Design Meets Disability

  • Graham Pullin | Lecturer, Interactive Media Design, University of Dundee

Eyeglasses have been transformed from medical necessity to fashion accessory. This revolution came about through embracing the design culture of the fashion industry. Why shouldn’t design sensibilities also be applied to hearing aids, synthetic limbs and communication aids? In return disability can provoke radical new directions in mainstream design. In fact, design and disability can inspire each other: Charles and Ray Eames’s iconic furniture was inspired by a molded plywood leg splint they designed for injured and disabled servicemen. When design meets disability, the diversity of complementary, even contradictory approaches can enrich each field.

Speaker Details

Graham Pullin is a lecturer in Interactive Media Design at the University of Dundee, Scotland. Prior to this appointment he was a Senior Interaction Designer and Studio head at IDEO, one of the world’s leading design constituencies and at the Bath Institute of Medical Engineering, a prominent rehabilitation center in the United Kingdom. He has designed everything from mobile phones, hearing aids, furniture for children with disabilities and remote control submarines.The full schedule of upcoming talks in the Microsoft Research Visiting Speaker Series is available here: http://sharepoint/sites/visitingspeaker/default.aspx

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