DREEM: Moving from Empathy to Enculturation in Disability Related Human-Centered Design

Empathy-building, the first stage in human-centered design, often involves methods that inadvertently reinforce negative stereotypes and biases toward disabled communities. In this work, we introduce a new method: Disability-Related Empathy from Existing Media (DREEM). This method focuses on enculturation rather than traditional ideas of empathy. DREEM leverages media created by disabled individuals to facilitate a deeper, culturally informed understanding. Cultural content is rich with authentic perspectives and tacit design knowledge from people with disabilities. Our four-step process includes (1) discovering relevant media, (2) close reading, (3) reflective journaling, and (4) aggregation of insights. In this article, we present our process of creating DREEM using research through design in multiple research and education contexts. Our findings show that DREEM can be applied in both design classrooms and research contexts to foster a more nuanced understanding of disability for newcomers to the space.