Design & rehabilitation

Three-day design workshop for people with spinal-cord injuries

The RSA joined forces with the Back-Up Trust to run a three-day residential workshop in design for eight people with spinal-cord injuries. The workshop, held from 2-4 November, aimed to rebuild participants' confidence following their injury through creative thinking and resourcefulness.



Under the guidance of three professional designers – RSA director of design Emily Campbell, architect Yanki Lee and product/furniture designer Pascal Anson – the workshop gave participants the opportunity to unlock their creativity through a range of activities, in the categories of observation, analysis and opportunity. These included photographing 100 examples of the same thing, devising a cocktail to represent another participant and translating a work of fiction into a restaurant concept. 

Emily Campbell said: "We set ourselves the daunting task of explaining design in three days to people who’d not designed before. I know we baffled them several times, but we got there, and everyone designed quite a few things in the process. One participant told me the experience was like a film that you don’t understand until the end - then it all comes together".

Design training pilot for people with spinal cord injuries


Design as a discipline, or thought-process, can address the dramatic loss of confidence and diminished motivation that results from a sudden physical impairment. As a structured way of approaching problems, design is a useful tool in re-building confidence. Working with this group on a new model of design-training focused on self-reliance and creative resourcefulness will yield knowledge with potential for widespread replication among other groups of people whose independence, fulfilment and social participation are challenged.

The total project proposal includes inspirational introductory design lectures/workshops at the specialist spinal units in the UK and Republic of Ireland; a residential design workshop for spinally-injured people and carers; an evaluation and stakeholder review; a policy seminar for health and social services professionals; a published report containing the design training model with recommendations for scaling and replicating the project; and an published visual essay on existing design improvisations by disabled people. 

The RSA Design & Rehabilitation proposal has been developed by the RSA Design team in consultation with a number of specialists. It has been welcomed by Aspire, The Back Up Trust, the Spinal Injuries Association, RNOH Stanmore, Stoke Mandeville Spinal Injuries Centre, Queen Elizabeth National Spinal Injuries Centre (Glasgow), two independent occupational therapists and 12 designers, five of whom are spinally-injured or otherwise disabled. 

More information on this project

Transcript of an expert seminar on a design training pilot for people with spinal cord injuries (PDF, 193KB) held on 28 May 2010

Design and rehabilitation report - A three-day workshop in design for people with spinal cord injuries (PDF, 2.6MB)

Design for resourcefulness and self-reliance from Emily Campbell (PDF, 14KB)