Abstract
This study investigates the extent of the empowering effects of making and collective production activities on people with disabilities and the assistive products they use. The universal and participatory design approaches intend to empower people with disabilities, but how a person with a disability can be empowered, and the requirements for it are highly dependent on the individual and the context. The research utilizes the elements of The Empowerment Theory to assess the resulting empowerment of participants’ making-related experiences. Semi-structured interviews and participant observations were conducted to understand the role of making and collective production activities in enabling the participation of people with disabilities in designing, adapting, and making their own assistive products. Analyzing the disability-related making activities through the lens of a social empowerment theory allows this study to contribute to empowering people with disabilities by defining the current barriers on their participation and understanding the effect of making.
Keywords
empowerment; participatory design; assistive products; disability
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.927
Citation
Canlar, K., and Doğan, Ç. (2024) Empowerment of people with disabilities through collaborative making: Exploring user involvement in designing and adapting assistive products, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.927
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Empowerment of people with disabilities through collaborative making: Exploring user involvement in designing and adapting assistive products
This study investigates the extent of the empowering effects of making and collective production activities on people with disabilities and the assistive products they use. The universal and participatory design approaches intend to empower people with disabilities, but how a person with a disability can be empowered, and the requirements for it are highly dependent on the individual and the context. The research utilizes the elements of The Empowerment Theory to assess the resulting empowerment of participants’ making-related experiences. Semi-structured interviews and participant observations were conducted to understand the role of making and collective production activities in enabling the participation of people with disabilities in designing, adapting, and making their own assistive products. Analyzing the disability-related making activities through the lens of a social empowerment theory allows this study to contribute to empowering people with disabilities by defining the current barriers on their participation and understanding the effect of making.