Date: Monday, January 28, 2013
Category: Conference News

Graham Pullin
MDesRCA, MPhil, MA (Oxon)

Graham Pullin is a designer and the author of Design Meets Disability, published by MIT Press and described as “a powerful, important book" (Don Norman, The Design of Everyday Things). He is Course Director of Digital Interaction Design at the University of Dundee in Dundee, Scotland, where his research is exploring more expressive communication aids for people who cannot speak. His projects combine interaction design, Augmentative and Alternative Communication, phonetics, and critical design. He speak at the opening plenary session for RESNA 2013 on Saturday, June 22. 

Prior to joining the University of Dundee, Graham ran a multidisciplinary studio of user researchers, designers and engineers at the international design and innovation consultancy IDEO. He led projects out of London and San Francisco, from mobile phones for people in their 40s and 50s for Vodafone to concept hearing aids exhibited in the V&A Museum.

Initially trained as an engineer, Graham worked at the Bath Institute of Medical Engineering on rehabilitation robotics. Seeing the potential of design in this context, he studied at the Royal College of Art, followed by extensive experience as an industrial designer and interaction designer, winning international awards for furniture for children with cerebral palsy and remote-controlled submarines.

Over 25 years involvement in both assistive technology and mainstream design informed and inspired Design Meets Disability. This manifesto argues for more art school-trained designers to be invited into disability-related design, in order to contribute not only their skills but also their sensibilities. This would be a healthily disruptive influence within rehabilitation engineering, and would influence design in return.

RESNA 2013 is June 22-24 in Bellevue, WA, nine miles from downtown Seattle.