Diane Bell

Diane leads the work in the area of Assistive and Accessible Technology and EdTech, and is an honorary Associate Professor at the University College of London (UCL). She is also a Research Fellow at the University of Stellenbosch Business School based in Cape Town, South Africa. Her research focuses on the intersection of disability, education, assistive technology/EdTech and accessibility, with a focus on hearing impairment and deafblindness.

In 2017 Diane worked as a Technical Officer at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva as a member of the GATE team, and subsequently as a consultant to WHO, working on projects related to advancing access to assistive technology globally, from product procurement, product specifications and financing models.

Being mother to a daughter born with a profound hearing impairment, she is a strong advocate for the rights of persons with hearing loss and serves on the Presidential Working Group on Disability for South Africa, the WHO World Hearing Forum and as Board Chair of the Carel du Toit Trust, a Nonprofit Organisation (NPO) which works to enable deaf children to hear and speak, through the use of assistive hearing technologies and auditory-verbal rehabilitation. Diane is an educationist, teaching/lecturing for almost 20 years in both secondary and higher education. She holds a PhD in Education with specialization in Curriculum Studies from Stellenbosch University, an MBA degree and an ICT-related qualification.

Prior to joining GDI Hub Community Interest Company (CIC), Diane has held a number of senior positions, including Academic Director at the University of Stellenbosch Business School, Director of the Carel du Toit Trust, as well as Manager Strategic Initiatives and Projects at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in the Faculty of Business and Management Sciences, as a member of the Faculty Executive and Management team.

Diane has published almost 40 research outputs, with a list of her publications available through Google Scholar