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Good practice Imported

ThisAbles — IKEA Israel's Free 3D-Printed Accessibility Add-Ons for Standard Furniture

Israel · Tel Aviv · See the Israel profile · See the Tel Aviv profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 55% 72/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

IKEA Israel, disability charity Milbat and Access Israel co-designed free, 3D-printable add-ons — handles, switch extenders, zipper pulls — that make standard IKEA furniture usable by people with disabilities, growing from 13 to 24 designs and winning 11 Cannes Lions.

24
Free 3D-printable add-on designs published (2018–2019 launch to documentation)
11
Cannes Lions won (2019)
ThisAbles — IKEA Israel's Free 3D-Printed Accessibility Add-Ons for Standard Furniture

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
IKEA Israel, Milbat, Access Israel, McCann Tel Aviv
Period
2018–present
Keywords
retail, product design, disability inclusion, 3D printing, open source

Context

ThisAbles is a collaboration between IKEA Israel, the assistive-technology nonprofit Milbat, disability-rights organisation Access Israel and ad agency McCann Tel Aviv that designs free, downloadable 3D-printable attachments converting standard IKEA furniture into accessible products.

Results

The catalogue launched with 13 add-ons in 2018–2019 and had grown to 24 by the time it was documented; the project won 11 Lions at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2019 and was nominated for the Design Museum's Beazley Designs of the Year 2019.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years)
Staffing & skills
IKEA product engineers, Milbat assistive-technology specialists, people with disabilities as co-designers

Conditions for success

  • running a hackathon that paired product engineers directly with people with disabilities
  • publishing blueprints, instructions and demo videos free of charge with a public feedback channel for new designs

Commonly funded by

Own resources / municipal budget Philanthropic / foundation funding

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Data sources

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