Table of Contents
Introduction
“Social inclusion is defined as the process of improving the terms of participation in society for people who are disadvantaged on the basis of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion, or economic or other status, through enhanced opportunities, access to resources, voice and respect for rights.”
UNDESA – Division for Social Policy and Development (DSPD) Report on the World Social Situation (RWSS).
Importance
“…Recognize the equal right of all persons with disabilities to live in the community, with choices equal to others…”
Article 19 – Living independently and being included in the community Enable.
“…Enabling people to live their lives to their fullest, within society…”
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: A commentary.
Initial Research Questions
What are the stigmas and assumptions that hinder the social inclusion of concerned populations?
How do the stigmas and assumptions inhibit social inclusion of people with disabilities?
Leaders and Experts
Bjarki Hallgrimsson
Bjarki Hallgrimsson is the director of Carleton University’s School of Industrial Design. He has written books on prototyping methods and has worked to bring inclusive design to African people with limited mobility and abilities.
Claire Davies
Claire Davies is currently an assistant professor in Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Queen’s University with an honorary senior lecturer appointment in the Departments of Surgery and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Auckland. Her primary research goal focus on increasing independence of people with disabilities and incorporating Universal Design approach create human-machine interfaces that are easily navigated and accepted.
Interviews
Overview of Interviews
Background
Bjarki Hallgrimsson started out in university in engineering and finished mechanical engineering after which he worked on human safety tolerance specifically developing new safety standards for bike helmets and cars. During the course of his work, Bjarki did a collaborative project with industrial designers which led to the realization that he wanted to do something more along the lines of design. He then studied Industrial Design at Carleton University and later did his Master’s in Product Design at Stanford University.
Claire Davies’s dedication to improving the lives of people with disabilities comes from her volunteering experience at Bloorview Children’s Hospital (now Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital). Claire realized that the technology available to the children with disabilities did not allow them to freely participate. She has done her Master’s in Biomedical Engineering and Ph.D. in Systems Design Engineering; while actively researching to improve the lives of children with variable abilities.
Ryan Hum has undergraduate degrees in biology and engineering. He then did his Master’s in Product Design and later continued with his Ph.D. in applied mathematics and engineering. He also studied global health. Ryan’s diverse background has made him an innovative thinker and practitioner which has led him to work with the Government of Canada on a variety of different projects.
Roles and responsibilities
Bjarki Hallgrimsson recently became the director of School of Industrial Design at Carleton University and though his duties as a director are taking up a lot of time, he is still involved in teaching courses. Bjarki has overall encouraged his students to be considerate of inclusion; that can be seen in most of the projects he has worked on with his students. A most recent project being designing tricycles and other income generating products for people with disabilities. Bjarki has also been involved in researching prototyping methods and how building models can be effective way of solving problems.
Claire Davies is currently working as an assistant professor in Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Queen’s University with an honorary senior lecturer appointment in the Departments of Surgery and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Auckland. Her work revolves around creating Assistive Devices that impart independence in people with variable abilities. As an academic professional, Claire now trains her students to be more aware and conscious of people with variable abilities and trains them to work with the user, ethically and responsibly.
Ryan Hum is the Director of Service Insights and Experimentation at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. His work revolves around doing ethnographic research, generating ideas based on the research, and eventually testing those ideas. The end result of this research could be, but is not limited to, new policies, new programs, new services, new IP and/or new digital media.
Accomplishment and projects
Bjarki Hallgrimsson has been involved in different initiatives that work for the well-being of people with disabilities. His recent project, with his students and a NGO in Uganda, explored the international environment and culture for people with disabilities in Africa. The project began as designing hand operated – locally built tricycles for people with disabilities, however, it became a very challenging project since the students were unfamiliar with the local context. Bjarki was quite familiar with the African situation since he lived in Kenya-Tanzania for many years and he believed that if the students are getting involved, they would have to go there to experience the culture and lifestyle first-hand. The most important aspect of this project was the notion of designing with rather than designing for the user.
Claire Davies works around promoting awareness and training students to respectfully work collaboratively with end users, specifically with people with variable abilities. Most of the projects cater to one-on-one user needs but the goal is to create Assistive Devices keeping in mind the principles of universal design. A recent project revolves around redeveloping the crankshaft on a bicycle so that an 18-year-old girl with variable abilities (who loves to bike) can independently bike along with her friends. This doesn’t only permit the girl to do something she loves (biking) but also allows her to be engaged and included in the society.
Ryan Hum has not only worked with people with disabilities but also with a multitude of different populations segments such as immigrants, refugees, and/or LGBTQ. His research approach truly is commendable since he has involved people with all communities to become one. Ryan’s projects with people with disabilities incorporate the principle of inclusive design. He did a project where the company was trying to develop a better accommodation policy for people with disabilities in the workplace. During this project he realized that stakeholders have been working on this for many years, and nothing is actually working at all. He dug deeper and identified that for years the method of diagnosis of the problem was wrong; thereby to find the actual underlying problem he really pushed to do a co-design project with people with disabilities. Ryan was unsure about using the traditional in-depth interview or focus group method so he developed a non-traditional approach where he told the people with disabilities to write breakup letters to the department. The response of these break up letters brought valuable insights; it was seen that a lot of times people don’t even know what they are going through since everything becomes a “norm” for them.
Research methods and working with users
Bjarki Hallgrimsson has encouraged working alongside the users. However his research methods don’t only rely on working with the user but also on observing the user and the user’s environment and culture; the environment and culture gives key insights about social norms and stigmas that the user has been subjected to for years. A lot of underlying problems come from the not so obvious daily experiences. He is also very conscious about accountability of the design and encourages going back and checking if the product is working effectively or not.
Claire Davies works actively with the end user and is training her students to do the same. She also guides her students to be more compassionate and understanding of the user, and to work ethically and respectfully with the user. She also supports collaborative practices; in her line of work of line she works alongside occupational therapists, physiotherapists and/or neurological pediatricians. Claire has also encouraged students to work with community partners and recruit users from the community to get a vast range of exposure to different abilities.
Ryan Hum has incorporated nontraditional research methods in his work. He tries to develop a new strategy or approach for every project he works on; keeping in mind the research question and the user population segment, Ryan develops methods specifically tailored to his particular projects.
Promoting awareness and addressing attitudes and stigmas
Bjarki Hallgrimsson’s notion of designing with rather than designing for provides a great learning experience for the students; it not only humbles the student but also makes the student more empathetic and conscious. His work in Uganada, exposed students to concerns such as poverty and extreme poverty. Bjarki also focuses on promoting localization and manufacturing at the local level to support economy.
Claire Davies believes that there is lack of exposure of students toward variable abilities. She says that she has received a few reports from students stating that students are unsure of how to communicate with people with variable abilities, and that the collaborative partners (in this case occupational therapists) have to start conversations with user’s with variable abilities.
Ryan Hum has a very simple and intuitive way of promoting awareness. He believes that by simply sharing our stories with people (users and stakeholders) we can spread the word about inclusion and what we can do to promote inclusion.
Key Insights
Individual Case Studies
“First of all, it has been important to look at the general development of design and social inclusion. Historically, design has been practiced as an egocentric process with designers looking within themselves for answers to address the problem (Moggridge, 2001). Each designer tackles a design brief using their own aesthetic values and their own likes and dislikes. This can often lead to design exclusion (Myerson, 2001), where the intended user cannot use the end product and therefore rejects the design.”
Include. (2009). What if…users do not know how to be inclusive through design.
Isaac
My case study looks into the concept of the ‘extreme user’. Virtually every thought leader interviewed used the term or some form of it, but there were few clear uses. The case study looks at what it means to be an extreme user, and what value it brings to the design process.
Maham
My case study revolves around discussing the hesitation students feel while communicating with people with variable abilities. Students, who are the future professionals, cannot be afraid of working with abilities. I want to look at the communication gap and suggest ideas that will bridge that gap.
Ryo
My study looks at cultural dissonance between the designer and the context of users. What can be done to support designers in understanding cultural differences in how inclusivity works?
Conclusion
The information and knowledge gained by discussions with subject matter experts was extensive. It is appropriate to conclude by saying that though there are many extraordinary people working day and night to achieve the goal of social inclusion of all; there is still some disconnect that mostly relates to lack of awareness, no involvement of the user within the design process, and/or no accountability or evaluation of products or services that have been created. Though our individual Case Studies will try to tackle some of the issues, there are many more research areas that remain undiscovered.
References
Article 19 – Living independently and being included in the community Enable. (n.d.). Retrieved December 04, 2017, from https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities/article-19-living-independently-and-being-included-in-the-community.html
Fina, V. D., Cera, R., and Palmisano, G. (2017). The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: a commentary. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
Ho K L, D., Lee, Y., and Cassim, J. (2009). What if…users do not know how to be inclusive through design. Include.
Moggridge, B. (2001) i Magazine: Magazine for the Design Council, The UK Design Council, issue 6, UK,12-13
Myerson J. (2001) Introduction, in The International Design Yearbook 2001. de Lucchi
M (ed), Laurence King, London , pp6-7
UNDESA – Division for Social Policy and Development (DSPD) Report on the World Social Situation (RWSS). (n.d.). Retrieved December 04, 2017, from http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/rwss/2016/chapter1.pdf
Special Thanks
We thank the Leaders and Experts for their cooperation and time. We were delighted to discuss accessibility and social inclusion with the experts and these discussions not only informed the formation of our case studies but also increased our understanding of the present and future of accessibility.
ACCESSIBILITY AND INCLUSIVE DESIGN CASE STUDIES 