A Vehicle for Co-Design: Designing an Accessible Makervan with People with Intellectual Disabilities

A three-phase approach to co-designing the Makervan was employed where people with intellectual disabilities, support coaches and Wallara’s leadership team participated in (1) preliminary interviews, (2) bodystorming and (3) reflective interviews. Through an iterative and collaborative process, an inclusive strategy for co-designing the Makervan with and for the community it sought to serve was developed and executed.

The project engaged 32 stakeholders, including people with intellectual disabilities (clients), support workers (coaches) and Wallara’s leadership team. This engagement spanned over 100 hours, including ethnographic observations, preliminary interviews, bodystorming workshops, and reflective interviews. This process yielded insights that identified the need for a mobile makerspace, to adapt to the diverse capabilities of local learning environments while promoting inclusive participation and exposure to STEAM materials among clients.

We present the outcome of a co-designed mobile makervan, equipped with standard makerspace equipment such as electronics, robotics, programming, construction, modelling and eTextile materials. These resources were made safe and accessible through co-designed resource shelving and storage containers, and are used daily in the Makervan across six of Wallara’s sites.

The Makervan provides a unique opportunity for people with intellectual disabilities to engage in making technologies themselves, an experience often limited by the physical, cognitive and social inaccessibilities of traditional makerspaces.

The Makervan was co-designed with and for people with intellectual disabilities, to support their access to STEAM learning and exploration resources. The Makervan’s co-design strategy centred on the experiences of people with intellectual disabilities, leveraging their abilities and embodied communication channels to engage in the design decision-making process.

Verbal communication can be a barrier when working with individuals with intellectual disabilities, necessitating the exploration and implementation of alternative ‘hands-on’ modes of participation and communication. This led to a series of bodystorming workshops being carried out as both an engagement and co-design tool, enabling the sharing of clients’ perspectives through the provision of an embodied ’voice’ among non or minimally-verbal participants during co-design activities.

Consequently, facilitating the equitable performance, speculation and evaluation of the Makervan’s prospective functional and aesthetic design features among clients, coaches, Wallara’s leadership. As recognised by one site coach, through enacting the scenarios in context with contextually relevant props, “the clients had the opportunity to talk about the layout of the van and what they wanted in it. I think that is really why it’s such a positive thing for clients”.

The Makervan is made accessible and safe through the informed selection of STEAM materials and the design of resource shelving and storage containers. It services six sites to offer enriching STEAM experiences to Wallara’s clients, which would not otherwise be financially or ecologically sustainable. The nature of a mobile makerspace ensures that the number of sites can grow into the future, and other initiatives, such as outreach events, can be supported.

Electronic-making activities, like 3D printing and laser cutting, are generally not possible for people with intellectual disabilities. This is largely driven by community perceptions that regard such activities are unsafe, inappropriate or inaccessible. By co-designing the Makervan with and for the Wallara community, this project not only validated the feasibility and acceptability of the Makervan, but also dispelled misconceptions that could have hindered end-users engagement with electronic-making and STEAM experiences.

One client, with limited mobility and communication skills, demonstrated capabilities beyond the initial expectations set by coaches. When participating in a bodystorming scenario that involved the manipulation of the Makervan’s storage resources, the client garnered praise from a Wallara coach who expressed “I’m actually really happy and surprised that he knew how to do this”.

Another client superseded active participation to acquire a co-facilitator role during the bodystorming session. This client assumed responsibility for mapping out the dimensions of the Makervan onto the ground using tape and led the ideation process for designing storage and equipment features. Demonstrating her enthusiasm, the client asserted “you might as well get me to do the whole thing”. Their coach acknowledged the client’s engagement, stating “this is good because she enjoyed this, sitting in the van and then plotting a design, she just ran with it”.

This project underscores the potential for coaches, staff and researchers to recognise the practical knowledge and engage people with intellectual disabilities in design decision-making processes through a hands-on co-design strategy.

The Makervan demonstrates the capabilities of people living with intellectual disabilities and shifts mindsets about what meaningful STEAM participation looks like, including to the design-research team and Wallara’s staff alike. Since its deployment, the Makervan has provided hundreds of hours of hands-on STEAM engagement to people with intellectual disabilities.

This impact continues to grow, as the Makervan supports Wallara in delivering inclusive STEAM participation opportunities to an increasing number of Melbourne sites. The coordinator of Wallara’s STEAM program emphasised the inclusive value of the Makervan’s weekly visits, highlighting that “seeing the van come every week, it’s so special for the Pakenham site, the connection of having somebody coming to them”.

The Makervan provides access to STEAM education and enrichment activities for individuals with intellectual disabilities who’ve expressed their interest in engaging with the field of STEAM. When engaging with the Makervan, the accomplishments of clients’ often surpass coaches’ expectations. “You always see clients doing and making things that you never thought would come out” remarked one coach. This sentiment resonates with Wallara’s CEO, who “likes surprising people. Because it means they change to [recognise] ‘Oh, I didn’t know that people with a disability could do that’”.

The Makervan serves as an encouraging precedent, aiming to inspire the inclusion of individuals with intellectual disabilities in future co-design strategies and STEAM engagement opportunities. The impact of this work may be realised by informing practices for designing with people with intellectual disabilities and encouraging diversified participation in STEAM.