Pedagogy 2025
Abstract
The (dis)Ability Design Studio serves as a transformative space where students living with disabilities can critically analyze and address challenges within their material environment through thoughtful, empathy-driven design solutions. Simultaneously, able-bodied students engage in an immersive experience that fosters deeper understanding, awareness, and compassion by stepping into another’s lived reality. By shifting the focus toward ability rather than limitation, the studio amplifies innovation and introduces fresh perspectives into discussions surrounding research, education, and creative design. This dynamic exchange of ideas not only enhances accessibility but also enriches the broader discourse on inclusive design practices. This study examines embodied empathy through a self-directed simulation of five Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) while recording task completion times, capturing procedural images, and documenting sensory experiences. The absence of visual feedback resulted in increased cognitive load, physical disorientation, and decreased efficiency, underscoring the complex interplay between non-visual perception, spatial memory, and haptic feedback in routine activities. Tactile, auditory, olfactory, and proprioceptive cues emerged as critical compensatory mechanisms, revealing systematic differences in accuracy and temporal efficiency. Moreover, the experiential component yielded valuable affective insights into autonomy, frustration, and adaptive strategies. Positioned within a pedagogical framework, this inquiry highlights the epistemological significance of embodied methodologies in design education, demonstrating how simulation-based learning fosters empathy, interrogates prevailing design conventions, and advances inclusive, user-centered approaches. Findings reinforce accessibility as a fundamental design principle—one that prioritizes dignity, agency, and sensory diversity rather than serving as an ancillary retrofit.
Deana McDonagh is a Professor of Industrial Design and the founder of the (dis)Ability Design Studio at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. She is a Health Innovation Professor at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine. As an Empathic Design Research Strategist, she is dedicated to enhancing quality of life through intuitive and meaningful products, promoting emotional sustainability. Her work focuses on the emotional connections between users and products, using empathy to bridge the gap between designers and users’ authentic needs.
Dana Delaney is a rising senior at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, majoring in Chemistry with a minor in Art & Design. Her involvements center on health equity for underserved populations: she secures medication assistance and low-cost services for patients as a case-management volunteer at Avicenna Community Health Center; coordinates free preventive healthcare screenings to under- and uninsured residents each semester as an executive board member of the Illini Medical Screening Society; and provides long-term companionship to elderly patients through Transitions Hospice Care.