A multidisciplinary group with professionals from different countries plans together with young people with disabilities (1998-2000)

From the assumption that the best toys are the ones that are developed together with those who will use them, the association Foerdern durch Spielmittel-Spielzeug fur behinderte Kinder e.V. of Berlin has developed during 20 years methods for the organisation of creative workshops to create toys that can improve the quality of playing and of learning for children with disabilities.

Thanks to the European funded programme “Innovation programme n. 301058D, production of innovative play in sheltered workshops”, together with Studio Steffan new techniques to improve the method and the development of final results have been worked out.
The programme foresaw phases of preparation and research, of involvement of the local population, associations and press, three workshops in different countries (Sweden, Great Britain, Italy, 1998-2000), and subsequent phases of selection, implementation, evaluation of the products, before being advertised and marketed.
During the workshops over a hundred prototypes of toys have been built; some have been developed with industrial standards for the marketing and their playful-therapeutic value has been evaluated and tested.

The workshops had a similar structure, in order to be able to test the methodology in different environments, and they have then been successfully applied also in India, Germany, China, Armenia (2001-2006). In particular, Studio Steffan has identified strategies that have materialised in the creation o fan innovative type of “multidisciplinary and continuous tutoring”, with competences both in the field of disability and in the technical-planning field.For each activity, the aims to be pursued and checked have been defined by the tutors, through the development of a programme with timescale, activities and suggestions. Our consultancy on the organisation of the workshops has received international recognition.

The project has been illustrated in several occasions, among which: interview “Toys for All” for Crisp&Clear, EIDD magazine, 2000; “Optimising the international creative workshops”, VII SIE National Conference “Ergonomics in the Information Society. Environments, organisations, services and products” Villa Montalto, Florence; 25-27 September 2001, available in the Conference papers; interview “Toys for Children’s Rehabilitation” for Interaction Design Lab, 2006.

The interview for EIDD, Crisp&Clear ›

The interview for Interaction Design Lab ›