Designing for Bespoke solutions

From gratifying sexual positioning to a hospital gown which doesn’t leave your dignity in shreds, Mike Shamash checks out a variety of products designed with disability in mind and on show at a mainstream design exhibition

As disabled people, we’re made aware of how the world around us is not something that emerges organically out of nothing but is something that is constructed by human beings for human beings. Sadly, those doing the designing and constructing of this world pay little attention to the needs of those with different physical and sensory needs. Design becomes yet another barrier.

I was made aware of these feelings when I went to see the 2011 Brit Assurance Designs of the Year show at the Design Museum in London.

I was expecting to see a range of beautifully designed products that do not acknowledge the existence of disability. I was pleasantly surprised to see a small cluster of products that were specifically designed for the disabled person.

The first product that I came across was the Leveraged Freedom Chair that was designed in the USA but in conjunction with organisations of disabled people in Kenya, India and Guatemala. This is a wheelchair that is designed with a levered gear for outdoor use, that attached to the bicycle drivetrain means that it can go over rough terrain more suited to the mountain bike from which it borrows much of its technology. The gears can be detached and stored within the frame, making it a conventional wheelchair for indoor use. The components used are cheap, widely available bike parts but the end result isn’t simply liberating it’s also a funky bit of kit.

Adjacent to it is the British designed One Arm Drive System which is an elegant wheelchair that can be driven from one side, making it ideal for people with limited mobility or with only the use of one arm. This is much more the high-tech designer end of the mobility products market, with the components being high quality aluminium using the latest technology and with the option of further levels of customisation as required. Both these products offer massively contrasting solutions to ensuring good design becomes an integral part of the large and largely ignored disability products market. Though disability is global it exists within differing cultural and economic contexts.

The purpose of the next product I saw was initially unclear. It looked like a rather elegant bench with a chair that could be moved by a gentle gliding motion. This is the IntimateRider which is a product that aims to enhance sexual positioning and mobility for those with little or no lower body movement. The gentle swaying motion provides enough leverage to guarantee comfortable sexual positioning. It is designed by an American designer, Alan Tholkes, a quadriplegic for his own personal use. It is lightweight and can be packed in a compact carry case. There is also a supporting website and online blog to allow fuller examination and discussion. It is a wonderful concept that is stylish and provides an answer to a problem that a conventional able-bodied designer could not even contemplate, or for which many might well be too prudish to design a solution. Good design should improve the sum total of people’s lives and this does it in spades.

Two other designs that address particular issues faced by disabled people throughout the world are See Better to Learn Better and the Universal Gown.

See Better to Learn Better is a design jointly evolved in the USA and Mexico. The aim is to provide through the Mexican government free eye tests for young people and the provision of attractively designed specs. The young people could choose the colour and design. This in turn would ensure that educational opportunities weren’t hindered by poor vision. The aesthetic appeal becomes a means of social equality. All too often the little good design for disability products is available only for the affluent few. This design challenges this assumption.

The Universal Gown’s a hospital gown that is fastened by press studs at both sides and across the shoulder so that patients are not exposed in an undignified and demeaning manner. It has been designed by the British fashion designer, Ben de Lisi, for comfort and ease of movement. It is reversible and extra panels can be added to clothe the larger patient.

These are designs that are elegant solutions to specific problems and all challenge the norm of disability being ugly and hence every product has to be grey or beige and unwieldy or ill-fitting. There is still much work to be done to respond to the specific needs of disabled people. Areas such as furniture and fashion design still seem inured to the wishes of the physically diverse. Yet, in these particular designs I am aware that an awakening has begun. About time too!