Design for Sustainable Behaviour to design an Adaptive Climbing Wall

Abstract

In recent years, Europe has been moving towards a concept of inclusivity as highlighted by the sixteenth goal of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals Agenda that promotes peaceful and inclusive societies. (UN Dept. of Global Communications, 2015). The increasing awareness of social diversity has attracted the attention of designers who started to adopt an inclusive design approach and design products or services to be usable by as many people as reasonably possible, without the need for specialised adaptions. The inclusive design approach has been largely applied in adaptive sports to improve levels of functioning and independence in daily living activities and increase physical capability, physiological capacity, social status, and sense of belonging. Adaptive sports can become a way to promote involvement as an active part of the rehabilitation exercise to stimulate neuromotor recovery, particularly in children with disabilities (Canina et al., 2020). Recent research has demonstrated that climbing could be an excellent rehabilitation tool that involves the child with disabilities in a natural way. This sport exploits the propensity to play, to sport, to compete, to stimulate the execution of specific exercises, can transform this effort into a game and multiply the effectiveness of the rehabilitation process (Reljin, V., 2019). An intensive rehabilitation from an early age guarantees the recovery of part of their neuromotor abilities. In order to achieve better results in rehabilitation, adaptive sports must adopt a holistic approach to the user considering both the physical and the psycho-perceptual aspects, i.e. the ability to do it but also the feeling of fulfilment in doing it. However, current climbing walls do not include these aspects of the adaptive sport. An adaptive climbing wall design requires identifying a methodology that could lead to a coherent and effective solution, using explicit attention for inclusiveness. The paper describes the Design for Sustainable Behaviour (DfSB) approach adopted to design an adaptive climbing wall as a tool for the rehabilitation of children with Cerebral Palsy (CP) by identifying the sustainable, inclusive requirements that consider children’s diversity. The DfSb approach, as user- and use-centred design that create preconditions for a sustainable everyday life, considers the sustainability aspects from two essential points of view. The user's sustainable behaviour, in which inclusiveness is a fundamental part of these attitudes, and the product's sustainability that uses new recycled materials create a more natural environment (similar to climbing in natural environments). Indeed, the project considers first the sustainable behavioural aspects, spreading climbing as a tool to improve the health conditions of CP children, introducing them to climbing by making it accessible and inclusive, intending to help children with different abilities to build trust and awareness of their potentialities, and a sense of accomplishment while training problem-solving and decision-making skills. As a second point of DfSB, the climbing wall and holds are designed with sustainable materials (waste material content) that provide the feeling of natural stone considering the entire product lifecycle. This paper shows how the DfSB approach can support the definition of design requirements of a training tool introducing children with CP to climbing as a natural approach to rehabilitation, making it accessible and inclusive. The project brings children with disabilities closer to the adapted sport through an indoor and democratic recreational activity. Bibliography 1. AA.VV. (2020). What is inclusive design? Inclusive Design Toolkit. University of Cambridge. Retrieved from http://www.inclusivedesigntoolkit.com/whatis/whatis.html 2. Canina M., Parise C., Bruno C. (2020). An Inclusive Design Approach for Designing an Adaptive Climbing Wall for Children with CP. 3. DesignCouncil. (2020). What is the framework for innovation? Retrieved from https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/news-opinion/what-framework-innovation-design-councils-evolved-double-diamond 4. Dixon-Fyle, S., Dolan, K., Hunt, V., Prince, S.: Diversity wins! How inclusion matters, pp. 1–12. McKinsey Co. (2020) 5. Persson, H., Åhman, H., Yngling, A. A., & Gulliksen, J. (2015). Universal design, inclusive design, accessible design, design for all: different concepts—one goal? On the concept of accessibility—historical, methodological and philosophical aspects. Universal Access in the Information Society, 14(4), 505–526. 6. Reljin, V. (2019). Effects of Adaptive Sports on Quality of Life in Individuals with Disability. Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects., 822. 7. United Nations Department of Global Communications. (2015). Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Keywords: Adaptive sports, inclusive design process, design for sustainable behaviour approach

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1001885