Design Meets Disability
I really liked the discussion on the tension between fashion and discretion. Specifically, Graham Pullin shows how glasses become not just an assistive medical device, but it transformed into a fashionable item of “our garderobe”. In my own experience, I have many friends who used to wear glasses without lenses or lenses without dioptri. I chose glasses according to my aesthetic tastes and only then I would think about their practicality and the medical parameters. These examples prove the point made by Pullin and point to the rightness of her arguments.
It is not the first time I have heard that disability is not solely a medical issue. Instead, it stands as a social and cultural one. In the field of disability studies, this is called a medical model.
The Medical Model views disability as resulting from an individual person’s physical or mental limitations, and is not connected to the social or geographical environments. The Medical Model focuses on finding a “cure” or making a person more “normal.”
Having taken a course in disability studies previously, this reading was not really eye-opening to me. However, I understand that the topic of discussion in this article is thought-provoking and relates to our class material a lot. Such question as to how we make designs more accessible is important. I believe we should try and pursue designs that are suitable for everyone. We, as designers, can make things accessible and take action towards building a more inclusive society.