[04. Accessible
It is the packaging capable of offering itself in an "easy" way to those who use it. Packaging is accessible when it is able to offer itself for use in a simple and intuitive way, and thus takes into account the right of every consumer to be able to approach, understand and use a product.
Degree Inclusive: an accessible deodorant designed with respect for human variability
Currently, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 1 billion people worldwide suffer from some form of disability. This figure, which represents 15% of the world population, continues to increase due to the aging of the population and the increase in chronic diseases.
On many occasions, those with a disability are socially and professionally discriminated against. At the employment level, for example, only in countries that are part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the employment rate of disabled people is 44%, compared to 75% of people without disabilities. These figures take on an even more worrying perspective if we consider that the first debates around accessibility and relevant issues such as respect for and enhancement of diversity, the full and effective cultural and social inclusion of every person, the elimination of all discrimination and ‘equal access to resources, date back to the 1950s when the first movement for the rights of the disabled was born in the United States.
The so-called Barrier Free Movement was born after World War II from the requests of veterans to participate fully in the same educational and work opportunities as people without disabilities. From that moment on, the activists not only gradually managed to raise public awareness, but also achieved significant results in various countries at the institutional level, managing to introduce laws for the protection of the rights of the disabled and for the definition of design criteria for the creation of physical environments without architectural barriers. These regulatory interventions subsequently extended to other application areas, including for example digital platforms.
In recent decades, also in the field of design, various methodological approaches have emerged, such as user-centered design or human-centered-design, which have contributed to affirming the centrality of the user and of the so-called human factors as relevant elements for the development of products and services. Other design areas such as universal design, design for all or inclusive design have then placed particular emphasis on the inclusion and “universal accessibility” of designed artifacts and systems.
Accessibility is considered by public opinion and institutions as an essential right for people of all conditions, and is now finally recognized also by the productive world as a key factor for the development of products and services, in compliance with diversity and human variability.
A particularly interesting example, at this regard, is the packaging that Unilever has recently developed for what it claims to be the world’s first inclusive deodorant for people with visual and motor impairments of the upper limbs. The Rexona brand – known as Degree in the US and Canada, Sure in the UK and Ireland, Rexena in Japan and Shield in South Africa – has partnered with an interdisciplinary and inclusive group of experts, consisting of occupational therapists, engineers, designers and people with disabilities, to develop an adaptive prototype called Degree Inclusive.
Apparently simple operations such as removing or turning a cap, or exerting pressure on a dispenser to apply a cosmetic product, for a blind person or for those with limited arm mobility are actions that can become real challenges. Co-created together with the Wunderman Thompson agency and the SOUR studio, this new inclusive deodorant integrates features that make product management and application accessible, in order to simplify the lives of people with disabilities.
Degree Inclusive’s packaging has a “hook” shape and a handle that facilitate handling by the physically disabled with one hand, mouth, or feet; the label includes instructions in Braille for the blind.
Among the other design interventions aimed at improving the accessibility of the package, magnetic closures were then to that make it easier to remove the cap and its relocation; the base has been enlarged to ensure greater stability of the support; the roll-on applicator has been enlarged so that the product can reach a larger surface with each pass. Furthermore, from an environmental point of view, the deodorant is refillable, thus extending the useful life of the packaging which can be reused several times.
Thanks to the collaboration with the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the non-profit organizations Open Style Lab and The Chicago Lighthouse, Unilever invited 200 people with different visual and motor disabilities to try the new deodorant and test its different characteristics. Their feed-back will be useful to improve the product in view of the future commercial launch in the United States. After being researched and introduced in the US market, it is expected to start new tests in Europe starting in August 2021 and then start marketing it in the UK as Sure Inclusive.
The hope is that in the near future, packaging like the new Unilever deodorant – expression of a project that is highly inclusive both in the co-creation process and in the result – will no longer represent an exception but a rule, compared to a market which, despite the ever-increasing number of consumer products in recent years, it still remains highly standardized and not inclusive from an accessibility point of view. Degree Inclusive represents, in this sense, a virtuous case of ethical innovation, considering not only the needs of the “standard” groups of consumers, but the needs of all people, respecting human variability.
