Design Meets Disability (Pullin, G.; 2011) [Book Review]

This book was initially released as a hardcover volume in 2009. It aims to entice and excite designers about the possibilities and prospects of designing for disabled people. With his concept of "resonant design," defined as "design intended to address the needs of some people with a particular disability and other people without that disability but perhaps finding themselves in similar circumstances," the author tries to skirt the tensions between particularity and generality. He argues that designing for disability can invigorate design practices and inject different ways of thinking into the design community. The book is divided into two sections. The first outlines a series of tensions or "meetings" between key issues ostensibly separating the worlds of design and disability. In the second section of the book, the author engages in a series of (imaginary and real) conversations with chosen designers about designing a specific product for disabled people. The book is an engaging and accessible read. As it is rare to find work about disability outside the field of Disability Studies, the author is to be commended for his efforts to place design and disability in conversation. In directing his efforts at recruiting designers to the field of disability, perhaps new collaborations and affinities will emerge.