos taken at the events. In the background of the timeline can be seen a simple line map of the southern gulf islands.

  

  

  

  Soliciting Feedback

  The project website and storymap were available for visitors to try out and offer their feedback based on the prompt questions:

  • What’s working well now?
  • What could we do differently?
  • What should we do next?
  • How do we heal the land with this work?

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  Making Space for Gathering

  A Coast Salish loom was set up in the centre of the room, inviting visitors to do some weaving and providing a cultural, visual and physical gathering point for the exhibit. The loom was a gift from Penelakut elder and matriarch Karen Charlie and displayed both finished and unfinished weavings from previous projects such as The Water We Call Home.

  

  A Multi-faceted Exhibit

  The exhibit at the Yellowhouse gallery also included audio buttons placed around the room that had been programmed with the same Hul’q’umi’num’ audio that is in the storymap tool. Each of these buttons were paired with a board that showed the individual species name and image, highlighting the keystone species of the Xetthecum region and allowing visitors to hear and learn the Hul’q’umi’num’ names and pronunciation. One audio button was also placed at the entrance to the gallery with a Hul’q’umi’num welcome message: tth’i’wum nuw’ilum ‘i’ Xetthecum yaays (Welcome to the Xetthecum Project).

  

  The exhibit also included a display by Whiteswan Environmental, a three-dimensional map of Galiano Island, various maps of the island created by local artists, a display by the Galiano Conservancy, and an area highlighting other inspiring and related projects.

  

  

  

  Closing event

  The closing event on October 26 included a panel discussion and Q&A with members of the project team, followed by a performance of “Medicine”, a song that was co-written by Johnny Aitken (Indigenous Creative Guide for the project) and Lauren Mann, a singer-songwriter living in the Gulf Islands. This was followed by additional songs performed by Lauren Mann. The event was well attended with much lively discussion over food and drink. A decision was made to keep the exhibit up until October 30th to allow for a visit by the Gulf Islands district board and senior staff, who were given a tour of the exhibit.

  

  Next Steps

  Over the course of the exhibit, a number of different groups expressed an interest in having the exhibit up in their communities, to share the project and to inspire similar work where they are located. Groups included the Tsawout Nation, Hornby Island, Whatcom Intergenerational High School (Lummi Nation), and Gulf Island district schools.

• The Community-Led Co-design Kit is a place for sharing knowledge about how to do co-design led by community members and organizations.

• The Inclusive Learning Design Handbook assists teachers, content creators, Web developers, and others in creating adaptable and personalizable educational content that accommodates a diversity of learning needs and preferences.

• The Ecocultural Mapping Project is an interdisciplinary, participatory and inclusive digital mapping project that aims to meaningfully braid together Indigenous ways of knowing and Western ecological science to create an interactive, educational, ecocultural map of Retreat Cove (Xetthecum in the Hul’qumi’num language), on Galiano Island, BC, Canada. The interactive map documents Xetthecum’s sensitive ecosystems and cultural keystone species, and integrates various sources of information including historical and contemporary biodiversity data, terrestrial ecosystem mapping, written and spoken Hul’qumi’num, and stories of place and other audio and visual media. It will serve as an educational tool that will support Indigenous youth and others in learning the Hul’qumi’num language. It will also support those studying ecology and bioscience to learn about the regional biodiversity, the ecological communities in which different species live, and the ecological and cultural values of those species and communities.

  The Ecocultural mapping tool fosters open access to science, scholarship, technology and art. It promotes intergenerational, cross-cultural, multidisciplinary, and transboundary skill-sharing and knowledge exchange. The mapping tool provides a resource that learners themselves can contribute to as citizen scientists, with their own data, observations and knowledge. As an open educational resource, the tool will provide information about species and ecological communities, while at the same time protecting sacred Indigenous knowledge through controlled access to certain information as desired by the community. In addition to photographic documentation, it will feature artwork from local Indigenous artists and youth. It will serve as a tool to support the gathering of place-based stories from elders and others in the community. The tool will also promote ecocultural mapping as a professional conservation practice among the next generation of land stewards.

  

  The Ecocultural Mapping project is following a pluralistic data model that can help build a foundation for more inclusive AI and a more community-driven conception of data, which expands upon OER concepts of reuse while respecting cultural boundaries. This approach supports data that can be adapted, modified, and remixed without losing information about its provenance or original authorship–and which can express limits or conditions on culturally-respectful use and sharing. A pluralistic data infrastructure can support communities in taking collective ownership of data that relates to them and in curating its relationships with data from other sources. This supports communities in presenting and explaining their own data to others, as well as supporting them when they encounter automated decision-making systems. For more information, read the WeCount article.

  

  The Xetthecum map is part of a larger initiative begun by Whiteswan Environmental (WE), who are working collaboratively on several Indigenous-led projects that support community healing through the natural, cultural and historical restoration of the Salish Sea. The aim of this collaborative work is to restore traditional Indigenous practices and access to place, supporting thriving cultures and coastal ecosystems for future generations. WE initiated the Spirit of the Sxwo’le (SOS) Coalition and through this coalition are collaborating with IMERSS (the Institute for Multidisciplinary Ecological Research in the Salish Sea) and developing a Memorandum of Agreement and bylaws that will help to ensure that all partners in this work respect Indigenous leadership and abide by appropriate cultural sensitivity, cultural humility and cultural safety protocols. WE believe this endeavor will offer a measure of cultural, historical and ecological health protection and sustainability that can be modeled across the United States and Canada.

  

• Weavly is an accessible and customizable coding environment co-designed with kids with complex disabilities.

• The Baby Bliss Bot project delves into the realm of using AI tools for language development and translation to enhance communication for AAC users who rely on a minority language system. This article examines the background of Blissymbolics, the potential of AI technology, and the objectives of the project.

  Blissymbolics, a universal symbol language originally developed by Charles K. Bliss for the purpose of international communication, has gained popularity as a method for assisting language development and communication skills to children with physical disabilities who are non-speaking. The origin of the use of Bliss as a bridge to communication and literacy can be traced back to the pioneer program initiated by Shirley McNaughton at the Ontario Crippled Children’s Centre in 1971. Blissymbols offer a written semantic language without phonology that serves as a valuable alternative for nonvocal individuals, such as those with cerebral palsy, who face obstacles in acquiring phonological language skills.

  The rapid advancement of AI technology, particularly Large Language Models (LLMs), presents not only a tremendous opportunity to enhance societal engagement for nonvocal individuals but also comes with many risks for a group that is not recognized or included in the training data. The Baby Bliss Bot (BBB) project is a community-led investigation to explore the possibilities and challenges of leveraging AI to improve communication among Bliss users, while exploring alternative ways of training and tuning AI systems to serve individuals and groups who are outliers and marginalized minorities.

  The BBB project sets forth several key goals:

  • Investigating visual language systems and generative language models.
  • Exploring the process of co-learning with machine learning models.
  • Preserving the plasticity of formalized language or maintaining a living language while safeguarding its essence.

  The insights shared by AAC users underscore several crucial aspects:

  • Enabling Blissymbolics to serve as a semantic shorthand, expanding meaning effectively for unfamiliar listeners in a context-specific and adaptive manner.
  • Personalizing vocabulary, presentation, and input to meet the unique needs of each AAC user.
  • Assisting with the transition to literacy, particularly for second language learners.

  The Baby Bliss Bot project anticipates yielding valuable insights and specifications for the development of adaptive AI-based AAC systems. Alongside these findings, the project aims to create experimental prototypes, pushing the boundaries of communication accessibility for AAC users.

  By delving into the intersection of AI tools, language learning, and communication enhancement for AAC users, the Baby Bliss Bot project aspires to empower individuals utilizing Blissymbolics. Through collaborative exploration and innovation, the project strives to foster inclusivity and break barriers, ultimately improving the lives of nonvocal individuals within minority language systems.

  
  
  

  Funded in part by a grant from IDEA

  

• The Inclusive Design Guide gathers insights, practices, tools and activities that are grounded in the Three Dimensions of Inclusive Design.

• User Interface Options (UI Options) provides a way to enhance or improve website usability, flexibility, and accessibility by providing a way to customize and control aspects of a website without the need for additional software or tools. For those who design, build, or maintain websites, UI Options can also help reveal areas where the web content and structure can be changed to improve flexibility and robustness.

  Get UI Options

  There are a number of ways to get UI Options for your project. Visit Infusion Docs | Getting User Interface Options to find the best method for your project.

  UI Options is now available as a Chrome browser extension enabling the web browser to transform web pages directly.

  Guides and Documentation

  Infusion Docs | Setting Up User Interface Options will help you add UI Options to your project. Once you have UI Options installed, Infusion Docs | Working with UI Options can help you configure your site’s styles and markup to take advantage of UI Options’ adaptations.