iDesign Lab

iDesign Lab engages a community of practice in open source technology design, build, and use. We engage communities of practice in collaborative design aiming to increase access to everyday technologies through community ideation and development of ability-focused novel interfaces, the addition of sensors and input devices to existing technologies, and large civic engagement projects. Co-designing empowers everyone. The iDesign Lab is a setting where people of all abilities, caregivers and therapists learn to modify, design and create customized assistive devices and cultivates a ‘makerculture among participants. We form multidisciplinary teams to identify access barriers individuals face in their everyday life, and respond to these inequities by co-designing innovative, low-cost access solutions. Our students take our designed-for-one solutions and generalize designs, promoting inclusive design on a broader scale.