Design Innovation for Disability

My final thesis this year will be working with (and for) a disabled community in Kasese, Uganda. It's a really exciting project because I've never done anything in this area before, and I chose it because of the challenge of doing something different.

The project description went like this:

Theme: Design for Low Income Communities
This is a collaborative design project between CanUgan, Read Initiative and the School of Industrial Design. Students will work on designing products related to disability in the rural African district of Kasese in Uganda. The main focus will be design of a tricycle and related products tat will be built locally in Kasese utilizing very simple manufacturing means... There are design opportunities both for improving the existing product, associated products and tools and fixtures  The project is suitable for students who are interested in co-developing design with people in developing countries taking into consideration the context of their cultural, economic, environmental and technical knowledge and input. Interested students are scheduled to travel to Uganda and meet with end users and the manufacturer in Kasese.

It's been a few weeks now of narrowing down to an area of focus for me and my team. Sometimes I fall under the lure of the "naive-designer-optimism-syndrome" so it's been a shapeshifting few weeks for me. But! Today! We've settled that we would all work together on the tricycle with a specific individual focus on certain areas in which the outcome (pertaining to that area) will not only improve the tricycle but consequentially lead to an increased potential capacity outside of just the tricycle as a method of mobility. In fewer terms, we each hope to hit two birds with one stone. With the four of us, that's eight birds and four stones!

I'm looking into the power train of the handbike and improving it in a way that will create a better driving tricycle as well as source of power for tools (and things). For example: farming, processing grain, water, very low tech items such as light,  etc.! We'll see how things go.

As I am currently the biggest bicycle noob, tomorrow I will be visiting a bike enthusiast and drilling him with stupid questions. Wish me luck!



Currently, in Kasese, they have these:

A hand tricycle manufactured by one man in the community, and each one is a one-off.



And here are some really great case studies (and inspiration) of similar ongoing projects in Africa that we learned a lot from:

Cooper-Hewitt's Design for the Other 90% really helped me to understand how different designing for low income communities will be. http://www.designother90.org/

The Leveraged Freedom Chair, MIT x Continuum, What can go wrong?
http://gogrit.org/lfc/ and core77.

Whirlwind Wheelchairs, including manuals and how-to build videos
http://www.whirlwindwheelchair.org/


"Bicimaquinas" (pedal powered machines)
http://www.mayapedal.org/, core77