Ciranda-An Inclusive Floor Seating Positioning System and Social Enterprise
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Updated: Dec 2, 2025
Operation of the Collaborative Composite Manufacturing CCM System
Published on: October 1, 2019
Tulio Maximo1, Erika Foureaux2, Xiao Lu Wang3
1School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong, China.
Insights
This study introduces Ciranda, a floor seating system for children with physical disabilities, promoting independence and social inclusion. The innovative design involves community participation and offers a sustainable model for assistive technology development.
Area of Science:
- Assistive Technology
- Pediatric Rehabilitation
- Inclusive Design
Background:
- Children with physical disabilities often face challenges with independent sitting, hindering social interaction and development.
- Existing assistive devices may not adequately address the complex needs of these children, impacting their inclusion.
- The development of accessible and culturally relevant solutions is crucial for improving the quality of life for children with disabilities.
Purpose of the Study:
- To design and develop a comprehensive floor seating positioning system for children in Brazil unable to sit independently.
- To address the social, developmental, and postural needs of children with physical disabilities through innovative design.
- To explore a sustainable model for the creation and distribution of assistive technology.
Main Methods:
- Collected anthropometric data from 370 children with physical disabilities who require sitting support.
- Conducted field research, including home visits, observations, and interviews with 37 families.
- Utilized co-design principles with a multidisciplinary team, integrating field insights into solution development.
Main Results:
- Developed two distinct floor seating positioning systems tailored to different needs.
- One system is a social enterprise model, involving parents and community in the building process, fostering social engagement.
- The second system is a marketable product designed to generate funds for the social enterprise, addressing accessibility and sustainability.
Conclusions:
- The Ciranda project successfully created innovative floor seating solutions promoting independence and social inclusion for children with physical disabilities.
- The integrated social enterprise and product model offers a sustainable approach to assistive technology, addressing access, training, and maintenance challenges.
- This initiative highlights the importance of community involvement and user-centered design in developing effective assistive technologies.
Abstract:
One of the first challenges for many children with physical disabilities is to sit independently. A floor seating positioning system enables this milestone, helping a child to maintain eye level with other children, play and learn on the floor, rectify his or her posture, and, therefore, helps to include the child within his or her social spectrum. Ciranda is the first comprehensive floor seat solution in Brazil to attend to those needs. The project collected anthropometric data from 370 children who were unable to sit without support. A sample of 37 families of these children was visited, observed, and interviewed. A project requirement compiled key insights from the field data to support a multidisciplinary team of collaborators to co-design solutions. The project resulted in two floor seating positioning systems to attend to different needs. One is a social enterprise where the children's parents and the community build the seat while the child in need and his or her friends engage in entertainment. The other is a salable seat that helps to raise funds for the social enterprise. The model also unravels other challenges common to assistive technologies, such as access to a device and training for the use and maintenance of the device.
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