Social Responsibility

As designers, it is our responsibility to solve some of the worlds problems. Sometimes we have to step back and understand who we are trying to help. It is extremely important to know when to act and when to stop and listen.

For this project I wanted to help people with disabilities who use wheelchairs. Designers have a tendency to be ableist with their designs and this ends up stripping the people they are designing for of their independence. My goal was to help make life easier for wheelchair users without robbing them of their independence.

My work on this project has earned me the Social Responsibility Award from the University of Illinois at Chicago as well as the Judge’s Choice Award from Professor Stephen Melamed, one of the founding chairs of UIC’s Industrial Design Program. As I am in the process of patenting this product I am unable to share much about it. Hopefully I will be able to share it soon.