City St George’s academics share research at British Aphasiology Society conference • City St George's, University of London

Held in Dundee the conference focused on the theme of community.

By City St George's Press Office (City St George's Press Office), Published Monday, 3^rd November 2025

Academics from City St George’s, University of London shared cutting-edge research on aphasia, such as the role of technology, at The British Aphasiology Society International Conference in mid-August.

Focusing on the theme of “community”, the event in Dundee was organised by City St George’s and it brought together around 200 delegates and participants from across the UK and around the world, including people living with aphasia, speech and language therapists, clinicians, researchers and charities.

Aphasia is a complex language disorder, caused by brain injury such as stroke, cancer or head trauma. Some 350,000 people live with aphasia in the UK. The disorder is caused by damage to the language centres in the brain. It can affect the ability to understand, talk, read and write.

Dr Abi Roper, Research Fellow and Speech and Language Therapist at City St George’s, chaired the event and reflected on its success said:

The conference brought together communities nationally and locally with the central aim of engaging conversation across all parties invested in living successfully with aphasia. The event attracted wonderful engagement from all who attended this fully hybrid event and the conference was a real celebration of the collaborative spirit that sums up the aphasia research that I’m so proud to be a part of as a Research Fellow Speech and Language Therapist at City St George’s, University of London.

The conference programme featured talks, workshops and collaborative sessions. Each session included a panel chair living with aphasia alongside clinical academics, ensuring a strong voice for those with lived experience. Local community members also played an integral role.

City St George’s researchers showcased a range of pioneering studies at the conference. Highlights included work on making data visualisations accessible for people with language difficulties, co-designing technology projects with people with aphasia, and evaluating the effectiveness of online aphasia assessments. Researchers also shared insights on gesture assessment and therapy, and the importance of collaboration between NHS clinicians and academics in delivering impactful research.

Professor Stephanie Wilson from the Centre for Human-Computer Interaction Design at City St George’s opened the conference with a keynote exploring technology and accessibility entitled “Reimagining Technology Design for People with Aphasia: A Human-Computer Interaction Perspective”, while the City Aphasia Lab team also presented multiple projects around aphasic language impairments, therapies for aphasia, interventions to improve emotional and social wellbeing in people with aphasia, and assessment, outcome measurement and the self-reported experience of aphasia.

The event also featured contributions from leaders across the field, including the head of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists for Scotland, Glenn Carter, and a video message from Gillian Mackay MSP, head of the Scottish Parliament’s Cross-Party Group on Stroke. Creative elements included a specially commissioned artwork by the Tayside Healthcare Arts Trust, developed in collaboration with the local aphasia community, which gained coverage on STV News.