Engineering Disability
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Engineering and design that considers accessibility and disability can benefit all users. When engineering for disability, it is important to consult people with disabilities and consider the wide range of impairments and capabilities. Universal design aims to make technologies usable by as many people as possible. For example, wheelchair ramps benefit not just those in wheelchairs but also parents with strollers. Engineering and technology designed for disability can drive innovation and create new opportunities to support participation for all.
Engineering Disability
- 1. Engineering to Support Disability Professor Gerard Goggin Dept of Media & Communications University of Sydney @ggoggin
- 2. Insights/opportunities from disability for engineering • disability is part of social life • Designing & engineering for accessibility & diverse needs of people with disabilities • in contemporary societies across the world – esp. in developing world– technology is key to participation • even more with disability, where people often need particular kinds of technology to actually survive – but esp. to communicate/find info – mobile phone is great example of this • But there are many other examples – for example, in the film Fixed
- 3. Disability in society: myths • disability has been thought of something sad, pitiable, catastrophe, deserving of pity, compassion, special treatment for ‘special needs’ • Disability conceived via medical model – i.e. an illness, defect, or health problem to be fixed by treatment (bone correction to ensure normal bodies), (cochlear implant for hearing loss) or aids (walking sticks; calipers; wheelchairs; scooters
- 4. Object of fear, revulsion and disempowerment
- 5. Something exceptional, inspirational and heroic
- 6. disability: how we deal with difference • estimated one in four Australians are regarded as having some form of impairment • Australians with disabilities still face exclusion, discrimination, poverty, and injustice • Stereotypes of disability are still strong -‘if only we could find a cure for it’, ‘better dead than disabled’, ‘I hope I don’t have a child with Down’s’ • yet we will all acquire impairment, and, if we live long enough, will certainly become disabled • the line between who is and who isn’t thought to be disabled is potentially very dynamic – disability is now a mainstream Australian societal & political issue - e.g. National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) - See Goggin & Newell Disability in Australia (2005)
- 12. Source: Violeta Blue Ayalay Facebook post
- 14. disability as social • new approach to disability our social arrangements are often disabling – segregration of people with disabilities in ‘special’ institutions – a man catching a plane who has his cane removed by security can be disabled – lecture theatres that are inaccessible needlessly disable students, lecturers and visitors wishing to participate in event – e-learning environments that don’t have accessible digital technology for all – Villages that don’t have accessible housing or roads
- 15. We will imagine a thousand or more disabled people, all wheelchair-users, collected together and settled in their own village where they had full management and democratic rights … They design their own buildings to suit their physical situation … Soon it becomes standard practice to build doors to a height of 5 feet and ceiling or rooms to a height of 7 feet 4 inches. (Victor Finkelstein 1975)
- 16. Naturally, one of the first things they noticed was the heights of the doors and ceilings. They noticed this directly, by constantly knocking their heads on the door lintels … Soon special aids were designed by the wheelchair-user doctors ... All the able-bodied were given special toughened helmets (provided free by the village) to wear at all times ... (Victor Finkelstein 1975) French access for everyone ad
- 17. engineering to support disability • as engineers you will be engaged in designing, building, implementing projects which people with disabilities (us) will use • So: how will you design, consult with, plan for, test, incorporate the very wide range of people’s impairments, disability, capabilities? • One approach to this is called ‘universal design’: designing for maximal use & participation • If you design for disability, then it support other groups – e.g. lifts on stations – good for parents with strollers, older people, people with luggage • Engineering for disability is not just ‘special’ area – disability offers opportunities for design innovation (cf. Australia’s great technology ‘success story’ – cochlear implant)
- 25. ‘… it was the words of Google co-founder Sergey Brin that most interested me. He said that driverless cars would provide transport to people who can’t drive themselves, such as blind people or those who are physically disabled.’ Sarah Ismail, ‘The Miracle of Driverless Cars’, Google, 28 September 2012
- 29. conclusion • Engineering for disability is now part of engaging with, serving, communicating with community at large • New field of innovative design for disability is not about ‘assistive’ technology or ‘rehabilitation’ engineering – it’s about technology for all - & it’s about innovation See: Goggin, ‘Innovation & Disability’, Jos Bos, Doing Disability Differently, Graham Pullin, Disability Meets Design