The Whirlwind Wheelchairs project at San Francisco State University, led by wheelchair design pioneer Ralph Hotchkiss, conducts research in wheelchair design specifically targeted towards local manufacture in small factories around the world. Initially conceived as a reaction to the poor quality of wheelchairs produced by Everest and Jennings, a company that held a virtual global monopoly on wheelchairs from the 1950’s through the early 80’s, Whirlwind wheelchairs are designed to not only to withstand the rough environmental conditions of use in the third world, but also to be produced and repaired using commonly available materials and tools in those markets. I believe that Whirlwind serves as an excellent example of the success of participatory design for low-income communities in the post-industrial product design world.

Everest and Jennings’ dumping of low-quality, proprietary wheelchairs into third world markets over the last 50 years provides an illustration of how a product designed for the Western market, where paved surfaces are common and medical costs and expenses are high, can be completely inappropriate for foreign markets in poorer countries. As Ricardo Gomes of the Design Center for Global Needs and others point out, many of the products and services found in Western marketplaces have been designed for the standards of the (white, relatively wealthy) consumers who have historically dominated those markets cit_bf(1997)cit_af ref_bf(Ricardo Gomes 1997 ref_num99)ref_af. Often times, Gomes continues, it is the local, community-based organization (CBO) that is most able and motivated to respond to the needs of the local population, possibly laying the groundwork to attract private sector initiatives. This “bottom-up business approach” describes Whirlwind’s model, which focuses on providing designs and training to local manufacturers so that they can establish their own self-sufficient production facilities.

The core Whirlwind design has been customized to meet local needs in various markets and has reincorporated some of those changes into its own evolution. Examples include the development of a new kind of shaft bearing utilizing cut nails instead of metal balls in Africa, where bicycle bearings were prohibitively expensive, and a Russian design that allows the wheelchair to partially collapse while the rider is still in it to fit into narrow state-standardized elevator openings.

Such designs strike one as the sorts of innovations that could only have come from the designers having first-hand experience living in the target market. This calls to mind architect Christopher Day’s notion of an inhabitant of a place possessing unique and germane knowledge of that environment, knowledge which can be inaccessible to the outside observer or design professional cit_bf(2003)cit_af ref_bf(Christopher Day 2003 ref_num100)ref_af. Indeed, Day’s concept of participatory design seems to apply here as well; in a sense, Whirlwind may provide the core design and training to a new manufacturer, but from that point on acts as an equal participant in the customization of that design for the specific local market.

Whirlwind’s approach also brings with it important lessons in terms of design education. Design professional and educator Leslie Speer brings up the idea of phenomenology, in which a researcher tries to experience reality through the eyes of another, as an important possible component in preparing designers to design responsibly “for another culture, especially when it is so far away, and so different from the western culture that we live in” cit_bf(n.d.)cit_af ref_bf(Leslie Speer ref_num98)ref_af. By introducing students not only to the experience of working from a wheelchair, but also to the various practical local issues and problems posed in adapting the Whirlwind model to various markets, Hotchkiss’ project provides unique lessons to future product designers in preparing them to design “for the other six billion.”

References

Day, C. (2003). Why: Community Design and Practice. In Consensus Design: Socially Inclusive Process (pp. 9-30). Oxford: Architectural Press.

Gomes, R. (1997). Design Re-Defined: Profiting from Community and Social Change. Paper presented at the 3rd International Conference on Design Education in Developing Countries, Pretoria, South Africa.

Speer, L. (n.d.) Walk a Mile in Their Shoes: Cultural Immersion and the Design Process. Unpublished manuscript.ref_end