When mobility becomes a challenge: A human-centred approach to understand the needs of people with disabilities

Abstract

Transformative service research (TSR), a priority in service research (L. Anderson & Ostrom, 2015), is concerned with a positive impact on well-being for all participants in service systems – both consumers and service providers (L. Anderson et al., 2013). Recent studies have positioned service design as key mindset to achieve TSR outcomes because of its human-centred, multidisciplinary and transformative approach (S. Anderson, Nasr, & Rayburn, 2018; Sangiorgi et al., 2019). Yet, research is lacking on how the adoption of a human-centred mindset can inform the design of transformative services. This paper presents preliminary findings of a qualitative study investigating the mobility experience of people with physical disabilities in Brisbane, Australia. The study employed critical-incident style interviews to provide participants with the opportunity to give their account of experiences about barriers and enablers to their mobility and how digitally-enabled services supported them. This study demonstrates how positioning consumers in the centre of the research enables participants to raise concerns about the issues impacting their well-being and, allow them to propose an agenda to transform their lives.