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Designability

Designability is a charity that designs and develops great, usable products for poeple living with long term conditions, including dementia. We involve people with dementia and their carers throughout our design work to ensure that our designs are as useful and usable as possible.

Updated:
3 January 2019
Location:
South West
Sectors:
Charity
Local Alliances:
Bath & North East Somerset

1. Action Plan

1. The National Dementia Declaration lists seven outcomes that the DAA are seeking to achieve for people with dementia and their carers. How would you describe your organisation’s role in delivering better outcomes for people with dementia and their carers?

We support people with dementia and their carers by working to ensure that the products we design, and those of other organisations, are as usable and useful as possible. By making products which work for as many people as possible with dementia, we can also help to drive prices down so that more people can afford them. We work with a wide range of local and national organisations, e.g. Alzheimer's Society,  Alzheimer's Support Wiltshire and RICE (Research Institute for the Care of Older People) to reach local people.We also provide talks to carers about what products are available that might help them, and disseminate our research findings at conferences and exhibitions to share our learning about how technology can be useful.

2. What are the challenges to delivering these outcomes from the perspective of your organisation?

Funding to support product development in dementia is rightly competitive. Also, there has traditionally been a relatively large amount of research spending on drug development but there is now increasing interest in funding technology research. This is important because there is as yet little evidence to describe how effective technology is for people with dementia.

Member website

www.designability.org.uk

2. Actions

  • Developing products for people with dementia

    We will continue to design and develop products with direct input from people with dementia and their carers

    Status:
    Being implemented

  • Providing technology advice to the public

    Designability provides a range of support to the public regarding technology for people with dementia. This includes the Memory Technology Gallery at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, and a regular slot speaking at the Carers Course at RICE (Research Institute for the care of Older People).

    Status:
    Being implemented

  • Advocating appropriate language around dementia

    Formally and informally setting a positive example around language used to describe and support people with dementia and their carers. We engage with young designers and a range of experts in other fields through our work, and we ensure that we share our knowledge around the use of words including "sufferer" and "patient" (for non-medical contexts), which are also prevalent in the media.

    Status:
    Being implemented
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