We’re thrilled to hear that Social Innovation Camp’s first ever winner, Enabled by Design, has just received a Level 2 Award from UnLtd, the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs.

We’re finding it hard to believe that it’s been two years since Enabled by Design’s founder Denise Stephens, entered her back-of-the-envelope idea into our first ever Social Innovation Camp in April 2008.

Enabled by Design is now a site where you can post an idea for a product you need, write a review of a product you’ve used or post a note about a product or service you either love or hate. The idea is to build a community of people who are passionate about well-designed products and to provide a platform for them to share ideas that will inform smarter design for assistive equipment.

Enabled by Design incorporated in October 2008 and received some initial support from UnLtd’s Level 1 Award, as well as becoming part of the Innovation Exchange’s Next Practice Programme.

Since then, Denise has become a bit of an authority on accessibility in the design world. From the very beginning of Enabled by Design, her mission has been to change the way we think about disability and aging. She’s passionate about mainstreaming accessibility. This isn’t just about creating special products for people with very specific needs. Denise wants to see the design world embrace what she calls ‘design for all’ – product and service design which has usability and accessibility at its core, whoever the intended user is.

As well as developing the Enabled by Design website, Denise’s Level 2 Award from UnLtd’s Better Net programme will pay for her time to test a number of different business models to grow the company in the long run. And she’s got plenty of ideas: from consulting work for product design, to providing a marketplace for peer-reviewed items to signposting ‘expert users’ to companies testing products. Denise is even exploring how an Enabled By Design kitemark might work for products that have worked hardest to build accessibility into their DNA.

If you’re interested in meeting Denise and finding out more, Enabled by Design are hosting their first We Are Enabled By Design day-long event for their community tomorrow, Thursday 17th June from 9.30am at the Design Museum, London. With speakers including Charlie Leadbeater and Wayne Hemmingway, it’s set to be a day full of interesting ideas.

And as for Enabled by Design, we’re looking forward to seeing what the next two years bring!

Image: EbD founder, Denise Stephens and the EbD homepage