Global Disability Innovation Hub

GDI Hub Collective Aim: To make a positive difference to the lives of disabled people.

About this group

In 2022, the 6 College sites of LCF will be brought together on 1 site at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (QEOP) in Stratford. Working with Stratford East partners, collaborators and our future neighbours, including University College London, Loughborough London, Sadlers’ Wells and the V&A, London College of Fashion is a co-founder of the Global Disability Innovation Hub.

Launched on National Paralympic Day by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, on the eve of the Paralympic Games in Rio, Brazil, the GDIHub Community is an ambitious collaboration derived from the successful delivery of the London 2012 Paralympic Games.  Most importantly individuals and groups central to the hub’s aims will have a pivotal role and active voice. The GDIHub will provide a platform for the talents of those with diverse ability, to lead the expertise of practitioners, academics and local communities.

Working across institutions, the GDIHub Partners and wider community intend to change general perception about disability through transdisciplinary design and innovation initiatives by creating a dedicated research, teaching and practice centre at the QEOP in London, with an engaged and active global network and online community.

In 2019 GDI Hub partners launched the new MSc Disability, Design and Innovation.  The groundbreaking new MSc is led and awarded by UCL, with teaching across Loughborough University London and the UAL London College of Fashion. Technology has the potential to change lives, no more so than in the emerging area of disability innovation.

• Discover more about MSc Disability, Design and Innovation at UCL

Hub themes

• Assistive Technology
• Disability Inclusive International Development
• Inclusive Design, Arts and Culture
• Accessibility of the Built Environment
• Disability Sport
• Corporate Social Responsibility

• Claudette Davis-Bonnick: Inclusive Teaching:  exploring multisensory methodologies for integrating students with visual impairment at mainstream fashion university
• Circe Ellison: Frida Kahlo: Fashion De-stigmatization through Dress, Identity, Ethnicity and Disability
• Edwin Phiri: Inclusive Marketing to Enhance Access for Disabled People
• Jennifer Poage: Participatory Design Approach to Sportswear Design for Males with Upper Limb Mobility Impairment
• Rhian Solomon: Designer Facilitator: The Body as a ‘meeting place’ for making led design science practices; towards advancing the interdisciplinary facilitation process that supports new methods of collaboration
• Millie Van Der Byl WIlliams: Self and Agency in the Arts and Dementia Care