Accessible Prototyping

The practice of adapting prototyping methods and materials to enable participation by people with disabilities, particularly in early-stage design activities. Accessible prototyping goes beyond simply providing alternative materials—it requires holistic adaptation of the entire prototyping experience including workshop structure, physical environment, facilitation approach, documentation methods, and the roles of support personnel. For blind users, accessible prototyping replaces visual methods with tactile, auditory, and verbal approaches, using materials like 3D-printed elements, magnetic boards, embossed paper, clay, and audio descriptions to enable non-visual design exploration and iteration.