Combating barriers to inclusive design – Evaluation of an inclusive design toolkit

This research is based on a number of studies of barriers to inclusive design [1-4], in particular the authors ’ own investigation of drivers for, and barriers to, inclusive design within the UK consumer product industry [4], where two mail surveys were conducted: one with 177 industrial design consultancies, and the other with 152 consumer produc

Designers and manufacturers’ perspectives on inclusive/universal design

Inclusive design in the U.K. and its U.S. counterpart, universal design, present opportunities and challenges to industry. In order to encourage manufacturers and design companies to adopt more inclusive design practices, the research has been carried out to gain an understanding of why and how companies adopt inclusive design practices, what are the barriers when implementing them and what are the key strategies for facilitating inclusive/universal design in an industrial context. Based on interviews with a number of U.K. design consultancies and an investigation among manufacturers in the U.S., a comparison between U.K. consultant designers and U.S. consumer product manufacturers’ perspectives on inclusive/universal design was made. It was found that designers are reluctant to sacrifice the aesthetics of the brand to design for inclusion, but nevertheless would like to have practical tools to help them develop more inclusive solutions. For manufacturers, the key motivation for such practices is that of government regulation and legislation requiring the accessibility of products and services

Trans-inclusive Design

The choices web designers make impact the online and offline experiences of real people who are transgender, non-binary, or gender-variant—choices that can affirm or exclude, uplift or annoy, help or harm. This article shines light on the decisions web professionals make every day and offers specific ideas for how to make content, images, forms, databases, IA, privacy, and algorithms trans-inclusive

Developing a computer aided design tool for inclusive design

The purpose of this study was to investigate age-related changes in the performance of a range of movement tasks for integration into a computer aided design (CAD) tool for use in inclusive design

Inclusive Design in Assisted Instruction

Much instruction starts with abstract representations for which learners have insufficient foundation [1]. The British Standard, BS 7000-6:2005 Guide to Managing Inclusive Design, provides a comprehensive framework that can help all private enterprises, public sector and not-for-profit organizations, build a consistent approach to inclusive design into organizational culture as well as processes [2]. While courses, technology, and student services are typically designed for the narrow range of characteristics of the average student, the practice of universal design in education (UDE) considers people with a broad range of characteristics in the design of all educational products and environments [3]. This paper has been designed to provide an overview about the curriculum paradigm consisting in the fusion of the technology and the classroom instruction in economic higher education.information gap, concept map, active learning design, student-centred learning

‘Future Bathroom’, What to make? Or How to Make? Challenges in meeting sustainable needs.

This paper is a case study that describes a design research programme, ‘the future bathroom’, undertaken by the authors which illuminates both challenges and solutions for inclusive and sustainable design. A co-design research methodology was adopted and engaged older users and community lay researchers to help overcome the barriers of developing a comprehensive understanding of the issues related to highly personal, private and intimate activities. We adopt the term co-design to describe an approach to design that encourages both user involvement and interdisciplinary design. Our challenge has been to provide an environment where an exchange of ideas between stakeholders could take place and to foster what Manzini (1) has referred to as a ‘creative community’. From the project emerged both insight and understanding of age related disability and bathroom use and potential design solutions to support these needs. Adopting an inclusive approach to design research we have developed flexible, durable and sustainable solutions that meet the diverse and changing needs of bathroom usage The paper discusses how sustainability in the context of inclusive design might need to consider more ‘what we should make’ rather than ‘how we should make’

Digital Barriers: Making Technology Work for People

This paper was originally given as an oral presentation at the ‘3rd International Conference for Universal Design’, International Association for Universal Design, Hamamatsu, Japan (2010) and subsequently published. Peer reviewed by the conference’s International Scientific Committee, it looks at how the emerging techniques of design ethnography could be applied in a business context and qualitatively evaluates the benefits. It outlines the differences between inclusive design research conducted for digital devices/services and the large body of existing research on inclusive products, buildings and environments. It advances the view that technology companies are today in danger of repeating the same inclusive design mistakes made by kitchen and bathroom manufacturers 20 years ago, and calls for technology companies to develop new techniques to avoid this happening. The paper charts in detail the challenges and processes involved in transferring academic inclusive design research into the business arena, describing research conducted by Gheerawo and his co-authors on projects with research partners Samsung and BlackBerry. The paper helped define the ‘people and technology’ research theme in the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design’s Age & Ability Research Lab, which Gheerawo leads. It was also important, as part of evidence of the benefits of an inclusive technology approach, in persuading a number of companies (Sony, BT, Samsung) to undertake new studies with the Lab. Gheerawo used this pathfinder paper in further work, including an essay on digital communication for www.designingwithpeople.org (i-Design3 project EPSRC), membership of the steering committee for Age UK’s Engage accreditation for business, and lectures at ‘CitiesforAll’ conference, Helsinki (2012), ‘WorkTech’, London (2010), ‘Budapest Design Week’ (2011) and the ‘Business of Ageing’ conference, Dublin (2011). Gheerawo also co-wrote an article ‘Moving towards an encompassing universal design approach in ICT’ in The Journal of Usability Studies (2010), for which he was also a guest editor

Inclusive design and making in practice: Bringing bodily experience into closer contact with making

This paper develops our understanding of the nature of inclusive design, first through critique of controversies that to some degree downplay inclusive design as a distinct design movement. Attentive of these criticisms we then observe designer-making practices in two cases, which respect individual difference and encourage a more material mode of participation. By bringing the bodily experience of people with (dis)abilities more closely into their own design processes we see positive characteristics and advantage in inclusive design’s closer connections with making. This research advocates the expansion of inclusive design into a more material, inclusive designer-making movement, to acknowledge the universal problem of designing for everyone’s unique difference

Inclusive design for air travel

(Inclusive design in air travel by baird L and Dong H) This paper addresses the issue of inclusive design in air travel. Firstly the scale of the problem is defined with reference to passenger demographics, and the different stages of a typical commercial air travel. The relevant government legislation is described, with particular emphasis on the new EU Regulation that requires special assistance to be provided to any passenger who requests it. An assessment of current practices in the air travel industry indicates that existing guidelines are having little impact on design practice. Similarly, an analysis of the major stakeholders in the air travel industry illustrates that a number of different parties are involved in the design and management of a typical journey. The study identifies the needs to reduce the number of passengers who require special assistance through inclusive design. The future directions, which include empirical work, case studies and the possible development of an information tool aimed at the industry are described