Child Agency

Child agency is a child's capacity to initiate, shape, direct, and sustain activities - including play, conversation, and social interaction - rather than passively accepting adult or peer control. In accessibility research for children, agency is recognised as relational and context-dependent rather than a fixed individual trait: the same child may lead confidently in one setting and withdraw in another depending on communication mode, group familiarity, and unwritten peer norms. Designing for child agency means building affordances that let disabled children join, lead, assert preferences, and negotiate rules on their own terms, rather than mediating all interaction through adults or assistive devices.