Universal Design and Assistive Technology
Hua Dong of Brunel University in the UK, has written several book chapters addressing equipment design. He contends that as design generally does not cater people with disabilities, 'special' equipment (assistive technology) must then be designed at greater cost and with less availability. His work includes a description of 'critical user forums' which he believes are central to innovative design,and current approaches to designing for ergonomic diversity.
In the first text, he writes:
'Conventional HFE (human factors and ergonomics) is often applied to design for the vast majority of a target population (95%, excluding the 5% or the 95% 'tail' in the curve) rather than everyone. Such an approach leaves some reliant on assistive devices to perform at acceptable levels and completely excludes other, for instance those with the greatest physical or cognitive limitations'. (p66)
'There has been a shift from designing special aids and equipment for disabled people (an Assistive Technology Approach), to designing mainstream products for as many people as possible (a Universal Design Approach), and the boundary of the two approaches are increasingly becoming blurred when the rapidly evolving technologies bring new opportunities which challenge the conventional understanding of Assistive Technology and Universal Design' (p67).
'When an assistive technology becomes so cheap that everybody can afford it, it will become 'universal' and mass-produced; and the mainstream aesthetics of Universal Design will make ;adaptation; as easy and desirable as 'personalisation' (p 69)
The author talks about requiring a 'deep understanding of diversity' to support design, and explains why an optimal approach to design is integrative - in order to include the most; even if there is an 'exclusion' , the exclusion is informed rather than random (p70)
REFERENCE: Dong, H. (2007). Shifting Paradigms in Universal Design. In C. Stephanidis (Ed.), In Universal Acess in Human Computer Interaction: Coping with Diversity (pp. 66-74). Berlin Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.
In the following chapter of the second text, the author presents a model for bringing industry into the inclusive design world. It presents pratical examples of inclusively designed hand tools and kettles and describes how they were brought to market.
REFERENCE: Dong, H., Cassim, J., & Coleman, R. (2006). Addressing the Challenges of Inclusive Design: A Case Study Approach In C. Stephanidis (Ed.), Universal Access in Ambient Intelligence Environments (pp. 273-286). Berlin: Springer-Verlag