Acumen Fund and IDEO.org have occupied the same social initiative workspace for a while. Acumen+, a free group-based learning platform, and IDEO.org design challenges came together to offer aspiring designers a chance to make a difference and design ways to better the world. Let by IDEO, we got to pick our challenge to “to reduce stigmas and increase opportunities for the disabled”. This specific challenge resonated with many in our group of designers.
We had all known each other as dancers and friends before we respected each other as designers. Each of us had been active professionally in design fields and had decided individually to focus on UX and service design. As we found out we were all in this same transition space, we looked around for a project to start with and found inspiration at IDEO and Acumen+. Through them, we found a way to hone our craft together as well as work on social initiatives that inspired us.
One of IDEO's offered design challenges was to address how “to reduce stigmas and increase opportunities for the disabled”.
This resonated with me since prior to this I had been forced to take a leave of work while my eyesight recovered. Others in my group had experienced chronic physical conditions and other disabilities at points in their lives. This led us all to dive headlong into this specific challenge.
Interviewing human resource staff gave us insight into how little outreach is considered to create an inclusive environment.
We also signed up to go to a job fair for the disabled to talk with companies that had human resources devoted to diversity.
Our interviews paid off. We proceeded to create affinity maps, outline our insights and create HMW statements.
Our research showed that a social shift would be needed to really address the issues of stigma and opportunity.