Maker Faire Rome 2023
Io creo il mio device
e-Nable Italia is a community of volunteers focused on the development, construction and free distribution of devices (the "devices", aids based on "Open Source" projects) to anyone who has limb difference problems or needs aids, the initiative is promoted and managed by the Energy Family Project APS, the Italian association of families with children with agenesis and limb amputation problems. "I create my device" is an experimental project based on the concept of "disablity led design", a new approach to the design of aids that can actively involve children/users in the creative design process of their help. This approach goes beyond the simple participation of the user, that becomes the starting point and essential contributor to the project. In contrast to the other approaches, disability-led design “seeks to speculatively respond to, amplify, or celebrate some aspect of the identity and culture of people with disabilities. The outcomes of disability-led design are characterized by a change in the way we perceive and interact with a category of object, space or system, and by a consequent change in the meaning assigned to it” (National Endowment for the Arts, 2021, p .23). Through some creative sessions activated with the children of the families of the association the children were encouraged to generate ideas for new devices that the community of volunteers would subsequently implement. The devices imagined by children are the result of their creativity and will respond to needs that are important to them. At the Maker Faire stand we would like to exhibit both some of these devices designed directly by children, but also the entire design process as the application of an approach which involves a transfer of design power from the designer to the end user, with a consequent change in conception and perception of the prosthetic object as part of the "self" system, as well as in the meaning that this assumes as a manifestation of self-determination of the disabled user.
https://e-nableitalia.it
Additional Project Photos
Maker
Energy Family Project APS (e-Nable Italia)
Paride Duello is a designer and currently PhD candidate at the Department of Planning, Design and Technology of Architecture of Sapienza University of Rome. His research is focused on the relationship between design and disability and in particular on the concept of Disability led Design: an approach that sees the community of people with disabilities as a resource to enhance the design process and make it accessible right from the conception phase. He received his bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design and his master's degree in Product Design, from Sapienza University of Rome.
