How Virtual Reality is Making Mobility Accessible for Everyone with Sofia Lewandowski

The Future Car: A Siemens Podcast

The promise of technology is to make life easier for everyone. In order to achieve that, designers have to understand the full range of the audience they’re designing for. Nowhere is that more challenging than when trying to understand the diversity of mental and physical disabilities that prevent people from accessing independent mobility.

Traditional design methods can’t possibly take into account the individual challenges that represent this segment of the population. In order to understand the needs of people with disabilities, we have to think outside of the box. Designers have to consider a wide range of options for operations like lifting a handle, opening a door, starting an engine, and safely operating a vehicle.

In this episode of the Women Driving the Future series, Ed Bernardon interviews Sofia Lewandowski. She’s a Senior UX Researcher, IoT & Industry 4.0 at FactoryPal, where she works directly on the factory floor to help design and create vehicles that work for everyone. Rather than assuming an understanding of the unique needs of the disabled, Lewandowski created a virtual environment that enabled people with a wide range of disabilities to be a part of the design process.

Today, we’ll talk about how she came up with the idea of combining virtual reality and autonomy, and how the consumers it benefits are instrumental in making these designs function for everyone. You’ll also hear about the use cases where the virtual design process has been successful on the ground.

Some Questions I Ask:

• What inspired you to help people with disabilities gain better access to mobility using autonomous vehicles? (3:20)
• When did you recognize that virtual reality could play a part in designing and helping autonomous vehicles help people with disabilities? (5:07)
• What was your role at HFM in the design process? (11:56)
• How do you understand what’s needed when designing vehicle interiors? (16:40)
• How close does virtual reality actually get to what you ultimately create in hardware? (23:39)

What You’ll Learn in this Episode:

• Why the traditional design process doesn’t account for the needs of people with disabilities (5:50)
• How the modular vehicle platform widened the realm of accessibility (9:22)
• Use cases that helped seniors with limited mobility get from A to B, and helped students stay connected when getting around on campus (14:11)
• How virtual reality is used to design for the disabled (20:10)

Connect With Sofia Lewandowski:

LinkedIn

Connect with Ed Bernardon:

• LinkedIn
• Future Car: Driving a Lifestyle Revolution
• Motorsports is speeding the way to safer urban mobility
• Siemens Digital Industries Software

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