Accesible co-creation tools for people with intellectual disabilities: working for and with end-users

Abstract

In a world defined by rapid change, the search for solutions to societal challenges has become more complex calling for new paradigms of innovation focused on collaborations with the community and users. Co-creation approaches in the design and production of a service or product can bring low-cost innovation and unique and personalized customer experiences leading to user acceptance of a product or service. Under a co-creation perspective, the participatory approach developed in the MINDInclusion project aims to improve the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities into public places and society by using a co-created online tool based on people with disabilities’ personal experiences. Paying special attention to the Design thinking method, the main goal of this experience was to co-create cognitive accessible design tools that guide the collection of users and other stakeholders experiences in the process of defining problems and solutions. To this end, 14 researchers and educators worked defining together a set of guiding exercises and design thinking methods for the 4 co-design cycles. To add an interactive and playful approach two tools were created to gather information to recreate as a final output “personas scenarios”, an “empathy map” and expected “use scenarios” that will guide the development of the web-tool based on user-centred specifications. The results have shown two tools. The former was an adapted game board about public places based on the traditional monopoly game and the latter a diary with a set of activities that will facilitate the collection of contextual information. Previous experiences have shown that co-design process can promote greater social cohesion, acceptance and empowerment. However, working with people with intellectual disability presents several challenges since the co-creation process needs to be cognitive accessible. This experience resulted in the creation of two cognitive accessible tools that can be extrapolated to other contexts.