This reading by Graham Pullin was quite interesting. I especially loved how Pullin set up the contrast between the medical model of disability (which focuses on symptoms and the ability/inability to perform certain tasks) and the social model of disability (which views disabilities arising from social barriers that make spaces and conversations inaccessible to people with impairments), and how using fashion for assistive devices addresses the social model. There is a major focus by Pullin to break down the long-held misconception that form does not matter for assistive devices as long as they are capable of performing their specified function in a discrete manner. The goal so far when crafting these devices is to hide them, which only perpetuates the wrong belief that having a disability is shameful.
In that regard, I liked the comparison Pullin drew to eyeglasses. Eyeglasses are technically assistive devices too, and in many cases essential to prevent a disability. Under the medical model, myopia with a power more than -2.5D would pretty much be a disability, as without the help of glasses, people with high myopia are unable to see the world normally. However, glasses, and the fact that glasses are socially acceptable, assist in mitigating the impairment and prevent it from being a disability, pointing to the influence of the social model. Thus, as Pullin points out, there’s an urgent need to reconcile other assistive devices with social acceptability. For that, assistive devices need to be optimized for nor just function but also for form and aesthetic design.
My final point was that while Pullin is making a revolutionary call to include fashion designers and artists into the designing process, there’s one group that he has forgotten. One that is already underrepresented in the assistive device design process: people with disabilities themselves. To make a successful assistive device that has a preferable design, people with disabilities need to be involved at every step, not just as customers.