Category Archives: Experience Disability

Assistance – On the History of Assistive Ensembles

Posted on March 12, 2021 by designabilities

The category of assistive technologies is often discussed as a political category (Alper 2017), as they invoke connotations such as “in need of help” with respect to the respective users* (Mills 2015; Kotsch 2012; Ott 2014). In the 2nd convention … Continue reading →

Posted in accessible, alternative communication, augmentative communication, body, care, Conference, deaf, Design History, disability aesthetics, disability studies, Diversity, education, Enhancement, event, Experience Disability, Health, interaction, STS, universal design | Tagged Access, Access Studies, Accessibility, barrierefrei, Critical Media Studies, Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft, dfg, Digital Media, disability, disability studies, Leuphana, Medienwissenschaften, Meryl Alper, Northeastern University | Leave a comment

»Sein eigener Designer sein«. Wie Mike als Behinderter seinen Alltag gestaltet.

Posted on March 28, 2020 by designabilities

von Noëmi Burkhalter Sich im Alltag frei bewegen zu können, alles selbständig zu erledigen und zu unternehmen, was man möchte, ist für viele von uns eine Selbstverständlichkeit. Doch was geschieht, wenn durch eine unheilbare Krankheit alltägliche Handlungen zu einer grossen … Continue reading →

Posted in accessible, awareness, care, co-design, disability aesthetics, disability studies, Diversity, Experience Disability, german/deutsch, Health | Tagged barrierefrei, behinderung, disability, Exklusion, inklusion, Margot Schild, michael erlhoff, Muskelatrophie, Muskelschwund, nid, Noëmi Burkhalter, Non-intentional Design, Uta Brandes | 2 Comments

Touching new ways of commincation for 2012 and beyond….

Posted on December 28, 2011 by designabilities

Dear friends Liebe Freunde Caras amigos A healthy, successful and happy 2012 to all of you (especially those we haven’t met this year)! Euch allen (insbesondere denen, die wir in diesem Jahr leider nicht treffen konnten) sowie einen sicheren Rutsch … Continue reading →

Posted in accessible, blind, body, care, deaf, design project, design research, design study, embodiment, Experience Disability, prototyping, research, social design, sustainability and social innovation, tactile communication, team | Leave a comment

Tom Shakespeare speaks at our Research Colloquium (on 2nd of august)

Posted on July 20, 2010 by designabilities

This august is full of interesting guest speakers. Before Graham Pullin (august 9) and Tuuli Mattelmäki (august 23) come to talk at T-Labs’ Research Colloquium, we are happy to have Tom Shakespeare speaking on “What do we need to know … Continue reading →

Posted in accessible, activism, alternative communication, augmentative communication, event, Experience Disability, people, philosophie, research | Tagged design research lab, Deutsche Telekom Laboratories, T-Labs, tom bieling, Tom Shakespeare | Comments Off

Experience research live at 4010

Posted on April 14, 2010 by designabilities

Next Week (April 21, 2010 at 7 p.m.) we will present some insights from our research process of the project speechless. Entrance is free; refreshments will be provided We are looking forward to seeing you there! Presentation “Speechless – Researching … Continue reading →

Posted in alternative communication, augmentative communication, blind, Capability Simulation, co-design, deaf, design project, design research, design study, event, exhibition, Experience Disability, interaction, research | Comments Off

Prototyping in SecondLife – Experiencing Disability for optimizing Accessibility

Posted on March 18, 2010 by designabilities

Lloyd, Birchler and Perry developed a multimedia prototype of a virtual reality application for the NCA (National Center on Accessibility). The application would allow participants to explore issues of accessibility within public parks and recreation areas. The used Second Life … Continue reading →

Posted in accessible, Experience Disability, prototyping, virtual reality | Leave a comment

Exploring Disability – The hard way ;-/

Posted on January 22, 2010 by designabilities

Rough suggestions for wrong parking offenders on this inofficial traffic sign: via: Ehrensenf

Posted in Experience Disability, visual communication | Comments Off

One Day blind in Berlin

Posted on January 5, 2010 by designabilities

Check out our video from our Self Experience “One Day blind in Berlin” (we reported from it in november here!): How do blind people navigate in public areas? How do sighted people react on a blind person? How does it … Continue reading →

Posted in blind, Capability Simulation, design research, Experience Disability, Film, movie, senses | Comments Off

THISABILITY vs. DISABILITY

Posted on December 28, 2009 by designabilities

What a pity, that we missed last year’s electronic art exhibion thisAbility vs. Disability – Looking at Disability through Creative Senses in Seoul. The exhibition presented ten interactive electronic art installations examining themes of human capability through creative transition of … Continue reading →

Posted in blind, deaf, design project, embodiment, exhibition, Experience Disability, interaction, multimodality | Comments Off

Selfexperience Day

Posted on November 16, 2009 by sarahschipper

Last week, we went out on the street trying to find our way and find out more about being blind in public. We called it our selfexperience day, on which we explored orientation and navigation in Berlin with a white … Continue reading →

Posted in blind, design research, design study, Experience Disability, report, tactile communication | 1 Comment

Not all hollow words… (Nicht nur Schall und Rauch…)

Posted on September 28, 2009 by sarahschipper

That`s what my first talk with a deaf person looks like. Actually looks like! In the long run, it would cost a big amount of paper and pens, and lost of patients to communicate that way. Lots of details … Continue reading →

Posted in alternative communication, deaf, Experience Disability | Leave a comment

Sprachlos/Speechless in DGS

Posted on September 24, 2009 by sarahschipper

Thats what Sprachlos/Speechless looks like in german sign language (DGS). I took pictures with the software of the “Wörterbuch der deutschen Gebärdensprache”. I´m not sure if the whole sign is recognizable in these pictures. [pictures: Kestner Verlag]

Posted in alternative communication, deaf, Experience Disability | Comments Off

Easy signs

Posted on September 24, 2009 by sarahschipper

Finally I got to install the “Wörterbuch der Deutschen Gebärdensprache”. As recommended to us, it is really easy to use and gives a great overview on how substantial and complex the german sign language (DGS) is. Still, I found some … Continue reading →

Posted in deaf, Experience Disability | Leave a comment

Experience Disability to inform interaction design

Posted on September 1, 2009 by designabilities

As we already mentioned, we sometimes use capability simulation in order to think about interaction in terms of disabilty. That means, we try to (make people) experience certain “disabilities” in order to rethink concepts of interaction design. By systematically reducing … Continue reading →

Posted in Capability Simulation, Experience Disability, reciprocal learning | Leave a comment

Welcome to DESIGNABILITIES!

Posted on June 1, 2009 by designabilities

… a research blog developed and run at

Posted in accessible, activism, advertisement, age, alternative communication, architecture, art, augmentative communication, awareness, bioethic, blind, blog, body, body modification, Calendar, Capability Simulation, care, co-design, comedy, Conference, cyborg, cymatics, deaf, deaf-blind, Definitions, demenz, design project, design research, design study, designwissenschaft, disability aesthetics, disability studies, echolocation, education, embodiment, Enhancement, event, exhibition, Experience Disability, fashion, Film, freak, game, gender, german/deutsch, graphic, humor, illiteracy, implants, interaction, interview, jewelery, jobs, Literature, movie, multimodality, music, neuroscience, people, performance, philodhopir, philosophie, photography, playful interaction, Politik, pop culture, posthumanism, prosthetics, prototyping, quote, reciprocal learning, report, research, senses, social design, sound, STS, sustainability and social innovation, synaesthesia, tactile communication, tangible interaction, team, toy, Transhumanity, typo, Uncategorized, universal design, virtual reality, visual communication | Tagged AAC, activism, aktivismus, Architektur, augmentative, Ökonomiekritik, barrierefrei, Bürgerwissenschaft, behinderung, blind, blind view, body, braille, Citizen Science, communication, deaf, deafblind, design, design for all, design research, design research lab, designabilities, designability, Designforschung, disability, fankultur, gebärdensprache, gehörlos, gesche joost, hci, inclusion, inclusive design, inklusion, interaction, interface, journal, Konsumkritik, kunst, lorm, participatory design, partizipation, perzeption, politik, Pop, Protest, protestkultur, science, sign language, silent talk, social design, social innovation, social integration, Soziotechnik, special needs, speechless, Stadt, Stadtsoziologie, STS, Techinksozoiologie, technology, teilhabe, Theorie, tom bieling, universal design, unterstützte kommunikation, Urbanism, usability, visual communication | Comments Off