Codesign with people living with cognitive or sensory impairments: a case for method stories and uniqueness

Abstract

Codesign with people living with cognitive or sensory impairments poses challenges for researchers and designers, due to differences in their mutual experiences and due to the fact that many well-established codesign methods and techniques may not be appropriate and need adjustment. This paper describes a search for an appropriate, dedicated methodological approach for involving people living with impairments in codesign projects. Based on both existing literature and on a series of three academic workshops, we aimed to understand how researchers and designers adjust common codesign techniques and to derive general principles from those adjustments. During our search for a dedicated codesign approach, however, we came to change our view, and therefore our aims. The outcomes of the workshops, more specifically the identification of common challenges that researchers and designers experience, showed that such a dedicated approach may not be the best way to advance the field of codesign methods for people living with impairments. Instead, we now advocate a highly individual approach towards adjusting codesign techniques. In addition, we suggest a new tradition of sharing experiences in order for researchers and designers to learn from one another in the form of method stories.

Keywords::

• codesign techniques
• cognitive impairments
• sensory impairments
• method stories

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the participants in our workshops who have openly shared their work, their successes and their failures. Each of their individual contributions has helped us to better understand the facets of codesign with people living with cognitive or sensory impairments. The discussions in the workshops have played a pivotal role in the development of our views on this topic.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.