THE LEARNING PROJECT:
CREATING OBJECTS OF PLAY FOR THE DIFFERENTLY-ABLED
Design in Community, Empathetic design, Children engagement
April 2017
Prabhat Centre, Ahmedabad
Project initiated & led by / Central Saint Martins, UAL, NID Ahmedabad, Prabhat Foundation
Role / Research, Project Management, Execution
Team involved / Ankita Trivedi, Kirsten Wehner, Chirag Patel, Sara Jarc, Benjamin Mackay, Celeste Kaur, Kajal Agarwal
How can design interventions focused on play foster social integration between differently-abled and abled children, and consequently help erode the stigma of disability?
Over two weeks, Central Saint Martins and National Institute of Design students collaborated in teams to design, fabricate and install several interventions for the Prabhat Foundation, an educational charity supporting differently-abled children in Ahmedabad, India. The project outcomes were modest, but they brought enjoyment and dignity to challenging young lives.
Focusing on the Prabhat Centre, a day school run by the Foundation, the team created a climb-on, climb-through play bench with sensory surfaces, ball drops and bells for the centre’s courtyard. The idea behind the play bench was to give them a modular system, whose form and placement around the courtyard could be manipulated based on the centre’s needs. The implements within the bench were aimed towards helping the kids improve their mobility, the strength of their grip and help them learn different textures.
