The Navarrese association Anfas -dedicated to support the rights of people with intellectual disabilities or development and their families- has given a workshop on easy reading for students in the 4th year of Degree in design of the School of Architecture of the University of Navarra as part of the subject Inclusive Design (design Inclusive), whose goal consists of providing students with a holistic vision of design based on a diverse conception of the human being.

Under the guidance of the Anfas cognitive accessibility service trainers, Sonia Ganuza and Vanesa Alonso, the students were trained in the so-called easy reading: "This is a methodology that aims to make texts easier to understand through guidelines for essay and design agreed at European level. The target audience would be people with comprehension difficulties, people with intellectual disabilities or development, the elderly, people with mental health problems, but also immigrants or anyone who does not speak languagewell," they explain.

For Anfas technicians, offering this training to future designers "is extremely important for them to learn about this field and keep all people in mind when creating messages and designs that are truly accessible". "This is the premise on which fundamental rights such as access to employment or to Education and health will be based, which is why it is so relevant in the training of Degrees such as design", stressed the experts.

Inclusion and empathy: source of creativity

Another of the exercises at subject was carried out by visiting professor Luis Casado, president of the Iddeas Foundation for innovation and social inclusion. "With a series of practical exercises we tried to get the students to learn, through empathy, how to improve products and services. Because when someone sits in a wheelchair for the first time, and covers his or her eyes or simulates a status deafness, he or she becomes aware of many limitations. The magic of all this, moreover, is that inclusive designs are not only useful for certain groups, but are of much higher quality for all people," explains Casado.

In this way, the students of Degree toured different spaces inside and outside the School of Architecture simulating visual, hearing, motor, sensory, etc. disabilities.

The subject also counted with the participation of Tito Favaro, an expert designer in Inclusive Design, who contextualized this concept in the world of design, explained to the students the role played by the designer in different institutional projects, partnership with companies, etc., and provided the future graduates with the methodology to apply these inclusive principles in technology projects with CX(customer experience) and ergonomics methods.