social design, a new view to the disabled society case study: adaptation of samand automobile for paraplegic people

this paper considers development from social perspective. one of the most important aspects of development in every country which is also one of main goals of developments as well is to create equal opportunity for everyone in the society to reach higher scientific, cultural and social standards. for presence in the society, certain situations and equipments are needed to be developed step by step in every country. one strategic point is equalization and notice to the needs of all the groups of users of the society. this means that the local societies, small cities and rural places from one side and the disabled people from the other side should become the center of attention in every country from a general point of view. universal design began with the idea that by covering a larger group of users helps the globalization and improvement of people’s life. however, what happened was the design of certain products with high technology for users with special needs. hence the prime goal of the universal design was not fulfilled. social design with a new view at the universal design, introduce the group of users as the most important factor in shaping the different products. by entering the area of social design, the disabled people became in the center of attention of the designers because lack of attention to this group of users seemed to cause deep and serious worries. considering the primary ideology in universal design and its positive view to the society, inclusive design was formed to overcome the deficiencies of the universal design and to attract the attention of the designers to the true needs and demands of the special groups e.g. the disabled people in the society. in fact the disabled group is one of the most important groups of users in the inclusive design. in iran also, the needs of the disabled people has not been addressed and the city environment has the least facilities for their presence. one of the serious demands of the disabled people to enter the society is the lack of means and equipments of public transport. by expressing how to adapt the samand car for paraplegic disabled people, we will present the sample of a product that has a full independence level for the presence of the disabled person in the city environment. this car has been distinguished as national car in iran and this project can be recognized as the sample of social design. in fact, by redesigning the samand car, this car will be perfectly introduced as the national and social car in iran. designing new products based on disabled person’s requirements should teach and spread out at universities and academic institutes in terms of guiding new students to think and design based on social design theory. then these new designers will try to change the process of designing products based on disabled and people needs. therefore, we will give all the people an equal chance for evolvement and live in our society.