Read the Paper
Download the full paper (PDF) — published in the Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC '13), ACM.
Summary
This workshop paper sits at the intersection of two growing threads in the Interaction Design and Children community: designing for children with special needs, and designing fabrication activities for children. We asked what happens when you look at children's making and fabrication through the lens of accessibility.
We start with two hard problems. First, assistive technology abandonment — studies show roughly one-third of assistive devices end up unused, largely because users lack agency in choosing them. Second, inaccessible tools — the typical maker shop (drill press, chop saw, soldering iron, sewing machine) is unusable or unsafe for many children with disabilities. The hopeful thesis: if kids can make and modify their own assistive technology, abandonment drops, because nothing creates ownership like building the thing yourself.
The paper then surveys frameworks for inclusion — online maker communities, digital fabrication tools (laser cutters, 3D printers) that lower the dexterity barrier, and Resnick and Silverman's low floors, high ceilings, wide walls design heuristic. We extend that framework with Meryl Alper's additions for special-needs design: ramps on the low floors, tall ladders alongside high ceilings, frames of interest within wide walls (for kids who thrive on focused, repetitive engagement), and reinforced corners where extra support meets exceptional capability.
We close with examples of tools that already do this well — Squishy Circuits, Scratch, e-textiles and the LilyPad Arduino, VizTouch (3D-printed tactile math graphs for blind children), the Easy Make Oven, and MaKey MaKey — and a challenge to the community: don't relegate accessible fabrication to producing digital files. Keep searching for truly embodied making experiences for everyone.
Co-authors
- Ben Leduc-Mills — then at the Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado.
- John Schimmel — co-founder of DIYAbility, which builds accessible making and assistive-technology programs.
Citation
Leduc-Mills, B., Dec, J., & Schimmel, J. (2013). Evaluating Accessibility in Fabrication Tools for Children. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC '13), 617–620. ACM. ISBN 978-1-4503-1918-8.