Innovative inclusion
Disabled-led designs that draw on the experience of their creators to make life easier and more accessible are celebrated in an exhibition that explores how design can be made more equitable. Design and Disability at V&A Dundee highlights the unique perspective disabled inventors can bring to creating products that address real-world challenges.
The objects on display include adaptive clothing from Unhidden, which makes it easier for people using medical equipment such as stoma bags. There’s a leather airline seat designed to help neurodivergent plane passengers. Created by Jamie O’Donnell, it features calming colours and textured material that provides sensory feedback.
And the exhibition also features Artistry Made Easy make-up brushes by Guide Beauty, which have enlarged handles and finger indentations to help user with limited dexterity and tremors.
The introduction to the exhibition, which runs until 4 October, says: “Design shapes all aspects of our lives, contributing fundamentally to how we experience the world, shaping our values, our aspirations and our identities. But from the pavements we walk on to the tools we use, the designed world has often prioritised certain people’s needs over others.
“Disabled, Deaf and Neurodivergent people have always challenged and confronted the imbalance of design in society, making our designed world more just, accessible and joyful for everyone. Design and Disability explored design approaches developed within Disabled communities and by listening to the lived experiences of disabled users.”
