{"id":16194,"date":"2022-06-14T17:07:54","date_gmt":"2022-06-14T17:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uxmag.com\/?p=16194"},"modified":"2022-06-14T17:07:57","modified_gmt":"2022-06-14T17:07:57","slug":"human-centered-prototyping-starts-with-respect-for-human-capacities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uxmag.com\/articles\/human-centered-prototyping-starts-with-respect-for-human-capacities","title":{"rendered":"Human-Centered Prototyping Starts With Respect For Human Capacities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When working on accessible design projects, people often centre their discussions on defining impairments and how to use technologies and services to bridge the gap between such impaired capacities and \u201cnormal\u201d capacities. This is a deficit model of design. Design fixing human failings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What this model fails to notice is that the gap is not between impairment and normal. It\u2019s in understanding the networks of many different arrangements of capacities. People’s autonomy is in their capacities not in their impairments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ideas I\u2019m talking about in this short post are about human-centred prototype design and how it must seek to understand how capacities, capabilities and autonomy interact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research Capacities<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I have an inclusive design book that is filled with research into the statistical distribution of many forms of physical and cognitive impairment. It lists off a vast number of forms of disability and the probability of people having them in different populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s helpful for thinking about the general environment of human-centred design but not actually helpful in doing it. That\u2019s because humans are generally using their capacities, not their impairments, to do the things they want to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researching capacities is important because you need to learn how differing levels of impairment lead to so many ways of achieving successful outcomes. Recognising the diversity of solutions that come from personal divergence. You cannot design solutions without aligning them with the way people live their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In doing this it is also important to remember that some physical and cognitive impairments are not viewed as deficits but as part of what makes the person themself. It is easy for the medical diagnostic model of disability (with all its language and statistics) to obcsure both the social model and identification models of disability (with their sense of community and culture). There are lots of models of disability described here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listening to disabled people and hearing their lived experiences is crucial to understand capacities and the meaning of impairments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider Capabilities<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Centred on human capacities, the next layer to think about is capabilities. These are ways in which we enhance people in the achievement of their desired outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capabilities can include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n