Graham Pullin discusses the assistive technology with the respect of aesthetic designs as well as the functionality in the book Design Meets Disability. She talks about the intersection of design and disability, examining how design can be inclusive and accessible to individuals with disabilities. Importantly, Graham gives a retrospect to how some assistive devices such as glasses have transformed from a mere medical devices to fashionable items and other tensions that exist between design and accessibility. With this, Graham challenges traditional notions of assistive devices and explores the idea that disability should not be viewed solely as a medical problem to be solved but rather as a social and cultural issue that design can address.
For me, this reading is thought-provoking and eye opening. It not only showed me many design examples of daily item, but also inspired me to think about them in the topic of disability. What is so special about disability? How should our designs be adapted to disability? Do they need to look good? Do they need to be simplistic? All these tensions are more complicated when considering the context of disability. Even not in the case of accessibility an disability, the tensions introduced by Graham are worth thinking when concerning good designs. This also reminds me of the previous reading “Do Attractive Things Work Better
. This reading also talks about the relation between aesthetics and functionality. And Graham’s piece seems like an extension to the scope discussed in this reading. And more significantly, Graham’s discussion reveals an important but usually neglected goal of designs, which is advocating for a more inclusive and accessible world.