Clairvaux MacKillop College Upper Mount Gravatt students are making an impact on the lives of people with disability through an inclusive Human Centred Design assignment.
With ideas from swimming accessories for blind swimmers to a home economics classroom for students with physical disabilities to an ergonomically and technically augmented public speaking lectern these students are creating ideas that would truly make a difference.
Clairvaux MacKillop College Curriculum Leader – Design and Technology, Rory Johanson said the class was asked to develop a design that would enhance the lived experience of a person with disability. They were also fortunate to have disability advocate and speaker Olivia Hargroder as a guest to provide expert insight directly to students.
“To develop a human centred design, students need to work closely with a client and listen to their needs and desired outcome from the design,” Rory said.
“Olivia became our client and collaborator on the project, sharing with the class some areas of her life where there might be opportunities for design.”
Olivia is highly accomplished and shared not only her lived experience as a person with a disability but also her time in school, her public speaking activities, her swimming activities, her activism and advocacy work, her travel experiences, and her stage and screen acting.
“Following the initial consultation, students brought their ideas back to Olivia, refining, and synthesising using empathy, analysis, and evaluation against their design criteria. This second stage of consultancy allowed them to use convergent design thinking and processes to move their design proposals to the final stages,” Rory said.
BCE Senior Manager - Student Diversity & Wellbeing Dionne Lloyd said that BCE schools aim to actively participate in their communities.
"Rory's project collaboration with Olivia epitomises our BCE aspiration to connect authentically with the community to create safe, inclusive, and equitable partnerships creating a better future," Dionne said.
“We are very impressed with the ideas that the students came up with, but most importantly, we are proud of the way they listened and learned from Olivia and considered her experience when developing their designs,” Rory said
“This unit became a wonderful opportunity for our students to actively develop a preferred future for people with different abilities, guided by our Catholic values.”