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Good practice Imported

Bhutan's Inclusive Makeathon — ADB/JFPR Co-Design of Assistive Devices with Disabled 'Need Knowers'

Bhutan · Thimphu · See the Bhutan profile · See the Thimphu profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 82% 52/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

A three-day Thimphu Makeathon paired ~100 disabled 'need knowers' with engineers to co-design assistive devices like the SEAT desk for ADHD students, funded by ADB's Japan Fund and now being weighed for national scale-up.

Bhutan's Inclusive Makeathon — ADB/JFPR Co-Design of Assistive Devices with Disabled 'Need Knowers'

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
Asian Development Bank (ADB), with the Japan Fund for Prosperous and Resilient Asia and the Pacific (JFPR)
Period
2025–ongoing
Keywords
disability inclusion, assistive technology, education, co-design

Context

In February 2025, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Japan Fund for Prosperous and Resilient Asia and the Pacific (JFPR) convened a South Asia Regional Makeathon at Thimphu's Royal Textile Academy. Around 100 participants -- including disabled 'need knowers', special-education teachers, fabricators and international advisors -- worked in nine teams to design assistive devices tailored to individual disabled students.

Results

The top three prototypes were selected for refinement, led by SEAT (Sensory Engagement and Attention Tooling), a multi-functional desk/chair for students with ADHD. ADB documented a case in which a 12-year-old girl with mobility issues received finger-grip and pencil-holder aids at the first Makeathon and, a year later, an improved version built directly from her feedback at a second iteration.

Conclusions

This remains an early-stage, event-based programme: ADB itself notes that building a system to distribute these solutions beyond the Makeathon to special-education-needs schools nationally is still under discussion, and no country-wide rollout or independent evaluation has yet been published.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — Funded by ADB/JFPR grant; amount not disclosed in sources.
Time to results
Short (< 1 year) — Two iterations held within roughly a year (first Makeathon, follow-up a year later).
Staffing & skills
disabled 'need knowers' as co-designers, special-education teachers, fabricators, international technical advisors

Conditions for success

  • direct co-design loop with disabled participants
  • iteration on individual feedback across repeated events

Common failure modes

  • no funded mechanism yet to distribute solutions beyond the Makeathon to schools nationally

Where it fits

Governance type
multilateral-funded pilot
Scale
sub-national/event-based
Income level
lower-middle-income

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