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Lefty dentists and inclusive design
An article about the barriers faced by left-handed dentists, in what the article author, Robert Stribley, calls “a failure of inclusive design”. Robert’s dentist immediately “became a better dentist” after graduating dental school, as they were able to set up their working environment to best suit them.
Barriers occur in everyday situations:
The pen you have to sign things with at the bank is often positioned for right-handed people. The machines for swiping your subway card here in New York are exclusively positioned for right-handed people. And scissors? Ask left-handed people about scissors. When you’re left-handed, you realize how insensible it is for scissors to be designed exclusively for right-handed people. In fact, when I was living in Pusan, Korea in the mid-90s, I found that ambidextrous scissors were available everywhere, so I bought two pairs and still use them to this day.
Going back a few decades, children were literally punished for being left-handed, and were forced to write right-handed. Between the early 1900’s and 1960’s, the rate of left-handedness appeared to “increase” as it gradually became more accepted – but the proportion has almost certainly been constant throughout, it’s just that a large number of left-handed people had to suppress their instincts and learn to live right-handed.
Robert compares this to “the idea that transgender people have suddenly been materializing in our society, due to either being transgender becoming trendy or, worse, because (some critics posit) children being “groomed” by adults to be trans. Of course, the simpler answer is simply that transgender people are rising in numbers because they’re no longer being stigmatized to the degree that they once were”.
Robert, a creative director & “UXer”, amongst other things, concludes with this:
As we come to understand the diversity of our shared human experience then, we’re increasingly exposed to opportunities to develop more inclusive design practices. This applies across the whole spectrum of design, including the design of physical products and digital experiences.
There are both noble and practical reasons to practice inclusive design. And no good reasons not to.
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