Inclusive Design

It is estimated that by the year 2025, over 6 million older people will be suffering from age related chronic diseases or disabilities such as Alzheimer’s or Osteoporosis. As the number of older people within our population continues to increase, it is more important than ever that we develop effective, affordable and user friendly assisted living technology that could help to make everyday life easier for older and chronically ill people.

Designing assistive technology can be complicated as each individual has different needs and abilities. Assistive technology design is also tricky because the people who design and create these products are often very different from the people who will actually end up using them. This can mean that designers don’t always fully appreciate the needs and wants of consumers. Consequently, assistive technology products often appear ugly and unwieldy which means that many people are reluctant to use them.
There is clearly a need to research and develop new and creative ways of designing more user-friendly assistive technology that considers not only the needs but also the wants of consumers. Bath Research and Development (BRD) are committed to finding novel and innovative ways to promote inclusive design and encourage good health and independent living among older persons. Here are a few approaches we have successfully explored so far:

Apps

If Only is an app developed by BRD that invites older and disabled persons to share practical problems they face around the home by uploading videos of these issues to our app. Designers are invited to view these videos and are encouraged to enter our competition and have a go at designing innovative products that could solve these problems. ‘IfOnly’ gives older and disabled users a chance to show designers what is important to them as well as providing designers some insight into their lives and the practical challenges they face. If you or someone you know would like to get involved a make a video please click here.

Patient Public Involvement

BRD believes that patients and the public have the right to know about research and the development of new technology that could affect them. We also think that the public should be given the opportunity to get involved with our research projects, as they provide valuable feedback which can improve our research and consequently the technology we develop. BRD runs several panels where we ask patients and members of the public what they think about our research projects. Members give their opinions on issues such as; whether they think the research project is relevant, if it is important and if it’s designed well.

Using films for dissemination of results

We firmly believe that the results of our research into the development of assistive technology and independent living should be easily available and accessible to everyone, including clinicians and members of the public. Often people don’t have the time or access to academic journals where research results are traditionally disseminated. BRD is exploring the concept of using short films to circulate research findings and developments in an efficient and understandable manner.

For further information please contact Sarah Moore on participate@bath.ac.uk or 01225 385951