How STEPS Rehabilitation shaped STEPS Inclusive Design

STEPS Inclusive Design was founded by Jules and Toria in 2025, the founders of multi-award-winning specialist rehabilitation centre, STEPS Rehabilitation.

It’s physiotherapists, occupational therapists and clients inform every product from concept and design, through to development. Although both organisations operate separately, they share one ethos: supporting independence should feel non-clinical, comfortable and homely without sacrificing on beautiful design.

STEPS Inclusive Design did not begin in a design studio. It began in STEPS Rehabilitation, surrounded by clients relearning everyday skills, therapists solving practical problems, and families adjusting to new realities. The influence of STEPS runs through every product we design and manufacture.

Where it all started

STEPS Rehabilitation is a specialist residential rehabilitation facility supporting people following life changing injuries and illnesses, including:

• neurological conditions
• stroke
• spinal cord injuries
• acquired brain injurie
• orthopaedic trauma
• amputations

When Jules Shiel-Boulger and Toria Chan co-founded STEPS Rehabilitation in 2017, they set out to create a facility that felt more like home than hospital. With large en-suite bedrooms, atrium café and spaces designed for living as well as treatment, STEPS was purpose-built to move away from clinical, institutional environments.

Yet the equipment on the market; the stools, seats and aids, remained clinical – grey, beige, and unattractive. For Jules and Toria, that disconnect was impossible to ignore.

STEPS Inclusive Design was created to develop thoughtfully designed products that not only function but also complement your home.

Designed alongside clinicians, not just approved by them

Plenty of brands consult clinicians at the end of a design process. We work the other way round. physiotherapists and occupational therapists at STEPS Rehabilitation are involved from the very beginning, allowing us to observe real use, gather structured feedback, validate ideas and refine designs based on genuine user journeys rather than assumptions.

That relationship goes deeper than our current collection.

STEPS Inclusive Design has previously designed one-off solutions for individual challenges exclusively for clients of STEPS Rehabilitation. The Lana Collection is the natural evolution of that work.

Insights gathered from years of rehabilitation practice, from hydrotherapy pools to therapy kitchens, informed the collection’s every detail. The ergonomically designed handles, the secure patent-pending two-point locking mechanism, the easy-to-clean materials, they all trace back to observed needs rather than boardroom guesses.

A shared ethos

What connects STEPS Rehabilitation and STEPS Inclusive Design most is philosophy. STEPS Rehabilitation was built on the belief that recovery deserves dignity, positive and empowering surroundings. STEPS inclusive Design applies the same belief to products: supporting independence should never come at the cost of design that doesn’t look good in your own home. One restores independence through rehabilitation. The other builds it into every product.

Read more about our design process and the story behind our name, or explore the Lana Collection.

The Lana Collection launches soon. Register your interest to be the first to know.