DESIGN LAB: DISABILITY STORIES – Lindsay Nott on how disability-led design can improve lives

Co-designing solutions to tackle the most important challenges faced by people with disability where they live, work and play.

To mark Spinal Injury Awareness Week, we had a conversation with Lindsay Nott of MyC5Life. Lindsay shares his insights on hacks he has devised, and challenges he encounters, in going about his daily life doing things such as cooking and socialising with friends. Lindsay highlights the importance of co-designing together with people with lived experience. We look forward to hosting Lindsay in our next Design Café.

Up to forty percent of Australians live with a disabling impairment or chronic condition, and many others are affected in some way. Many people are excluded from work, independent lifestyles, sport and social events. It’s vital that we come together to meet this challenge head-on for the future, and Griffith University is doing just this through the establishment of Inclusive Futures: Reimagining Disability.

Research, wisdom and experience shows that empowering people to live independent lives improves their outlook, employment prospects and confidence. People participating in aspects of everyday life are less isolated and more independent. Inclusive Futures focuses on assisting people with disability to tell us their stories, show us their inventions and in turn, we will make them accessible to anyone.

Our Design Lab is a place where ideas come to life, where dreams become tangible realities. It’s where a diverse alliance of people with disability, researchers, 3D printing experts, industrial designers, educators, and health and social services providers collaborate to invent unique solutions that transform lives.

Hosted within our Design Lab, our Design Cafes are short product design sprints led by people with disability via Citizen Challenges. Design Cafes can be held online or in person. This mixture of inclusive and accessible meeting styles brings participants together from any location into the one place. Usually, the first meeting is in-person and subsequent interactions are hosted online.

The complexity of a product or solution will determine how many Design Cafes are required to develop a prototype that is desirable, practical and economically efficient.

To mark the occasion of Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Week (SCIAW), we asked Lindsay Nott, of MyC5Life to be the guest of our next Citizen Challenge.

Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Week (SCIAW) is an important week for people living with spinal cord injury (SCI), rehabilitation service providers, industry, and the wider community. It is a time to get informed about the challenges people with SCI face in daily life, and the often-simple actions that you can take towards inclusion and ensuring better access for the 4.4 million people living with disability in Australia. Find out more on The Hopkins Centre Website.

Lindsay’s Story

I obtained a spinal cord injury several years ago, which sees me getting around on 4 wheels instead of 2 legs! My injury hasn't stopped me from making the most out of this beautiful life. I love travelling and having adventures!

My SCI journey began on the last day of Grade 12 at the age of 17, when I went for a celebratory swim at Southbank, Brisbane and broke my neck at vertebrae C5. My world changed at this point in my life, and whilst in the hospital recovering from my injury, my family and I learnt a lot­ – however, once I was released from the hospital, the gravity of my new life with a spinal cord injury was a big learning curve.

Over the last 29 years, I have done public speaking at universities, conferences, fundraisers, and within healthcare settings. I also work part-time, travel, attend the gym and volunteer as a peer support mentor for the newly injured and their families. Since my accident, I have become an advocate for disability awareness – and my goal is to help people and their families who are in similar situations, as well as healthcare professionals and disability design engineers.

Assistive and adaptive technology allows people to be independent, and is helpful ­– however, bespoke items can be very expensive, giving such items an exorbitant price tag, making them out of the price range for general population, unless funded through the NDIS.

In my experience, the quality behind these products does not equal to the price tag. I have a chopping board that has a few thin, short spikes and a corner guard, however, it is not user friendly, nor does it fulfil its purpose – for example, the border guard is not tall enough to support a piece of bread, should I want to butter it – and the spikes are too short to hold the likes of a potato or apple, if I need to chop or peel them and often roll off the spikes completely, which can be dangerous for me with so many sharps between the spikes and a knife, particularly when combined with my limited mobility.

Therefore, this item, amongst others ­­– is a redundant waste of money and/or funding, and like plenty of other items over the years, have gone into the back of the cupboard, collecting dust or straight to donation – as I cannot use them!

In comparison, where product design fails in its usefulness, electronic technology has been much more fit for purpose, enhancing my life in amazing ways. As an example, I currently have a GoPro and use Apple’s Siri AT, which is more user-friendly. I can sync between all Apple devices – allowing for easy upload, editing and exporting, all completed seamlessly.

Assistive and adaptive technology has advanced greatly over the past 29 years, allowing for everybody to have access too, and use, some form of technology at cheaper price points, which in turn, allows us all to live a more independent life.

This SCIAW and as part of my role as guest for the next “Design Café”, I would like us to think about people with disability and how we can contribute to making life more accessible. To do this, we need to think more carefully about the functionality and quality of accessibility products, and the best way to do this, is to co-design products with consumers at the core of concept, design and user testing.

We also need to bring the price point back into the equation, to ensure items can be accessed at a more realistic price range.

Listen to Lindsay's MyC5Life Podcast Series on Spotify.

Get Involved

Are you a product designer, engineer, 3D printing expert, philanthropist or disability design enthusiast? Would you like to like to be involved in our next Design Café with Lindsay Nott, and to be part of the innovative team who solves his Citizen Challenge – or perhaps you might like to sponsor this event?

All ideas generated can be converted into product designs that are added to the Inclusive Futures Design Library.

Our experts will work together with people with disability to refine the idea, create and test prototypes, and then produce a manufacture-ready design file. The designs can be downloaded by anyone and made in their locality with a 3D Printer.

Contact Us

Email: inclusivefutures@griffith.edu.au

Visit our Design Hub: https://inclusivefutures.griffith.edu.au/hub-page/design-hub