Eye­glasses have been trans­formed from med­ical neces­sity to fash­ion acces­sory. This rev­o­lu­tion has come about through embrac­ing the design cul­ture of the fash­ion indus­try. Why shouldn’t design sen­si­bil­i­ties also be applied to hear­ing aids, pros­thetic limbs, and com­mu­ni­ca­tion aids? In return, dis­abil­ity can pro­voke rad­i­cal new direc­tions in main­stream design. Charles and Ray Eames’s iconic fur­ni­ture was inspired by a molded ply­wood leg splint that they designed for injured and dis­abled ser­vice­men. Design­ers today could be sim­i­larly inspired by disability.

In Design Meets Dis­abil­ity, Gra­ham Pullin shows us how design and dis­abil­ity can inspire each other. In the Eame­ses’ work there was a healthy ten­sion between cut-to-the-chase prob­lem solv­ing and more play­ful explo­rations. Pullin offers exam­ples of how design can meet dis­abil­ity today. Why, he asks, shouldn’t hear­ing aids be as fash­ion­able as eye­wear? What new forms of braille sig­nage might pro­lif­er­ate if design­ers kept both sighted and visu­ally impaired peo­ple in mind? Can sim­ple designs avoid the need for com­pli­cated acces­si­bil­ity fea­tures? Can such emerg­ing design meth­ods as “expe­ri­ence pro­to­typ­ing” and “crit­i­cal design” com­ple­ment clin­i­cal trials?

Pullin also presents a series of inter­views with lead­ing design­ers about spe­cific dis­abil­ity design projects, includ­ing step­stools for peo­ple with restricted growth, pros­thetic legs (and whether they can be both hon­est and beau­ti­fully designed), and text-to-speech tech­nol­ogy with tone of voice. When design meets dis­abil­ity, the diver­sity of com­ple­men­tary, even con­tra­dic­tory, approaches can enrich each field.