Design shows how things look and what is important. Not everyone can participate in design. People with disabilities are often excluded. In this project, pupils with learning difficulties design posters. The process can be seen on a website and as a booklet.

Design shapes our society by influencing which values, information, and norms are communicated. But those who design also have control over how things are perceived. Access to design work is unequally distributed, as marginalized groups, including people with disabilities, have less influence. Disability Studies formulates its claim to participation with the motto ‘Nothing about us—without us’. People with disabilities should not just be the subject of social processes, but active participants in them—including in graphic design.

In this bachelor's thesis, a participatory design process is carried out and documented with pupils with learning difficulties to open up access to design for them. Together, we design posters for a club event—a real design assignment in which all design decisions are in the hands of the students. In a supportive environment, we first work on basic design exercises before developing analogue poster designs. We then developed these works further digitally until the final posters were created. The entire joint design process is documented on a website and can be designed, printed out, and bound as a booklet using a web tool.