IKEA Israel challenges the possibilities of furniture design with their thoughtful add-ons for people with special needs. In collaboration with the nonprofit organizations Milbat and Access Israel, each of which works to make the world more accessible for people with disabilities, IKEA has now developed ThisAbles. It consists of 3D printed add-ons for popular IKEA furniture pieces to make them easy to use for the physically disabled.
This new range of 3D printed furniture attachments is a free-to-download code for 3D printers and can also be tweaked for greater accessibility. Keeping in mind the signature style of the Swedish furniture retailer, this collection aesthetically improves the inherent accessibility of some of the existing IKEA products.
The collection includes a total of thirteen 3D printed designs so far. They include attachments like EasyHandle for PAX wardrobes with hinged doors, Rubbermaid-looking grip for Pax shelf, and the Glass Bumper which is a plastic pad for protecting glass-doored Billy bookcase from the wheelchair bumps.
These simple furniture modifications also consist of large rubber handles attached to curtains or cabinets, oversized switches on top of existing lamp buttons, and lifts that slip onto couch legs for the disabled to get up easily.
IKEA makes a strong point that in this so-called perfect world, they care for everyone. ThisAbles is proactively taking requests from the community for its next designs to avoid any pitfalls in designing or functioning of the upcoming furniture pieces.
They want to make furniture accessible to everyone without any limitations and their motive for this campaign also resonates the goodwill.
As IKEA said;
We do not guarantee that we will be able to find a solution for every need, but we promise to try.
Each object is illustrated in the campaign featuring people with disabilities using these attachments in their daily life.
Via: TheVerge
