Disabled persons as leaders in the problem-solving
process
This book differs from most manuals on disability aids
and equipment in 3 basic ways:
1. We make an effort to put the person and
the process before the product. The book covers
a wide selection of innovative equipment that is relatively
easy to make at the village and community level. But
in presenting each innovation, it places emphasis
not so much on the end-product (however important)
as on the collaborative process of discovery.
In this approach, the disabled person seeking assistance
(and/or his or her family members) works in partnership
with the service providers or technicians. We
hope to show that when such a partnership exists,
often the results are more enabling than when assistive
equipment is unilaterally prescribed or designed.
2. Our goal is not replicability but
rather adaptability and shared creativity. It
is true that most of the aids and devices illustrated
on these pages can be easily replicated at low cost
at home or in a basic community workshop. Unfortunately,
however, the prevailing strong emphasis on replicability
of appropriate technologies can be counterproductive.
This is especially so in the field of rehabilitation,
where the needs, possibilities and dreams of each
disabled person are different. Too often, the faithful
replication of standardized designs contributes
to a routine of trying to adapt the disabled person
to the assistive device, rather than to adapt the
device to the disabled person. Therefore …
Our objective is not to catalogue
a set of aids and equipment to be copied, but to
share an Empowering Problem-Solving Approach.
In most of the examples given in this book, we start
by looking at an individual disabled person. Placing
that individual as central to the problem-solving
process, we explore his or her unique combination
of wishes and needs. We then describe the cooperative,
trial-and-error methods used in designing solutions
to meet those needs. The problem-solving process is
ongoing and open ended. Sometimes it entails learning
new skills, sometimes it involves modification of
environment, and sometimes the invention, adaptation,
or elimination of an assistive device.
3. Many of the rehabilitation workers
and technicians responsible for the innovations
in this book are themselves disabled. Because
they too have a disability, they are more inclined
to work with a disabled ‘client' as a partner and
equal in the problem-solving process. Also, being
disabled, they may have perspectives and insights
leading to new designs that help enable the disabled
individual with whom they work.
Most of the innovations illustrated on these
pages were developed in PROJIMO
(Program of Rehabilitation Organized by Disabled
Youth of Western Mexico). PROJIMO is a community
rehabilitation program based in a small village
(1000 inhabitants) in the mountains of Western Mexico.
The author of this book—himself disabled—has worked
as a facilitator and advisor to the program since
its inception at the beginning of the 1980s. In
this introduction we give a brief account of PROJIMO
and how it differs from similar programs. For more
information on the program we suggest you look at
Disabled Village Children,
a handbook which grew out of PROJIMO.
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