Uploaded June 2015 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
The Inclusion Chair is a revolutionary mobility device that tackles the social exclusion of locomotor-disabled individuals in India from their culture of interacting and living at floor level.
India’s diversity has inspired many writers to pen their perceptions of the country’s colourful culture. However, a cohort of 2.13% of India’s 1.3 billion population is often neglected and hidden behind closed doors. This cohort is the disabled population of India. Where social interactions and living occur at floor level, locomotor disabled individuals are unable to participate when using the only medical device on the market: a conventional wheelchair.
The Samavesa (which means ‘Inclusion’ in Hindi) is our solution. A mechanical system allows a user to lower themselves to floor level for social interactions whilst maintaining the functionality of a conventional wheelchair at sitting level. We have created a modular design that allows for a vast amount of customisation to accommodate different body shapes as well as variances in disability types. The design not only uses sustainable materials such as a bamboo frame, it also incorporates low-cost and easily accessible materials to enable simple manufacture.
As a social enterprise, our strategic objective is to maximise the profit to society. To achieve this, our goto-market stream is mass distribution of our design in the form of a graphical instruction manual through partnerships with local Indian charities and UK charities with operations in India. Charities have the infrastructural network available to reach geographically inaccessible regions, allowing our target market to have their Samavesa built and maintained by local handymen.
We have hosted a focus group at DIAL disability centre in Peterborough and conducted market research through disability and cultural societies in the University of Cambridge to further understand our user’s needs. As winners of the Sustainable Product Design Competition hosted by Ecohouse Initiative, we have also been able to develop our design with external consulting from Cambridge Research and Development (CRD).
Team
Tian Xi Lim
Mateus Pniewski
Georgia Ware
Stephanie Wen
The Inclusion Chair is a revolutionary mobility device that tackles the social exclusion of locomotor-disabled individuals in India from their culture of interacting and living at floor level.
India’s diversity has inspired many writers to pen their perceptions of the country’s colourful culture. However, a cohort of 2.13% of India’s 1.3 billion population is often neglected and hidden behind closed doors. This cohort is the disabled population of India. Where social interactions and living occur at floor level, locomotor disabled individuals are unable to participate when using the only medical device on the market: a conventional wheelchair.
The Samavesa (which means ‘Inclusion’ in Hindi) is our solution. A mechanical system allows a user to lower themselves to floor level for social interactions whilst maintaining the functionality of a conventional wheelchair at sitting level. We have created a modular design that allows for a vast amount of customisation to accommodate different body shapes as well as variances in disability types. The design not only uses sustainable materials such as a bamboo frame, it also incorporates low-cost and easily accessible materials to enable simple manufacture.
As a social enterprise, our strategic objective is to maximise the profit to society. To achieve this, our goto-market stream is mass distribution of our design in the form of a graphical instruction manual through partnerships with local Indian charities and UK charities with operations in India. Charities have the infrastructural network available to reach geographically inaccessible regions, allowing our target market to have their Samavesa built and maintained by local handymen.
We have hosted a focus group at DIAL disability centre in Peterborough and conducted market research through disability and cultural societies in the University of Cambridge to further understand our user’s needs. As winners of the Sustainable Product Design Competition hosted by Ecohouse Initiative, we have also been able to develop our design with external consulting from Cambridge Research and Development (CRD).
Team
Tian Xi Lim
Mateus Pniewski
Georgia Ware
Stephanie Wen
