When specialized assistive technology fails, users face a particular crisis: the original
manufacturers and designers are no longer available, and no documentation exists for
replacement. This Major Research Project addresses this problem through participatory
co-design with an individual with cerebral palsy whose decades-old custom
accessible keyboard has become non-functional. Through three co-design sessions and
reflexive thematic analysis, the research examines how the participant’s embodied expertise,
developed through sustained keyboard use, informs design requirements that
observation alone cannot access. Findings show that the participant’s body-based
knowledge functions as design authority, that functional reliability takes priority over
aesthetic considerations, and that spatial optimization reflects decades of single-hand
typing adaptation. The project contributes both a functional personalized keyboard
and a reproducible design package that addresses the sustainability gap in assistive
technology by enabling future maintenance without specialized expertise.