Design for ALL.L Making and learning for and with people with disabilities

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of social exclusion for people with disabilities while creating opportunities to provide innovative educational experiences for students without disabilities. Starting from the intersection between coding, digital fabrication, STEM education and disability, we present Design for ALL.L, a framework to create social inclusion through project-based learning programs. The presented framework targets students of different ages, from elementary to university, and guides the development of educational programs to foster awareness and empowerment for people with disabilities at different levels: from developing interaction design projects to meet the special needs of people with disabilities, to rethinking student-teacher interaction as the person with disabilities becomes teacher. Learning from the two case studies described in this paper, we provide insights and reflections on the opportunities and challenges to bridge the goal of social inclusion for people with disability with education through technology.