Receptive Design Methodologies: Human-Centered Design methodologies receptive to adaptation, accessibility and inclusion
Apoorva Avadhana · 2024 · Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '24) · doi:10.1145/3663548.3688530
Summary
This short paper proposes a set of new design methodologies that bridge the gaps between Human-Centred Design (HCD), accessibility research, disability studies, occupational therapy (OT), and assistive technology (AT) development. The author argues that these fields have historically operated in silos: designers lack access to people with disabilities and sufficient methodologies for accessible design, while clinicians such as occupational therapists possess deep knowledge of functional abilities but lack design training. The paper introduces the concept of "Receptive Design" — methodologies that are inherently receptive to adaptation, accessibility, and inclusion from the outset rather than treating these as afterthoughts. Central to the approach is designing based on body functions rather than disability categories, drawing on the ICF (International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health) framework. The author introduces several new terminologies and methods: functional affordances (what a product enables based on specific body functions), breakdown scenarios (identifying where tasks fail due to ability mismatches), extended task analysis (incorporating body function requirements into each task step), task-ability statements (mapping tasks to required abilities), and extended SCAMPER (adapting the classic ideation technique to systematically consider accessibility). The paper positions these methods as complementing existing approaches of "designing for many" (universal design) and "adapting for one" (custom AT), by asking the question: "How do we adapt for many?"
Key findings
The paper identifies three key gaps that its methodologies aim to address. First, the "access gap" — designers rarely have sustained access to people with disabilities during the design process, leading to designs based on assumptions rather than lived experience. Second, the "tools gap" — existing HCD methods like personas and journey maps do not adequately capture the functional diversity of disabled users, resulting in oversimplified representations. Third, the "training gap" — OT practitioners understand body functions and task analysis deeply but are not trained in design methods, while designers are not trained in functional assessment. The proposed extended task analysis method breaks activities of daily living (ADLs) into granular steps and maps each step to the body functions required, making ability requirements explicit and designable. Breakdown scenarios identify the specific points where a task becomes inaccessible for a given functional profile, providing actionable design targets. The extended SCAMPER method (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to other use, Eliminate, Rearrange) adds accessibility-specific prompts at each step to systematically generate inclusive alternatives. The author demonstrates these methods through case studies involving kitchen tools and daily living tasks.
Relevance
This paper offers a practical toolkit for accessibility practitioners and designers who want to move beyond compliance-driven accessibility toward designing products that are inherently adaptable. The concept of functional affordances — thinking about what body functions a design requires rather than what disability categories it serves — is a valuable reframing that can help teams avoid the common pitfall of designing for stereotypical disability profiles. The extended task analysis method is immediately applicable to any product design process, particularly for physical products and assistive technologies. The paper's interdisciplinary bridge between OT and HCD is its strongest contribution, though as a short paper (4 pages) it provides limited validation of the methods in practice. The methodologies would benefit from further testing with diverse user groups and in digital as well as physical design contexts, but the conceptual framework is a useful addition to the inclusive design toolkit.
Tags: design methods · assistive technology · inclusive design · occupational therapy · adaptation · activities of daily living
Standards referenced: ICF