The impairment that I have chosen to discuss is when people can not control or feel the lower half of their body. Generally, people who use wheelchairs. In the class we have discussed the “boring” the wheelchairs appearance. It is hard to get a positive feeling when watching someone in a wheelchair. The first thoughts that comes into most of the people mind is pity, help and struggle. If we where to redesign the wheelchair to get the opposite effect. Instead of a boring grey wheelchairs which is associated with sickness/hospitals, we could use a more attractive colors or implement features that makes people without impairment jealous.
Instead of trying to melt in (look/act like others) the society in hope of decreasing the stigmatization, which is hard to do with a wheelchair, I think a more daring design will give the right expression of how it really is to have an impairment but still have pretty normal life. For example if using glowing wheels on the wheelchair which will be a real eye catcher. Firstly, people will think “He is not ashamed in being disabled” and the negative thoughts will be ignored. These kind of stuff will reflect proudness, independency and other positive feelings to the surrounding. It is up to the person in the wheelchair how he/she want other people to see him/her, it is about the attitude. This kind of a daring design is a very good conversation starter, which will lead to people talking to each other and in hope of leading in learning more of how disabled people really have it. Otherwise it is very hard and maybe awkward to start a conversation with someone who use a regular wheelchair. The one in the wheelchair will feel stigmatized but if the other person goes like “Oh I like the colors of the wheels”. It would work as what is called “icebreaker” in conversations.
When it comes to “normality”, which means different thing to different people which make it harder to broaden the area. Earlier I mentioned to implement features that makes people without impairment jealous. By that I mean if we design tools that is needed for impaired people and also people without impairment can use to enhance something in their life it would be more easily accepted by the society as “normal” as more people use it. If we just design for impaired people then it is already defined and stigmatized because they belong to the minor group. It is quite hard but it will eventually happen. Maybe in the future every one will use something like a Segway to move around and nobody will even notice if the person using it is disabled or not. It is about either designing things that look like things we are used to or to make more people use it for it to become “normal” and in that way people get “used” to it.
To broaden the normality and minimize stigmatization is maybe to design for both impaired and non-impaired people at the same time. But without making it obvious for users that this is designed for example for wheelchairs. For example, if it is possible to not have stairs why not change it with a slope, the people with non-impairment will not notice and people using wheelchair will be able to move around. It is a small thing but we need more of these kind of stuff to broaden the normality. It is even better if more groups will find it usable as for example baby carriage. The more people that have a use for a thing the more common it will be and easier accepted. We can only do it bit by bit, small changes in the end will lead to wider understanding and less stigmatization. If we as designers keep adding features that can be used for a wider variation of people, it will become a standard. As it started with the stairs having support to help baby carriage, it is now almost a must that there is a elevator or ramps for that matter. It should be applied everywhere. It need awareness by the designers, and I mean all kinds of designer where the product is used by people. For instance the scissors we talked about in the class that both right-handed and left-handed can use. The design of these scissors enhance many aspects the tool will be usable for more people. So what we should do is have it as a standard. Make it “normal” and build on it and make it more usable for more people in the future include more and more people. I think it is a clever way of including more people without stigmatization. They will just go ahead and use it, everything is in “normal” fashion.
As a conclusion. By creating daring design I think we can turn the stigmatization in a positive way, it will increase the awareness of the impairment and eventually decrease the misconceptions in case of people with impairments. Tools we use have to get “updated” in order to be useful for a wider variation of people and keep doing it.
I am really curious of what you guys think of such ideas. Feel free to comment.
Non-excluding Design 
I liked your thoughts about attitude and design. If, thought the wheelchair, users give the impression of being boring/sad/down, the design is hindering their social interactions. With a more daring design, the person may give a different impression. Perhaps how daring the design is could be a range, so that different kind of people choose differently 🙂 Also, interesting comments on the icebreakers. We comment on the design of other things, so why wouldn’t we do the same with a wheelchair?