Course Overview

Inclusive design is a methodology that requires learning from people with diverse perspectives to create products and experiences that are available to people with a range of abilities. This means including and learning from people with a range of perspectives.

This Spring, a team of 3 occupational therapy doctoral students, 2 user experience graduate students and 3 visual communication design undergraduates worked with an organization, Carousel Connections. Carousel Connections is a Philadelphia based group that supports adults with intellectual disability and developmental delay. Their skilled team works to encourage independence through employment and housing through social and recreational activities.

To begin our collaboration, Carousel Connections identified three areas of opportunity for our team to help:

• The first area was in the development of life skills through a cooking experience.

• The second was to consider sensory assessment that could be used in a community setting for adults.

• The third, was to consider how a wellness recovery plan could be more accessible and usable for the Carousel Connections community.

The following projects are the outcomes of our collaboration.

STUDENTS

Visual Communication Design:
Logan Perrin
Carmen Cordero
Antonia Milas

User Experience:
Maddie Aubry
Rubie Nathanson

Occupational Therapy:
Mishayla Smith
Chris Acquafredda 
Cynthia Jih

Faculty

Visual Communication Design:
Beth Shirrell

Occupational Therapy:
Dr. Kim Mollo
Dr. Mike Barrett
Dr. Sarah McNabb
Dr. Lydia Navarro-Walker

CLIENT

Carousel Connections
Amy McCann

The WORTHY app helps users to help identify different zones of regulations and the zones that go along with it by using a blob to take care of. To help the blob go through the various emotions the user must complete various coping mechanisms to get back to the green zone. Earn badges and accessories by completing various task for the blob.