As a PhD candidate in Museum Studies at the University of Leicester and a fellow of the Institute for Digital Culture, my work focuses on improving digital accessibility for autistic individuals in museum digital culture experiences and developing accessible research practices. I’m currently exploring the intersections of digital storytelling and emerging XR technologies to create accessible, interactive cultural heritage experiences. Simultaneously, I am the Digital Content Creator & Social Media Strategist for the Institute for Digital Culture and volunteer as a Lead Exhibitions Curator at Leicester Museum & Gallery.

With a BSc in Anthropology and Archaeology and an MA in Museum & Artefact Studies, I have extensive experience with material culture studies, community archaeology, and collections management. As an Independent Digital Heritage Content Creator with a growing following on social media (@PhDShelbyAdventures), I blend academia with accessible online engagement.

My 12-year technology journey includes roles as a Database Systems Coordinator at Rockefeller University and as a Mobile Technician and Creative at Apple. Noteworthy achievements include managing a $1 million+ database system migration project and conducting over 2,000 digital learning workshops at Apple.

I also spent two years as a professional Arts & Humanities Teacher in Seoul, integrating archaeology and art into the curriculum. Multiple internships in museums and volunteer archaeological work underscore my commitment to the heritage sector.

Doctoral Project: Enhancing Accessibility and Inclusivity for Autistic Individuals in Immersive Digital Culture Experiences

This project aims to understand how autistic adults experience and feel about digital culture experiences in museums and VR environments and to address neurotypical bias in both museum programming and academic research design. This project is guided by ethical and disability rights principles. My research process has been designed with autistic needs at the forefront and has been done so in collaboration with the autistic community through a series of pilot study focus groups.

Fieldwork will be conducted over three studies. First, through VR experiences facilitated by me at the Univeristy of Leicester’s Innovation Hub, in collaboration with MBD Limited. Second, through a series of ‘field trips’ with autistic participants to the Natural History Museum in London to test their brand new mixed reality experience called ‘Visions of Nature’. Third, through another fieldtrip experience but to the soon to reopen Jewry Wall Museum in Leiecester to experience their new mixed immersive audio-visual galleries.

Goals

My goal is to identify which features of digital experiences impact autistic adults positively or negatively. This project will also test how the presence of different levels of Interactive Cultural Heritage (ICH) features (Olaz et al., 2022) in digital cultural experiences affects the emotional response and enjoyment of autistic adults. I hypothesise that the more ICH features a digital experience includes, the more enjoyable and impactful it will be for autistic individuals.

Upon conclusion of the data analysis, a resulting set of baseline design guidelines, or ‘Autistic Digital Design Guidelines’, will be an output of this project. This will first be shared alongside the delivery of Neurodiversity training with the participating organisations to promote sector-wide changes in digital accessibility for autistic individuals. 

Funding & Affiliations

In line with ethical research practices, all participants will be compensated for their time and expertise with awarded funds from the Steven Simmons Bursary. This project is funded by the University of Leicester’s Future 50 Studentship and is supported by the Attenborough Arts Centre and the Sensational Museum. This project is supervised by Professor Ross Parry, Director of the Institute for Digital Culture and Dr. Andrew Hugill, Deputy Director of the Insititute for Digital Culture.

Research Questions

Primary Research Question:
How can digital culture experiences be more inclusive for autistic adults?

Secondary Research Questions:
1. How do autistic adults receive current digital culture experiences?
2. What features in digital culture experiences negatively or positively affect autistic individuals?
3. What baseline elements are necessary to create a positive digital culture experience for autistic adults?
4. How do different levels of Interactive Cultural Heritage (ICH) features influence the emotional response and enjoyment of autistic adults?

Research Aims

This project aims to be a progressive example of ethical, socially informed, disability rights-centered research. Grounded in autism and critical disability studies, it follows a well-researched disability model and uses language aligned with current disability discourse. To address the lack of autistic voices in research, the project will collaborate closely with the autism community in its design, fieldwork, and analyses, ensuring flexibility and openness throughout.

This project seeks to challenge traditional museum programming, which often prioritises educational outcomes over enjoyment. By focusing on enjoyment and inclusivity, I aim to reposition museum programming to be more accessible for all neurotypes. I will also examine how neurotypical biases in museum design might exclude neurodivergent individuals and explore whether aspects of a digital culture experience traditionally seen as drawbacks, could benefit autistic visitors.

Navone, S. (2022). A Late-Medieval 'Lyre-Shaped' Buckle from the Durham River Wear Assemblage. Durham Archaeological Journal, 23 (Transactions of the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland), 109–122. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8139924

2024 Steve Simmons Bursary: £3000. School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester. Award for research on visitor engagement and museum design. Funded by Event Communications, it prioritizes innovative, well-designed, and deliverable research projects.

2023 Future 50 PhD Studentship: Full Scholarship. University of Leicester.

2022 Geoff Egan Prize: Finds Research Group. The award is made to the author of the best MA or MSc dissertation undertaken in a given year, recognising an individual's talent and extraordinary potential in the field of finds research.

2020 Santander Scholarship: £2000

Virtual Poster & Keynote: 'Beyond Grave Concubines: Redefining the Narrative and Unraveling the Complex Symbolism of 'Isis-Aphrodite' Terracotta Figures in Greco-Roman Egypt'

Presented online to the 2023 SSEA Scholars’ Colloquium, 4 November 2023. Click here for the recorded presentation. 

Press Release: Virtual Vessels and Tangible Touch: Slow Engagement in the Digital Era

1 February 2024 - What might unfold when you pause to slowly engage all senses with material objects in both physical and virtual realms? This question took centre stage at ‘Somatic Vessels’, a collaborative event organised by Future 50 PhD Candidate Shelby Navone, a Fellow of the Institute for Digital Culture at the University of Leicester, and Jenna Hall, a PhD Candidate in the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture (MADA) at Monash University, Australia. For full press release, click here.

Interview: Leicester welcomes its world-changing Future 50 researchers

Education

MA (with Distinction) Museum & Artefact Studies - Durham University - 2021

BSc (with Honours) Archaeology/Anthropology - Portland State University 2018
Latin Honours Recognition | Cum Laude | Dean’s List 2014-2018
President | Anthropology Students for Community Engagement| 2016-2017

Certifications

TEFL Certified- 120 Hour Premier TEFL Course, Apple Certified Portable Technician (ACPT) & Apple Certified Trainer (ACT)