Janine Smith

Designability

Designability is a national charity that enables disabled people to live with greater independence and choice. Our expertise is in user-centred design, creating products with and for disabled people to improve and enrich their lives. The common thread through all of our work is in the design, creation and provision of a product to increase independence for disabled people. This is not just about products people need, but products they want to use. Although other avenues may provide necessary products, they are not always easy to use or products people would choose to have. We deliver choice by involving disabled people across our organisation and throughout the design process to create innovative product solutions not available elsewhere. We create great looking, easy-to-use products that go beyond basic functionality. And we partner with industry to help as many people as we can – we've transformed over 300,000 lives to date. As a charity, our mission is get the right products into the hands of those who need them. We build prototypes and develop new products in response to specific needs, in the hope that our products will inspire new markets to blossom. We do not receive any statutory funding, so all of our work relies on voluntary donations. People often confuse our cause with a design agency, but everything we do is not-for-profit. Every penny we receive from product royalties is put back into developing even more useful products for people that could benefit.