Introducing universal design concepts in an interdisciplinary laboratory project

Abstract

Design for individuals with disabilities has been used by many institutions as a way to teach the design process to undergraduate students. These design projects often involve the design of an assistive device for a single individual to facilitate a particular task. The departments of biomedical engineering and industrial engineering at Western New England College have further developed an interdisciplinary laboratory design experience that involves the design of assistive technologies for workers performing light manufacturing work at Goodwill Industries of the Springfield/Hartford Area, Inc. Rather than focus on the design of assistive technology to increase the participation of a single worker with disabilities, students were tasked to develop devices to modify steps in a manufacturing process in an effort to maximize the number of workers with disabilities able to participate in each of the manufacturing steps. To facilitate the design process, biomedical and industrial engineering students were introduced to the concepts of universal design, the primary tenet of which is that products should be designed so that they can be used by the greatest number of consumers. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2008.