Industrial 
Product
Design

“Cultivating do-it-yourself (DIY)
assistive technology (AT) collective.”

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This PWO (practically oriented scientific research) builds upon the long-standing collaboration between the degrees Industrial Product Design (IPO) and Occupational Therapy within the interdisciplinary research group “design for (every)one” (D4E1).

 

The demand for personalized assistive technology is bigger than the offer that we can process in Howest. The ambition of the project team is to facilitate self-organizing co-design processes between (1) disabled citizens, (2) external makers connected to local FabLabls and (3) professional occupational therapists. A process that - when supported – can run in an integrated and independent way in the society in close collaboration with the current FabLabs in Flanders.

 

This project investigates the thresholds experienced by all stake-holders. We focus on two specific types of cooperation: (1) direct cooperation, being the empowerment of three actors (client, maker, occupational therapist) in their local co-design process and (2)indirect cooperation like connecting the three communities through social media, stimulation the exchange of knowledge / material and matching new volunteers who were initially not involved in the  co-design project.

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PWO (Howest) - Makeability

01/01/2019 - 31/12/2020

 

# human & sustainability driven innovation

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partners: