Social Inclusion: A Multidisciplinary Design Approach

This article shows the design of an assistive product and a proposal of a business plan for persons with motor disability in lower-limbs, in accordance with the guidelines for social inclusion of the World Health Organization (2001). The design project with interdisciplinary characteristics was based on the application of an extended model of Axiomatic Design with an active participation of the user. The design of this assistive product sought to overcome physical barriers which the user encounters daily so that his mobility, safety and comfort are improved. The business model, in which the user participates throughout the whole production and sales process of the assistive product, belongs to the stage of the rehabilitation process in which the disabled person has access to the types of activities that give meaning and purpose to his life. The ability of mobility, with the assistive product, and of productivity, with the business model, allows the user to reach the last level of the rehabilitation process corresponding to the equality of opportunities. Both results, the assistive product and the business plan, involve the participation of the university, the private enterprise and the state. It is concluded that the interdisciplinary work with the participation of the user can provide effective solutions to a problem as complex as social inclusion. The results obtained from a social approach allow the development of different products and interdependent processes.