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CLIENT
CIDNY
ROLE
Design Researcher, Facilitator
​
TEAM
Grace Kwon, Vanessa Yip, Xuan Chen
LOCATION
New York City
Rethinking accessibility of the
New York City transportation system from a disabled lens
Design Research, Facilitation, Co-creation
Disabled people have
long been ignored and excluded from design processes. How can we reimagine them as experts?
BACKGROUND
​People living with disabilities have long been ignored and excluded in the design process of building products, systems and services which have led to not only the emotional pain of exclusion but also immense no. of physical injuries and trauma. In the recent past, while many have been trying to design for them and empathize with the problems they face, my friends and I at the Design for Social Innovation program at SVA wondered how our solutions would change if we included them in our design process. They might not be Designers by profession, but they are living experts and they must be given a seat at the table to make for an inclusive world. For this project, we focused on the issues people living with disabilities face while commuting by public transport in New York City.
RESULTS
​We partnered with CIDNY (Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York) to hold a co-creation workshop the process of improving public transportation services by identifying the needs of those with both visible and invisible disabilities.
ABOUT CIDNY
The Center for Independence of the Disabled is a non profit organization working towards full integration and equal opportunities for disabled people. Over 50% of their employees have disabilities themselves, and most use public transportation every day as an act of political participation. The participants of this session were employees of CIDNY, all of whom are living with mobility and sight based disabilities.
THE SESSION
We designed a co-creation session to understand the challenges different disabled people go through in their daily commute experiences.
Number of Participants
5
Total Duration
60 minutes
1. What place in New York brings you the most joy?
Plot your commute experience from your home to that place in as much detail as you can. Then use the colored stickers to mark difficult or challenging moments during this experience.
We heard stories about constantly being anxious of getting hurt
The group shared stories about how their daily commute experiences were so dangerous. We realized how products, services and systems have been designed in an ignorant way- completely oblivious to the harm it is creating.
“I’d rather be late than fall off the tracks. I've risked my life too often.”
"We are not disabled by our bodies, but by the world around us."
“Every time I go outside
I have to open myself to get hurt.”
2. How would you redesign systems and products to address these challenges? What would your ideal world look like?
How have you or would you hack your way around them? What and how would you design to make your experience better?
They came up with more than 25 simple, thoughtful and innovative redesigns of the trains and platforms that would benefit disabled people.
3. Plot the ideas on the Triangle of Change
Share your ideas and discuss where they live on the Design - Policy - Culture triangle of change so that we can gauge where we need to focus our efforts on.
DEBRIEFING & INSIGHTS
This process opened our eyes to the harm we can create as designers, when we do not include diverse communities in our process.
By inviting community members with disabilities to co-create with us, we came up with over 23 ideas that touched upon policy, culture, and design. With all the ease and utility that comes with tech driven solutions, it’s easy to assume that tech is the solution to mending flaws in the transportation system. However, by drawing out journey maps and listening to experts with lived experiences, many of the potential solutions were instead creative micro-interventions that guided thought toward preventative measures, and therefore helping lessen the chance of injury for these individuals.
The disability-led process changed the way that we work, too. Team member Grace rightly said, "We learned to fall out of love with traditional ‘experts’. It was extremely eye-opening to see and hear ideas from the people who experience barriers to access every day…
Our assumptions and biases towards disability are what blocks our imaginations and creativity when designing with folks with disabilities. The participants were super open to learning design tools to design for their communities; all we needed to do was reach out, involve them in the process and design with them, instead of designing for them."
Big Thanks
To CIDNY & the participants, for letting us hold this workshop and sharing your stories with us.
To Grace, Xuan and Vanessa for your guidance and support throughout this project. I learnt so much from you all!
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