Designing for disabled people

A quarter of a million pounds has been granted to researchers seeking to improve the design of new technologies for disabled people.

'The use, role and application of advanced technologies in the lives of disabled people' will be investigated by Professor Jennifer Harris in the School of Education, Social Work and Community Education.

Professor Harris, an expert in the field of social policy for disabled people, says that disabled people are all too frequently an afterthought of design processes.

"There is a tremendous amount of waste in terms of the amount of new equipment that is put into the homes of disabled people and simply isn't used," she said.

"I have for instance seen automatic tin openers that are meant to be designed for use by disabled people but they come with the assumption that you have two working hands to operate the machine."

"Problems like that are all too common, and often there has been the temptation to stick a big bright button on a machine and assume that it can then be operated by someone who is disabled. That isn't enough."

"What we will look at in this project is how the process of design could be more effectively handled and the difference it would make if the end users were involved in the early design stages."

"Disabled people rely on these devices, so it is essential that they work well and are extremely reliable. Those are factors that can only come about through good design, so it is extremely important that it is approached in the right way."

The grant from the Economic and Social Research Council will fund the project over the next two years and involves collaboration between the School of Education, Social Work and Community Education, the School of Nursing and Midwifery and School of Computing.