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Design for Diversity and Inclusion refers to the design of products, services, and social systems that contribute to the realization of an inclusive society, and in particular the design of \u201cmechanisms\u201d that enable people to make their relationships with each other diverse and inclusive. Diversity and inclusion (or \u201csocial inclusion”) is a term widely used around the world, but Design for Diversity & Inclusion was conceptualized when the Design Initiative for Diversity & Inclusion, affiliated with the Faculty of Design, Kyushu University, was founded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the 1970s, the idea of \u201cnormalization,\u201d which aimed to enable people with disabilities to live in society together with other people (without differentiating between people with and without disabilities), was popularized before \u201csocial inclusion.\u201d However, some of the support provided under this concept ignored minorities\u2019 unique lifestyles and diverse cultures. For example, Bengt Nirje\u2019s \u201cnormalization principle\u201d included helping people with disabilities to live according to the \u201cnormal\u201d rhythm of time and the \u201cnormal\u201d sexual relations in their culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the context in which the concept of \u201csocial inclusion\u201d emerged. Social inclusion is a concept that seeks to build a society that includes, rather than excludes, those who are socially vulnerable. This concept has emerged in Europe in the 1990s as a counterpart to \u201csocial exclusion.\u201d The idea is not that people with disabilities (differences from the majority) should be made to fit general (normal) standards, but to build a society that accepts people with differences and respects their differences. Since then, the concept has spread to include not only people with disabilities, but also various other socially excluded and isolated people, such as the poor, immigrants, the elderly, the LGBT, people with illnesses, and disaster victims (the target group is perceived slightly differently in different countries). In Japan, the term \u201csocial inclusion\u201d was taken up and popularized by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in 2000 (in the MHLW document). The Agency for Cultural Affairs then used the term in the 2011 Basic Policy on the Promotion of Culture and the Arts (Third Phase), and measures were put in place to address the issue. The background to these measures was numerous reports from Europe, the US, and Japan of the empowerment of previously excluded minorities through arts activities (allowing them to gain confidence and demonstrate their abilities), where relationships between diverse groups of people had been deepened by performing arts activities together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The approach to social inclusion that has spread in this way in the arts and culture is called \u201cdesign for diversity and inclusion,\u201d which aims to rethink and develop design from the perspective of the design of \u201cmechanisms.\u201d This is exemplified by two projects underway at the Design Initiative for Diversity & Inclusion of the Faculty of Design, Kyushu University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first is \u201cDesign for communicating to people with diverse color vision characteristics.\u201d Design for people with diverse color vision characteristics, conventionally known as color deficiency, has taken a compensatory approach based on the assumption of \u201cnormal color vision.\u201d This may be a color environment improvement for use by a diverse range of people. However, the design process continues to reflect the way in which the criteria for color vision grow out of \u201cnormal color vision\u201d and continue to reflect an idea of \u201cnormal.\u201d This project proposes a way of designing and rethinking the design process based on the diversity of color vision characteristics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second is \u201cCommunication design for dementia care through co-creative arts activities.\u201d In conventional medical and nursing care settings, it has been observed that the emphasis is on a \u201cnormal\u201d sense of time, and treatment and support are provided in an attempt to correct this disorder and bring the quality of life (QOL) closer to \u201cnormal.\u201d However, this project does not focus on cognitive decline, but emphasizes the person\u2019s emotions, which are still vibrant, as strengths. Specifically, the project involves creative arts activities such as music and theater, where the \u201cright thing to do is not set in stone,\u201d involving a variety of people like artists and \u201csupport persons.\u201d This co-creation can be an initiative to transform the fixed relation between the \u201csupporting person\u201d and the \u201csupported person\u201d so as to empower persons with dementia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prior concepts similar to design for diversity and inclusion include universal design and inclusive design, but each approach is different. Design for Diversity & Inclusion explores ways of design that bring about a \u201crestructuring of relationships\u201d and \u201ctransformation of values,\u201d and focuses on designing \u201cmechanisms\u201d that enable people to make their relationships with each other diverse and inclusive. The design of \u201cmechanisms\u201d here refers mainly to the following three things: (i) the design of \u201csystems\u201d that combine multiple matters\/things, (ii) the design of \u201cprocesses\u201d for creating new designs, and (iii) design that transforms the mechanisms \u201cbehind\u201d issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Currently, the Design Initiative for Diversity & Inclusion<\/a> is systematizing knowledge on this issue while actually designing various products, services, and social systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Mia Nakamura and Takuma Koga)<\/p>\n\n\n\n KIKAN Education Courses for the Senior Year Students Social Inclusion A\/B<\/p>\n\n\n\nRelated Class<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
References<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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