On a dull Friday, time stood still as I sat waiting in the reception area of a government office. The receptionist snapped me out of deep thought by announcing I was out of luck; The government official I was waiting for to sign my documents had just left for the day. “Come back at the crack of dawn on Monday.” the receptionist blurted as she prepared to close the office. It was barely midday.
Despondency threatened to overwhelm me. I had spent many hours in government offices and public hospitals sorting out paperwork for my insurance claims and disability registration, yet I had made little progress. I wondered how someone with a more challenging disability than mine would navigate through such a daunting ordeal to get the compensation and support they desperately needed.
By turning my thoughts to the less fortunate, my despondency quickly gave way to inspiration. What better way to solve a problem than to live through that problem? Here I was, inside a real-life obstacle course that gave me an insider’s perspective of just how inaccessible and unfriendly the system was for people with disabilities. This user experience as a person with disability, coupled with my extensive design expertise positioned me uniquely to become a champion for inclusive design.
So, on my way home, I devised a plan to turn my user experience into a design challenge. As with every design challenge I have led, a good entry point is to have a compelling story accentuated by striking visuals. Luckily, I know a talented artist who agreed to illustrate my dull Friday at the government office into an entertaining comic strip. And thus, my design challenge to improve access for PWDs began.
Come back to see how Designer Amollo turns her obstacles into springboards for creativity.
(Illustration by @ashfire_art)
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