Multidisciplinary teams designing products for aiding disabled people

Abstract

The results of applying the AHP multi-criteria technique are shown to decide which type of product must be designed to favour disabled people's social inclusion. The study was conducted in Cali where the census reported 8,618 cases of impairment involving alteration in body, hand, leg and arm movements. The aid products were classified under UNE-EN-ISO9999-2007 standard. The AHP multi-criteria technique allows stating and finding the solution to decision-making problems with different decision-makers, criteria and alternatives by handling tangible and intangible information in a structured and simple way. Three organisational actors participated in the study: the university (with different disciplines), a small enterprise and a user. It is worth noting the presence of engineering during this design stage since it has traditionally been relegated to the product materialisation stage, having little interaction with the other disciplines. The best alternative favouring social inclusion was the class of products aiding personal mobility (28.6%. relative importance). It can thus be concluded that multidisciplinary participation broadens how the problem is viewed, disciplines have a partial effect on weighting selection criteria and there is no alignment in the commercial perception of the university and the enterprise in this type of decision-making.