Panjabi-Centred Design
Originated as my Master of Design thesis at OCAD University (2021 to 2023)
A framework for inclusive, culturally competent access to healthcare and social welfare for Panjabi communities.
Panjabi-Centred Design: Embracing Transgressive Liberation and Fostering Accessibility in Healthcare and Social Welfare for the Panjabi Communities.
The project began from a simple observation: existing translation models and accessibility frameworks in healthcare and social welfare were not built with Panjabi communities in mind, and retrofitting them onto Panjabi-speaking populations in Canada was failing people in specific, identifiable ways.
The framework treats community members as co-designers rather than as end users of a system designed elsewhere and handed to them. It draws on human-centred design methodology while insisting on cultural and linguistic specificity, examining how socio-cultural factors and existing translation models shape whether healthcare and welfare information is actually accessible to Panjabi communities, rather than assuming translation alone solves the problem.
The project was supported by a SSHRC in 2022 ($17,500), and has been presented at the Magnify Conference (UK, 2023), Intersections | Cross-Sections (2023), and Civil Services United Kingdom (Manchester, 2021).
The framework's central commitments, community co-design and cultural specificity over direct translation, continue directly into my doctoral research, where they take shape as transcreation: reconstructing meaning across knowledge systems rather than converting language line by line.