Empowerment of people of all abilities

For my master thesis, I sought ways to redefine disability, by focusing on people with lower limb amputations. I focused on the most troublesome part of their daily interaction with a prosthesis, which is the socket.
My primary concern was to improve the experience with the socket, as it is where prosthesis attaches to the body. I looked at disability, prosthetics, body image, identity, and loss. After an amputation surgery, people experience a grief that is comparable to the loss of a loved one. Historically, some people deal with grief by creating and performing rituals.

The double diamond graph which helped me identify design opportunity. First diamond shows general research, with words: Disability, Prosthetics, Body Image, Empowerment, Trauna/Grief, Acceptance, Self-help, Biases, and Identity. The second diamond s…

The circle graph which shows 8 design methods I used during this project. Which were: contextual interviews, phone interviews, a day in the life, experiments, co-creations, observation, personification, secondary research.

I have talked with several people with amputations, as well as physicians, prosthetists, and peer visitors from amputee support groups. Through my research process, I began to understand the challenges and opportunities to facilitate empowerment. I divided my actions into four types of empowerment: control of the action, acceptance of one’s current state, elimination of social biases and access to resources.

Circle with word Empowerment in the center. The circle is divided to 4 parts each includes one of a four types of empowerment from my thesis, which are: having control over life, providing acceptance, redefining disability, and access to resources.

I address these four areas of empowerment through the design of a system of support that contains important resources and a care tool-kit. The kit is embedded with tools for healing rituals that help an individual gain acceptance when dealing with grief. In the Declaration I communicate that disability happens between human and environment — which can be physical or social. In addition it is necessary to initiate social change by promoting a new outlook in society as we all have various abilities and we all are #variable. Empowerment of people of all abilities is focusing on embracing atypical strengths and to alter the perception of disability. The goal is to promote accessibility and design for people of all abilities. Good design should take into account diverse audiences. If you design for those for whom the activity is difficult and make it easy, you design well for everyone.

The graph showing the 4 types of empowerment addressed by the functional kit with embedded ritual, EMPEER platform, and Variable declaration

Current transition

The image outlines the current journey from before the amputation surgery to setting a new routine – highlighting the problems

Transition with proactive system

The image shows the journey from before the surgery to new routine with proactive system which helps with transition and addresses pain points

Tool kit

Despite having three dimensional form; toolkit unzips to a flat mat that contain organized tools in a functional order, provides a working surface, and encourages keeping a self-report journal, which can either be a notebook, voice recording or Empeer app platform entry. Tools are designed to serve the purpose of building a better relationship with their own body. A towel in the form of a mitten adds a layer of intimacy into drying the residual limb along with providing a safe and easy tool to desensitize post amputation wounds. The form of the kit, intentionally does not resembles medical equipment, to avoid looking stigmatizing.