UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI
______, 20 _____
I,______, hereby submit this as part of the requirements for the degree of:
______in: ______It is entitled: ______
Approved by: ______Beyond the Wheelchair
A thesis submitted to the
Division of Research and Advanced Studies of the University of Cincinnati
in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of
MASTER OF SCIENCE
In the School of Architecture and Interior Design Of the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning
2003
By Pamela Funderburg Heckel
B. S. Engineering, Vanderbilt University 1974 B. S. Civil Engineering, Purdue University, 1986
Committee Chair: Professor Wolfgang F. E. Preiser
Committee Member: Professor James Bradford
Committee Member: Professor David G. Saile
Abstract
The accessibility movement has become handicapped by its success.
With the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the
United States,1 the public has assumed that designating access as a civil right has solved the problem. Although civil authorities worldwide have revised building codes, they have shortsightedly focused on the removal of architectural barriers. The truth of the matter is that most people with disabilities have never used a wheelchair. Problems of accessibility have not been solved by wider doorways and gently-sloping ramps. The late Ronald
Mace and others at the Center for Universal Design in Raleigh, N. C., have developed the theory of universal design to look beyond the wheelchair.
1 Ostroff, Elaine, “Universal Design: The New Paradigm,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p. 1.3.
By: Pamela Heckel, P.E.
Graduate Student University of Cincinnati Cincinnati, OH
© Copyright 2003, Pamela Funderburg Heckel
Additional copies may be obtained from: Bell & Howell Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road P. O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 USA www.umi.com Acknowledgements
I wish to thank George Fabe for the generous scholarship he awarded me to pursue this course of study.
I wish to thank several authors who responded to my request for information during my research including: Annette Pedersen, Sandra Manley and Laurie Ringaert.
I wish to thank Elaine Ostroff for her hospitality and encouragement during the early stages of research. Her willingness to share information made my task much easier. Through her, I was able to contact others who answered my many questions.
Molly Follette Story read my first draft and offered helpful comments.
Her grasp of the issues relevant to accessibility for all was an inspiration.
She also gave me a comprehensive list of resources which supplemented those in the Universal Design Handbook.
I commend the faculty who taught me at the University of Cincinnati,
School of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning, especially John Hancock who stressed the importance of scholarly writing.
I thank committee members David Saile and James Bradford.
Although their expertise lies in other areas, they graciously agreed to mentor me through the thesis process. Their insightful comments during the review process helped me narrow my focus.
This thesis would not have been possible without the leadership of my committee chairman Wolfgang Preiser. His superior networking skills, publications and contacts gave me access to a wealth of information. I especially appreciate his careful review of multiple drafts. His encouragement meant more than he realizes.
To all of you, I am extremely grateful.
Pamela Heckel, P. E. Table of Contents
Table of Contents...... 1 Introduction...... 3 Chapter 1. What is a Disability? ...... 8 Summary ...... 16 Chapter 2. Universal Design and Accessibility ...... 17 Seven Principles of Universal Design...... 19 Summary ...... 25 Chapter 3. A History of Accessibility...... 26 Medicine and Pharmacology 1796-2003 ...... 26 Demographics ...... 29 Legislation in the United States 1944-2002...... 37 International Response to the ADA ...... 46 United Nations...... 46 European Charter...... 48 Norway ...... 48 Italy...... 50 Thailand...... 50 Australia ...... 51 Japan...... 52 Canada...... 53 Summary ...... 54 Chapter 4. How the Experts Define Universal Design...... 58 The Guimaraes Scale ...... 61 Other Expert Opinions ...... 64 Summary ...... 67 Chapter 5. Universal Design and Urban Policy...... 69 The Birth of the Urban Planner...... 69 The Rebellion against Orthodox Modern Architecture ...... 73 Making Urban Environments User Friendly...... 78 Change Attitudes...... 78 Remove Physical Barriers...... 84 Improve Safety ...... 97 Summary ...... 98 Chapter 6. Universal Design for Private Spaces...... 100 Aging in Place...... 104 Group Living Arrangements ...... 107
1 Private Residences ...... 109 Housing Guidelines...... 111 Bathrooms ...... 115 Kitchens...... 118 Summary ...... 120 Chapter 7. The Future of Universal Design...... 122 Educating the Next Generation...... 122 Testing Universal Design...... 134 Summary ...... 139 References...... 143 Appendix A – Acronyms ...... 158
2 Introduction
The purpose of this thesis is to identify those factors which contribute to the viability of the concept of universal design and make it relevant for architects today. The first chapter examines the issue of disability. There are important distinctions which need to be made between the root cause of a disability and the manifestation of disability. Designers must carefully define the problem they are attempting to solve, otherwise they may solve a different problem.
In Chapter 2, the difference between accessibility and universal design is explored. Architects and designers who adhere to the principles of universal design realize that everyone experiences some sort of functional limitation at one time or another. They attempt to build enabling environments which permit more people to live independently, and longer.
Although millions of people are living with a disability, very few are completely dependent upon others for their care.
The history of the accessibility movement is discussed in Chapter 3.
Advances reflect progress in three areas: passage of accessibility legislation, advances in medicine, and an increase in longevity. Persons with disabilities who live in countries which have passed accessibility legislation benefit from legally mandated access and the consequent increase in employment
3 opportunities and personal fulfillment.1 It has been observed that improvements in medical technology and pharmacology contribute to a longer average life expectancy in the United States.2 The affluent World
War II generation is a demographic anomaly. No previous generation has had the means to live so well for so long. A corresponding demographic shift due to an aging population has profound implications for the world.3
The origins of the term “universal design” are explored in Chapter 4.
The late Ronald Mace initially used these words to describe buildings that were not only accessible for persons using a wheelchair but were also barrier free for everyone else.4 The term has been found in other fields of design, including interior design, graphic design, industrial design, landscape architecture, urban planning, transportation planning, and telecommunications.5 In the last decade, it has also been used to refer to design for persons with specific disabilities.6 For example, a tool may be considered “universally designed” if it incorporates multiple design
1 Lawton, M. Powell, “Designing by Degree: Assessing and Incorporating Individual Accessibility Needs,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.7.3. 2 Coleman, Roger, “Designing for Our Future Selves,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.4.10. 3 Kose, Satoshi, “The Impact of Aging on Japanese Accessibility Standards,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001. p.17.1. 4 Mace, Ronald, “Universal Design, Barrier Free Environments for Everyone,” Designers West, Los Angeles, 1985, referenced by Elaine Ostroff in “Universal Design: The New Paradigm,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.1.5. 5 Story, Molly Follette, “Universal Design of Products,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.10.8.
4 approaches. Braille printers are not “universally designed,” but a standard printer with the capability to print Braille, is.
The evolution of universal design with respect to urban settings is described in Chapter 5. Political activism on behalf of people with disabilities emerged from the 1960s rebellion against Orthodox Modern
Architecture (OMA). The activists developed a three step approach to make urban areas accessible. The first step was to change attitudes about people with disabilities. The second step was to identify and remove physical barriers from the streets. The third step was to improve safety through well- designed habitats. Their efforts led to the passage of the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990.
Chapter 6 deals with changes in the design criteria for private spaces.
Universal design is proposed as a means to extend the number of years that older adults can live independently.7 For example, a business in the United
Kingdom designs adaptable houses8 that can be inexpensively modified to accommodate age-related disabilities. Countries along the Pacific Rim are
6 Goldsmith, Selwyn, “The Bottom-Up Methodology of Universal Design,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.25.3. 7Huerlimann, Matthias, “The Care Apartment Concept in Switzerland,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.37.1. 8 Best, Richard, “Lifetime Homes: Achieving Accessibility for All,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.14.3.
5 experimenting with elder-friendly apartments.9 Various products10 and spatial design criteria11 are examined through case studies. Personal identification with the place considered “home” makes it imperative to apply universal design principles to the design of these intimate spaces.
Chapter 7 looks at the future of universal design within the profession of architecture. Some professors are searching for ways to curtail the influence of the user-be-damned attitude of the post-functionalists while others heartily support the view of architecture as sculpture. Educators devoted to universal design are struggling to impress upon the next generation the need to design for people who are different from themselves.12 Many attitudinal barriers are weakened when the needs of the elderly are considered.13 Various teaching strategies are being tested.14
Several strongly recommend that buildings be evaluated against user- mandated criteria.15 Public and private spaces of the future may be held to
9 Harrison, James B., “Housing for Older Persons in Southeast Asia: Evolving Policy and Design,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.40.7. 10 Mullick, Abir, and Levine, Densie, “Universal Kitchens and Appliances,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.41.1. 11 Mullick, Abir, “Universal Bathrooms,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.42.1. 12 Pedersen, Annette, “Designing Cultural Futures at the University of Western Australia,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.53.9. 13 Coleman, Roger, “Designing for our Future Selves,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.4.16. 14 Welch, Polly ed., Strategies for Teaching Universal Design, Boston, Adaptive Environments, and, Berkeley, CA, MIG Communications, 1995. 15 Preiser, Wolfgang F.E., “Toward Universal Design Evaluation,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.9.2.
6 higher expectations for both usability and aesthetics. The time has come for designers to look beyond the wheelchair.
7
Chapter 1. What is a Disability?
Over the past thirty years, activists for the accessibility movement have campaigned to replace words like “handicapped” and “disabled” with the phrase “people with disabilities.” This politically correct terminology was chosen to reduce the stigma associated with obvious disabilities.
Although a disabled vehicle may be considered useless, people with disabilities are not. Putting people first is the right way to describe someone with a disability.
There are two origins of disabilities: congenital and acquired. In most cases, congenital disabilities are permanent. In some cases, acquired disabilities are not. One factor influencing the duration of the disability is the severity of injury. Another factor is the part of the body affected.
The medical profession identifies two causes of congenital disabilities: genetic or developmental. Genetic defects are caused by errors in the replication of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The offspring is genetically disparate from its parents. All evolutionary advances are due to genetic defects. If people with the dissimilar genetic material are permitted to reproduce, those traits may be passed on to the next generation. The
8 common perception is that genetic disabilities are permanent although advances in molecular genetics may change this.
DISABILITY PROFILE TYPE ORIGIN DURATION congenital genetic Permanent developmental Some progress, no cure acquired neonatal Occasional progress, no cure accidental Full recovery for some injuries
Table 1: Description of Disabilities
Congenital disabilities exist at birth. The study of congenital developmental disabilities focuses on the ways in which the fetus develops in the womb. For example, scientific research suggests that the drugs a mother takes while pregnant may affect the development of her child. The drug thalidomide C13H10N2O4, given to pregnant women to control nausea, has been linked to the stunted development of arms. Several congenital disabilities are associated with childbirth itself. For example, cerebral palsy, a type of paralysis, is the result of oxygen deprivation during the birthing process. Cerebral palsy is a permanent condition. When congenital disabilities affect the major organs or soft tissues, the effects may not become apparent until later in life when the child misses a developmental milestone. The child may then be classified as developmentally delayed.
9 Sometimes the cause of the lack of progress is genetically based. Early intervention specialists are studying ways to help these children catch up with their peers.
Acquired disabilities are the result of events which happen after birth.
Age-related disabilities such as hearing loss affect everyone who lives long enough. Accidents can happen to anyone. Disabilities acquired during life may be permanent or temporary. For example, spinal cord injuries are usually permanent but not always fatal. Although a broken leg is generally considered a temporary disability, multiple fractures or other complications can result in a permanent condition. Health, age and severity determine the length of time a person is affected by a disability.
The manifestation of a disability is its resulting physical, functional, or cognitive limitations. Professor Gregg Vanderheiden teaches at the
University of Wisconsin and is the founder/director of Trace RandD Center.
As a designer, Vanderheiden is more concerned about the effects of a disability rather than its origin. He specializes in telecommunications design and has compiled a list of temporary disabilities resulting from common situations. The purpose of the list is to help designers imagine ways their products can be used to work around a disabling situation.
10 Consider the inability to read. Generally it is blamed on a lack of education. Reading comprehension is reduced when the language is unfamiliar. Two other explanations include a learning disability and poor vision. In each instance, the person who cannot read is at a disadvantage.
The root cause for a reading disability may be permanent or temporary, congenital or acquired. The design solution varies with the root cause and the application. Children with Dyslexia, a learning disability, can acquire adaptive skills which help them read. Way-finding devices with pictographs or a color code may solve the problem for some.
The ability to see is reduced in the absence of light or in the presence of glare. For example, driving East at sunrise or West at sunset can interfere with vision. Some people are not able to drive at night. There are also genetic and age-related vision impairments and the accidental loss of vision.
While spectacles can compensate for myopia and surgery can remove cataracts, some diseases of the eye cannot be cured.
There are ways to make the environment safer for people with low vision, whether or not they can read. The designer may place textured tiles at the top of the stairs or a yellow paint strip along the edge of the sidewalk for people whose vision cannot be fully restored. In each instance, the designer must narrowly define the problem and seek a solution for only that
11 problem. A broad problem statement may result in a superficial multi- faceted solution which does not address the original concern. A universal design solution for the inability to read/see would not exclude people who can.
The ability to hear can be limited by both physical and environmental factors. Most senior citizens experience some age-related hearing loss.
Hearing aids magnify sounds and can restore some lost hearing ability.
Fluid in the ear, caused by allergies, swimming or teething, reduces ear drum vibration and affects hearing. Some pediatricians advise their patients to chew gum to help the fluid drain. Too much noise, competing noises, or enforced silence also interfere with hearing. Designers have developed fire alarms which emit both an alarm and a flashing light for those people who cannot see and for those who cannot hear. A possible solution for people who have both disabilities might be a personal smoke sensor which vibrates.
Loss of the sense of touch is associated with nerve damage, poor circulation, and callusing. Some calluses are not disabling. A callus on the finger tips is an advantage for a string musician, just as a callus on the feet is welcomed by a hiker. In other instances, the loss of sensation is indicative of a more serious condition. Nerve damage due to burns caused by chemicals or fire can contribute to a loss of touch. For example, in poor
12 societies, the cook develops calluses from handling hot foods; an insulated hot pad is an unaffordable luxury. Poor blood circulation caused by illnesses such as diabetes damages the nerves and contributes to callus formation. A reduced ability to feel pain can lead to a more serious injury, even death. In one example, the root cause is economic. In the other, it is a medical condition. Understanding the root cause can be more important for design purposes than treating the symptoms.
Wearing gloves protects the hands somewhat but can temporarily affect manual dexterity. In fact, automobile test engineers at The Ford
Motor Company wearing the “Third-Age Suit” experience age-related disabilities such as loss of manual dexterity.16 Many seniors report a loss of strength in their hands. Different hand sizes also affect strength and dexterity. For example, both a child and his grandfather may be unable to open a jar of pickles. The child’s hand is too small. The grandfather may have arthritis. The grandfather may be able to use a piece of rubber sheeting to grip the jar.
Temporary cognitive disabilities include those caused by medication and those caused by stress. Unfamiliar situations might result in an irrational response. For example, accidents happen because someone is distracted. A
13 person under the influence of alcohol or drugs loses both dexterity and mental capability. Some people become disoriented after receiving anesthesia in surgery. Solutions for these temporary disabilities are vastly different than those proposed for a permanent cognitive disability such as
Alzheimer’s disease.
Functional disabilities have many causes. For example, some women find pregnancy disabling. Hormonal changes contribute to sleepiness and insomnia. The increase in girth may interfere with a variety of tasks including driving and tying shoe laces. Surgery for a caesarean delivery has numerous complications and results in a temporary prohibition from climbing stairs. Post partum depression affects some women more than others. Changes in the body during pregnancy may exacerbate existing medical problems, such as heart disease, or initiate others, such as diabetes.
Because pregnancy is considered a temporary condition, most architects address the issue by adding bedrooms to the dwelling rather than considering the obvious functional advantages of a step-less threshold and a main floor master bedroom and bath. Homes designed to accommodate a woman who has had a Caesarean delivery can be equally beneficial for someone who has similar functional limitations for different reasons.
16 Steinfeld, Aaron and Edward Steinfeld, “Universal Design in Automobile Design,” in Universal Design
14 According to a study by Louis Harris and Associates, 70% of people with disabilities acquire them after birth.17 A study of elderly persons in the
Netherlands revealed six common, chronic disabling diseases. They are diabetes, cancer, arthritis, respiratory/lung disease, stroke/cerebrovascular disease, and cardiovascular disease. In the survey, more than 40% of the respondents between the ages of 55-74 admit difficulty with some functional activities. These include walking for five minutes, carrying something heavier than 5 kg, running to catch a bus, or cutting toenails. A somewhat higher percentage admits they want help with cooking, cleaning, shopping, and filling out forms. Over 80% of the group ages 75-89 requested such help. In addition, more than 20% of the group ages 75-89 required some assistance with activities required for daily living such as getting dressed, washing, eating, getting into and out of bed, toileting, getting on or off a chair, and walking. What is most amazing is that 70% of the respondents ages 55-89 were satisfied with life.18
Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.50.2. 17 Louis Harris and Associates, The New Competitive Advantage, National Organization on Disability, Washington, DC, 1994, referenced by James L. Mueller in “Office and Workplace Design,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001. 18 Deeg, Dorly J. H. , “Research and the Promotion of Quality of Life in Older Persons in the Netherlands,” in Preparation for Aging, Eino Heikkinen, Jorma Kuusinen, and Isto Ruoppila, eds. New York, Plenum Publishing Corporation, 1995, p.159.
15 Summary
People with physical disabilities are part of the tapestry of any urban fabric. Most of them lead normal lives. Persons with chronic disease learn to cope with progressive limitations. A person with any type of disability may enlist the support of family, friends and neighborhood organizations.
Very few people are completely dependent upon others. From the perspective of universal design, the job of the architect is to design enabling environments that prolong and enhance independence.
16
Chapter 2. Universal Design and Accessibility
What is the difference between universal design and accessibility design? This question is difficult for educators to answer. Polly Welch and
Stanton Jones believe that the two terms have become confused because advocates believe the term “universal design” is less stigmatizing and therefore easier to market. Both terms describe design for people with special needs; however, accessibility is frequently limited to wheelchair accessibility. Proponents of universal design have been slow to clarify the distinction between the two approaches. The familiar white wheelchair icon is displayed with products that are accessible by both the general public and by persons with special needs, further blurring the distinction. While some manufactured products are usable by many different groups, the specific application of those products determines whether the product is universal.
Polly Welch and Stanton Jones believe that “...its paradigmatic shift from special design for people with special needs to inclusive design for a diverse population has not been sufficiently clear for people to realize that universal design is fundamentally different from achieving accessibility as outlined in
17 the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and building codes.”19
Buildings with flush thresholds, wide doorways, stair-less paths of travel and accessible toilets are considered handicapped accessible according to the provisions of the building code in the United States. Amenities which are designed to be usable by those with limited vision, mobility, hearing and/or cognitive skills and by the general public are considered universally designed. Universal design is not merely compliance with ADA-based codes. While the additional needs of one group may be met by features of the design, the designer has included other features required to make the design work for the mainstream consumer.
The primary advantage of universal design has been the increase in market share. Welch and Jones find that economic profitability is a benefit of inclusive design, but not a design goal per se. When problems are presented in the traditional architecture design studio, the emphasis has been on aesthetics and form, not usability and certainly not the bottom line. There is nothing glamorous about living with a disability, but there is a certain elegance about an enabling environment.
Part of the job of an architect is to meet the needs of a client. Students of architecture depend on their teachers to define the client profile. Most
19 Welch, Polly and Stanton Jones, “Advances in Universal Design Education,” in Universal Design
18 often, they assume their client is physically similar to themselves. They see the young, energetic developer as their client, not the future tenant who may have a disability. In many cases, their concept of older adults is formed from brief visits with grandparents, very few of whom would spoil those precious moments by talking about their illnesses, pills and pains. When these young adults read the building code, they assume that designing for wheelchair accessibility is sufficient. Unless they are exposed to the philosophy of universal design and given a more complex client profile, their assumption is correct.
Seven Principles of Universal Design
The seven Principles of Universal Design were developed in 1995 at the Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State in Raleigh, North
Carolina.20 Mace and other pioneers, including Bettye Rose Connell, Mike
Jones, Jim Mueller, Abir Mullick, Elaine Ostroff, Jon Sanford, Ed Steinfeld,
Molly Story and Gregg Vanderheiden, established guidelines for universal design.21 The seven principles articulate the desirable outcomes for the design process but do not mandate either priorities or solutions. The central
Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.51.4. 20 Story, Molly Follette, “The Principles of Universal Design,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.10.5. 21 Christophersen, Jon, ed., Universal Design, 17 Ways of Thinking and Teaching, Oslo, Norway, Husbanken, 2002. p.13.
19 idea underlying the principles is that temporary physical impairments are every bit as inconvenient as permanent ones. The Principles of Universal
Design, Version 2.0 was released on April 1, 1997 and is discussed below.
The Principles of Universal Design, Version 2.0 The first principle is that of equitable use The second principle is flexibility in use The third principle is simple and intuitive use The fourth principle is perceptible information The fifth principle is the tolerance for error The sixth principle is low physical effort The seventh principle is size and space for approach and use.
Table 2: Principles of Universal Design22
1. EQUITABLE USE
A useful design is marketable to people with diverse abilities. The
design does not stigmatize or segregate users. It is universally
appealing. For example, consider the door handle and who can use
it. Alvar Aalto developed a modular, lever door handle that could
be used by tall or short people. Because very young children can
open doors with lever handles they are not recommended for day
care centers. Automatic doors benefit everyone who has their
hands full. Another example of equitable use is the side-by-side
22 Story, Molly Follette, “The Principles of Universal Design,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.10.7.
20 refrigerator that permits a seated or a standing person to reach into
the freezer and the cooler.
2. FLEXIBILITY IN USE
The design accommodates a wide range of individual preferences
and abilities. The design can be used equally well by left or right-
handed persons. When it is necessary to interface with another
tool, the equipment must offer a choice. For example, most
computer hardware can be configured with a joystick, a mouse or a
keyboard. Software that offers a choice of printer and format
options is considered universal. Adjustable speed listening devices
are another example.
3. SIMPLE AND INTUITIVE USE
The design is easy to understand, regardless of the user’s
experience, knowledge, language skills, or current concentration
level. In keeping with the third principle, a universal design should
be easily understood. For example, icons used on automobile dash
boards can be understood by most people. The third principle
requires all unnecessary complexity to be eliminated. For
example, prompting and feedback should be part of software
design; information should be arranged in the order of importance.
21 4. PERCEPTIBLE INFORMATION
The design must communicate information effectively to the user,
regardless of ambient conditions or the user’s sensory abilities.
For example, some companies offer language options in appliance
manuals. Equipment can use contrasting visible, audible, and
tactile signals to differentiate between options. One TV-VCR
manufacturer created a video to teach users how to program their
television.
5. TOLERANCE FOR ERROR
The design minimizes hazards and adverse consequences of
accidental or unintended actions. Fail-safe mechanisms that are
considered universal include surge protectors for computers and
ground-fault interrupters in bathrooms. Text editors allow the user
to undo a cut or paste, insert or delete action. Many computer
programmers insert a prompt option for menus that requires the
user to confirm a choice.
6. LOW PHYSICAL ERROR
This means the design can be used efficiently and comfortably and
with a minimum of fatigue. The device should operate with
reasonable force and with a neutral body position. For example,
22 levers instead of knobs can be used to open valves. In an effort to
reduce the physical effort required to carry luggage, manufacturers
attached wheels to suitcases. Another intention of the sixth
principle is to reduce repetitive motion. For example, ergonomic
furniture has been designed to reduce fatigue at work.
7. SIZE AND SPACE FOR APPROACH AND USE
Prescriptive building codes specify required distances for
thresholds, slopes and distances for ramps, and other dimensional
criteria for the built environment. Making space for assistive
personnel or devices requires dimensions in excess of the code and
is considered “universal.” Some public places have multiple
height drinking fountains to accommodate seated and standing
persons, children and adults.
Budget constraints and safety considerations often dictate which of the seven Principles of Universal Design can be applied. Budget constraints force the owner to prioritize the amenities available. For example, many buildings taller than three stories have an elevator and stairs for access and egress, but few have ramps to access the higher floors. When the elevators are out of service, persons using wheelchairs have restricted access to the building. Safety considerations (Principle 1) for certain groups may override
23 the desire for simple and intuitive use (Principle 3), as previously noted in the choice of door handles and locks.
Some design criteria for buildings can inadvertently exclude groups not previously disabled by the environment. This happens when the design criteria for the selected user group are incompatible with the needs of another group. For example, an ambulatory person with impaired mobility may not be able to walk up a ramp designed to accommodate a person who uses a wheelchair.23 Differences between the reach of a seated person and a standing person make it almost impossible to design some things that work equally well for both. For example, elevator buttons that are easily reached by a person seated in a wheelchair may be too low for everyone standing in the elevator. A similar access paradox exists for water fountains. While lower water fountains are desirable for children, lower elevator buttons may not be. Accommodating both the persons who use a wheelchair and those who do not is one facet of universal design.
Marcelo Pinto Guimaraes teaches universal design at the Universidade
Federal de Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He noticed that many businesses, government organizations, and homeowners in Brazil prefer to use temporary ramps and other features to provide limited accessibility, or
23 Goldsmith, Selwyn, Designing for people with disabilities, 2nd edition, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1967.
24 “visitability.”24 Under this scenario, access is restricted to one or two rooms of the building. There is no access for disabled employees. Visitability then creates an access paradox by permitting the company to do business with people they cannot employ.
Summary
Although the concept of universal design is familiar to those who construct spaces, it is being introduced to the general public in countries such as the United States, where advocates for the elderly and people with disabilities are permitted to engage in public, political debate. As more people are exposed to the principles underlying universal design, they begin to consider ways to compensate for other types of disabilities. For example, industrial designers of kitchen appliances may create a talking cook top for people who cannot see. The audible feature of the cook top has little value for people who cannot hear, but does not preclude them from using the appliance. Deciding who is most likely to benefit from improvements is one side of the design problem. Realizing who will be excluded from using the original tool because of the improvements is the other. This is the heart of universal design.
24Guimaraes’, Marcelo Pinto, “Universal Design Evaluation in Brazil: Development of Rating Scales,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p. 57.5.
25
Chapter 3. A History of Accessibility
The demand for universal design has increased as the Baby Boomers and their parents, age. Modern medicine, progressive legislation and a demographic shift have contributed to this trend. The percentages of the young and the old in the demographic profile have been changed by advances in medical science. Falling birth rates in many western countries have led to the passage of legislation to encourage fulltime employment for all persons between the ages of 18 and 65, including those with disabilities.
Improvement in the survivability rate of persons affected by chronic illness has increased the number of persons with disabilities who want to remain or become gainfully employed. Finally, the increase in life expectancy in many parts of the world has contributed to the need for inclusive environments for the elderly. Therefore it is important to understand how these factors have affected the accessibility movement and the demand for universal design.
Medicine and Pharmacology 1796-2003
Advances in medicine have been credited by the popular press with increasing the average life expectancy in the United States. In the
September 13, 2002, edition of The Cincinnati Enquirer, Laura Meckler of
26 the Associated Press reported the average life expectancy for Americans was
76.9 years.25 She cited statistics originally published by the Population
Reference Bureau26 that compared the life expectancy for a person born in
1900 (47.3 years) with that of the generation born in 1950 (68.2 years).
Mortality rates have fallen for persons afflicted with chronic diseases, cancer, accidents, and infectious diseases. The implications for society in general cannot be ignored. People are living longer.
The most notable accomplishments in medicine from the past 200 years of medical research stem from the identification of disease causing organisms such as the virus and bacteria.27 Edward Jenner’s development of a smallpox vaccine in 1796 was one of the first successes of modern medicine that contributed to a longer life expectancy for Western Europeans.
A French chemist and bacteriologist Louis Pasteur (1822-95) developed a procedure called pasteurization to prevent food spoilage and reduce the number of deaths from food poisoning and starvation. The discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928 was another pharmacological breakthrough. Penicillin significantly reduced mortality rates. Ernest Chain
25 Meckler, Laura, “Life expectancy for Americans reaches record 76.9 years,” The Cincinnati Enquirer, Friday, September 13, 2002, A7. 26 Treas, Judith, “Older Americans in the 1990s and Beyond,” Population Bulletin (Washington, DC) 50, no. 2 (May 1995) as noted by Sadler, William A., The Third Age, Cambridge, MA, Perseus Publishing, 2000, p. 207. 27 Laslett, Peter, A Fresh Map of Life: The Emergence of the Third Age, second edition, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1996.
27 of Great Britain and Howard W. Florey in Australia were able to purify it for use in 1940. Life-saving antibiotics overturned several Victorian conventions, among them the practice of pregnant women not appearing in public. Maternal and infant mortality rates were reduced by the availability of antibiotics. Children survived major illnesses. While persons wounded during World War I generally died of infection, many soldiers wounded in
World War II lived and returned home. The first accessibility legislation28 in 1944 in Great Britain was designed to permit these men to reenter society after the war. Advances in modern pharmacology reinforced the optimism of the age. It was soon joined by another miracle – the polio vaccine. Many were convinced that death itself would soon give way.
John Salmen of Universal Designers and Consultants, Inc., publishes the Universal Design Newsletter. He insists, “Accessibility standards were a direct outgrowth of the changing demographics that followed advances in medical technology. Medical technology allowed many people to live who would have otherwise died in World War II, the Korean War, and the polio epidemic of the early 1950's. For the first time in history, there was a large population of young Americans using wheelchairs. Public and private
28 Sandhu, Jim S., “An Integrated Approach to Universal Design: Toward the Inclusion of All Ages, Cultures, and Diversity,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.3.4.
28 efforts for veterans and other survivors provided rehabilitation and educational opportunities, resulting in a large, well-educated population of young people who would not accept discriminatory practices that limited their participation in society."29 Exposure to these capable people changed
American public opinion about persons with disabilities.
Modern drugs and improved surgical techniques developed during the twentieth century reduce deaths due to infectious disease, cancer, strokes, spinal cord injuries and heart disease.30 Many survive previously fatal injuries and chronic disease. Knowledge about disease causing organisms has led to improvements in infrastructure and the development of vaccines with a corresponding decrease in malaria, typhus, diphtheria, measles, polio, cholera, mumps, whooping cough, and smallpox. Although not all countries have access to the latest technology, modern medicine can be credited with increased longevity.
Demographics
The average life expectancy for people born in England in the twentieth century, according to noted historical sociologist Peter Laslett, has increased almost twofold when compared with the life expectancy for
29 Salmen, John, "U.S. Accessibility Codes and Standards: Challenges for Universal Design," in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.12.2.
29 persons born in 1900.31 What factors have contributed to the observed demographic shift? Starting during the Victorian era, approximately 1870, the birthrate in England declined. This drop in the number of children was accompanied by a drop in mortality, creating inadvertently a larger percentage of older persons. Many lived with age-related disabilities, including vision loss and chronic disease.
Why are people living longer? Laslett attributes the increase in life expectancy from 1900-1930 to an improvement in the material standards of the general population. Material wealth includes food, clothing and shelter.
Significant improvements in infrastructure guarantee clean water and the avoidance of epidemics caused by unhealthy contact with human refuse. He credits the medical profession with the increase in longevity after 1930.
How has the observed demographic shift affected society? A large group of pensioners now live for a decade or longer after retirement. Laslett refers to life after retirement and before the onset of debilitating illness as the Third Age, a time of reduced responsibilities and increased personal fulfillment.32 Age 65 was arbitrarily established as the retirement age in the
30 Meckler, Laura, “Life expectancy for Americans reaches record 76.9 years,” The Cincinnati Enquirer, Friday, September 13, 2002, A7. 31 Laslett, Peter, A Fresh Map of Life: The Emergence of the Third Age, second edition, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1996, p.44. 32 Laslett, Peter, A Fresh Map of Life: The Emergence of the Third Age, second edition, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1996, p. 4.
30 late eighteen hundreds by the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck. At that time, the average life expectancy in Europe was fewer than fifty years according to another sociologist William Sadler.33 The current expected longevity was not foreseen when most pension systems were established.
Many senior citizens now in their Third Age find themselves at loose ends after retirement because they never expected to live so long and did not plan for it. They may fill their days working without pay for a favorite cause or charity. Others take advantage of the early retirement packages to change careers. Sadler and Laslett advise the current generation to plan for the golden years.
Although the previously cited Harris research did not include persons with a developmental disability, certain generalizations can be made according to Susan Balandin a professional speech pathologist and senior research fellow at the Centre for Developmental Disability Studies in
Sydney, Australia, and Robyn Chapman, a physiotherapist and manager at the Spastic Centre of New South Wales in Sydney. The societal and medical advances over the past 50 years can potentially benefit all humans, extending the life of those with physical disabilities whether they were acquired or congenital. Balandin and Chapman stress the importance of
33 Sadler, William A., The Third Age, Cambridge, MA, Perseus Publishing, 2000, p. 17.
31 planning for the future to prolong the years spent living independently in the community and to minimize the time spent living in an institution.34
Tom Schuller at the Centre for Continuing Education at the
University of Edinburgh cites research that indicates women adjust more easily to life after work than men.35 One explanation is that men experience a linear path through life, focused primarily on obtaining an education to prepare themselves for a specific career path, while women often find themselves sidetracked by the demands of marriage, children, volunteer work, and aging parents. As a result, women often have plans for their Third
Age.
Not all nations have experienced this demographic shift. Persons living in nations with a high standard of living, live longer than their peers in poor, developing countries. One explanation, then, compares the material wealth of nations. Rich nations are those with an established infrastructure and a solid industrial base which provides employment, education, food, fuel, potable water, medical care and shelter for most of their citizens.
These countries have a solid basis for capital formation and the creation of
34 Balandin, Susan and Robyn Chapman, “Aging with a Developmental Disability at Home: An Australian Experience,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.38.8. 35 Schuller, Tom, “Life After Work,” in Preparation for Aging, Eino Heikkinen, Jorma Kuusinen, and Isto Ruoppila, eds. New York, Plenum Publishing Corporation, 1995,p.22.
32 personal wealth through employment. Resources are available to encourage innovative solutions for problems of accessibility.
There is a completely different story in developing nations. For example, according to Laslett, based on data available from the United
Nations in 1988, the average life expectancy in Sierra Leone is 35. The lack of basic necessities such as clean water, shelter and nutritious food is partially to blame. Economic hardship abounds. Very few persons have access to capital for investment in new businesses. Jobs are scarce, education is limited, and vaccines and antibiotics are not available. Although polio has been eradicated in the United States, it is still found in Bangladesh and India. Diseases caused by contaminated water are prevalent and fatal.
According to Balaram, the income differential between the rich and the poor is more pronounced in developing countries where the middle class does not exist.36 Persons with personal wealth have the capital to risk in business ventures, which in turn can increase their economic status. The rich create jobs. Eventually the newly-created middle class accumulates enough personal wealth to afford labor saving devices. Rising demand for these items in turn creates more jobs.
36 Balaram, Singanapalli, “Universal Design and the Majority World,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p. 5.2.
33 Most often, the employer dictates the terms of employment, although in some countries labor unions are permitted to intercede on behalf on the workers. In developing economies, those who are most likely to be employed are the energetic young, including children, and the able-bodied.
Persons with disabilities acquired before employment are less likely to be hired. Employees who become disabled find themselves out of work. For example, in Latin America, young women who work in the textile industries are dismissed if they become pregnant.
Social assimilation of persons with disabilities in developing economies has encountered the some of the same prejudices found in the
West. One explanation for this attitude is based on the lack of presence.
Few people in wheelchairs are visible in the traditionally inaccessible street markets. A lack of presence contributes to the resistance against universal design not only in Asia but also in countries with very cold, wet climates, such as Norway. Olav Rand Bringa suggests that it is because the perceived need for accommodation is less.37
Personal lifestyles are reflected in demographics. Statistical evidence indicates that the birthrate in the wealthy nations is declining while people in
37 Bringa, Olav Rand, “Norway’s Planning Approach to Implement Universal Design” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.29.3.
34 those countries are living longer.38 Prejudice is increasing against large families in China, where the government limits each woman to one live birth, and in Europe where access to contraceptives and abortion has made pregnancy a personal choice. Over the past 200 years, remarkable increases in longevity have contributed to the increase in the percentage of persons living beyond age 65.39 This trend is viewed with alarm in countries which distribute social welfare benefits financed by the current work force. Since it is political suicide to propose either a reduction in benefits or a postponement of the retirement age, some government officials are trying to improve worker productivity. The over-riding concern behind legislation such as the ADA in the United States appears to be that of increasing the independence of persons with disabilities to lessen their demands for government subsidies. This is a very pragmatic goal for civil rights legislation.
Other countries had a different agenda for establishing accessibility guidelines. An apartment building was specifically built to accommodate seniors in Singapore in response to two demographic trends.40 The first
38 Laslett, Peter, A Fresh Map of Life: The Emergence of the Third Age, second edition, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1996. 39 Coleman, Roger, “Designing for Our Future Selves,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.4.2. 40 Harrison, James D., “Housing for Older Persons in Southeast Asia: Evolving Policy and Design,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.40.4.
35 trend was the increasing number of elderly persons. The second trend was the migration of young adults to the cities which left the older relatives alone in rural areas. Although it was a cultural expectation in the Pacific Rim that aging parents would live with their adult children, most of the elderly found that the existing apartments in the city were not elder friendly. The housing authority built the apartments in the city to strengthen the ties between young families and their parents. The underlying rationale was that the ability of family members to care for their elders was improved when they live nearby. The demand for government services decreased when family members cared for their elders.41 This pragmatic goal was rooted in cultural expectations.
Census data indicates a worldwide trend toward an aging population.42
Demographic trends in the United Kingdom indicate that one out of every three persons is over the age of 50.43 In Europe, 15% of the population is age 65 or older. Demographic trends in Japan indicate that 25% of the population will be over the age of 65 by 2015.44 The disabling effects on an
41 Harrison, James D., “Housing for Older Persons in Southeast Asia: Evolving Policy and Design,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.40.18 42 Laslett, Peter, A Fresh Map of Life: The Emergence of the Third Age, second edition, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1996.p.44 43 Coleman, Roger, “Designing for Our Future Selves,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.4.8 44 Kose, Satoshi, “The Impact of Aging on Japanese Accessibility Design Standards,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.17.1.
36 older population of cities constructed hundreds of years ago must be mitigated if these future seniors are to remain independent, contributing citizens.
Legislation in the United States 1944-2002
International celebrities throughout the past have helped people with disabilities enter the mainstream of society. For example, a French boy named Louis Braille (1809-1852) developed in 1824 a language consisting of raised dots and dashes embossed on paper. Blind and deaf from a fever in
1882, Helen Keller (1880-1968) became an internationally famous author, lecturer, educator, and advocate for people with disabilities. Franklin
Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) who contracted polio in 1926, served as
President of the United States from 1933 until 1945. His association with the leaders of Europe, in particular Sir Winston L. S. Churchill, may have contributed to the passage of the first accessibility legislation by the British
Parliament. Each of these three people, as well as many not mentioned, showed that people with disabilities could live full lives as productive citizens. Unfortunately, the stigma associated with age-related disabilities remained.
37 In the United States, the public became acutely aware of physical barriers in the environment as injured World War II veterans returned home and sought employment.45 Businesses felt it was their patriotic duty to employ these heroes and were highly regarded when they made some accommodation to do so. Young soldiers who had enlisted in the armed forces in exchange for educational benefits returned from the war determined to pursue a college degree. University administrators realized that stairs and narrow doorways prevented students in wheelchairs from attending class.46 They often discovered that the only accessible entrance to the building was through the loading dock.47
Elaine Ostroff, who founded the Adaptive Environments Center in
Boston, MA with Cora Beth Abel in 1978, noted that there was a subtle shift in public opinion toward people with disabilities in the 1950s. It was during the Mid-Twentieth Century that accessibility was first associated with civil rights legislation.48 It began as an issue over education for children of color in the United States. As a result of the Brown versus the Board of Education decision in 1954 that permitted children of color to attend their
45 Salmen, John, "U.S. Accessibility Codes and Standards: Challenges for Universal Design," in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.12.2. 46 Tepfer, Fred, “Educational Environments: From Compliance to Inclusion,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.46.2. 47 VideoTakes, Inc., “Universal Design Education,” video-recording. Berkeley, University of California, College of Environmental Design, 1995.
38 neighborhood schools, parents of children with birth defects sued school districts to permit their children to be “mainstreamed” in the traditional classroom. “Separate is not equal” applied to schools for people with disabilities, too. Parents whose disabled children had been previously sent to separate schools were able to demand that their children attend the local schools.
Fred Tepfer identified three pieces of legislation that significantly changed the accessibility of public institutions of learning. The United
States Civil Rights Act of 1964 was intended to address discrimination based on race. It opened the door for the human rights activists and formed the cornerstone for other legislation to define and guarantee rights of United
States citizens.49 Politically active groups such as the Disabled American
Veterans lobbied Congress on behalf of soldiers maimed in combat. Not only did they demand access to higher education, but they also pushed for job training for all disabled veterans. The Architectural Barriers Act of 1968 and Section 504 of Rehabilitation Act of 1973 mandated accommodations for people with disabilities.50 This legislation prohibited discrimination
48 Ostroff, Elaine, “Universal Design Practices in the United States,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.43.3. 49 Salmen, John, "U.S. Accessibility Codes and Standards: Challenges for Universal Design," in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.12.2. 50 Ostroff, Elaine, “Universal Design Practices in the United States,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.43.4.
39 against persons with disabilities in any federally-funded programs and thereby permitted Vietnam veterans with disabilities to attend college on the
Government Inductees (GI) Bill.
In some communities, in 1973, it was still illegal for children with birth defects to attend public school. The Education of Handicapped
Children Act of 1975 required schools receiving federal funds to admit children with disabilities. On one hand, parents insisted that their children with disabilities be mainstreamed. On the other, at school many of these children were assigned to special education classes held in and limited to the most accessible room of the school. Mainstreaming was a misnomer.
Because of architectural barriers, children with physical disabilities had minimal contact with the other children. Accommodations for blind and deaf children were nonexistent in neighborhood schools. Removing architectural barriers in older buildings was expensive and difficult. Because very few new school buildings were built in the 1980s, many schools remained inaccessible until the 1990s.
Starting in the 1980s, exciting advances were made in the field of neuroscience. People with traumatic brain injuries survived and were rehabilitated and reintegrated into society. The scooters or powered wheelchairs they used could negotiate steeper paths, but the motorized
40 vehicles required wider paths and doorways than manually propelled wheelchairs. Dimensional requirements specified by the American National
Standards Institute (ANSI) in ANSI A117.1-1980 were wider than the regulations adopted in 1977 based on Section 504. Tepfer asserts, “The minimum standard of compliance provided by these codes often represented a major improvement in access for students and teachers with disabilities, but they also became ingrained in some designers’ minds as maximums as well as minimums.”51 According to Tepfer, when the reasons for a particular requirement were not understood by the architect they often were not interpreted correctly. Errors during construction contributed to a lack of usability. Occasionally, the standards were inadequate. For example, the minimum size of an elevator prior to 1980 was significantly smaller than that specified by ANSI A117.1-1980.
Inclusion into corporate America was made possible for millions as a consequence of these pieces of civil rights legislation.52 With the support of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and other advocates,53 a fourth piece of legislation, the ADA, became law in 1990. Public facilities
51 Tepfer, Fred, “Educational Environments: From Compliance to Inclusion,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.46.7. 52 Salmen, John, "U.S. Accessibility Codes and Standards: Challenges for Universal Design," in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p. 12.1. 53 Ostroff, Elaine, “Universal Design Practices in the United States,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.43.24.
41 were required to be accessible for all citizens. In those instances where the design exceeded the code, benefits accrued to a larger population.54 For example, larger elevators were used in schools to move supplies as well as people.
Purpose.--It is the purpose of this Act-- (1) to provide a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities; (2) to provide clear, strong, consistent, enforceable standards addressing discrimination against individuals with disabilities; (3) to ensure that the Federal Government plays a central role in enforcing the standards established in this Act on behalf of individuals with disabilities; and (4) to invoke the sweep of congressional authority, including the power to enforce the fourteenth amendment and to regulate commerce, in order to address the major areas of discrimination faced day-to-day by people with disabilities. Table 3 – The Purpose of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 199055
Salmen also traces the development of the ADA and other legislation for inclusion of persons with disabilities from the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. Even though universal design is not mentioned per se in the law, the ADA identifies accessibility as a civil right. According to Professors
Sanjoy Mazumdar and Gilbert Geis, when members of the Congressional committee drafted the ADA, they intentionally made wording of several key sections vague because they were reluctant to alienate voters in their
54 Tepfer, Fred, “Educational Environments: From Compliance to Inclusion,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.46.8.
42 districts. Interpretation of the various clauses then fell to the judicial branch of the government. In other words, users of the built space were given the right to sue.
There are two types of codified regulations. Performance based codes specify outcomes. Prescriptive codes specify measurable quantities. The construction industry prefers prescriptive codes, i. e., codes that specify building material types and dimensions. Many of the ADA Standards are written as performance codes that are more difficult to interpret and to enforce. Salmen states that regulations and standards adopted by the US
Department of Justice (US DOJ) “are intended to provide guidance to building designers and owners on how to meet the broad civil rights requirements of the law. This places a difficult responsibility on designers and building owners, who, for the most part, have never studied law or civil rights interpretations.”56 Implied by the law is the understanding that persons should not only be able to enter a building but should also have unfettered use of the features of the building. Several legal challenges are attempting to refine the “equal use” provisions of the law. For example, Lare et al vs.
Cinemark contested the provisions for "equal enjoyment" and "comparable
55 http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/pubs/ada.txt 56 Salmen, John, "U.S. Accessibility Codes and Standards: Challenges for Universal Design," in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.12.5.
43 line of sight" for persons attending a movie. Cinemark contends that they had followed a US DOJ-approved building code57 when they built the theater.
Enforcement of the ADA can have expensive consequences for architects and developers. As a result of costly legal challenges, Salmen asserts, architects prefer to rely on prescriptive codes. Through this process, minimum standards have become maximums. Few designers are well enough informed to attempt alternate designs that can meet the "or equal" provisions of the law.
Prior to the ADA, architects in the United States often were able to defer liability to the controlling design authority. This legal position is now being challenged. Conflicting rulings are progressing through the court system to eventually be decided by the US Supreme Court. In the intervening decades, architects and their clients must follow the continual reinterpretation of the law.58 Various professional journals, magazines and newspapers publish their interpretation of the rulings as soon as a verdict is released, even though some of those decisions will no doubt be overturned.
57 Lara et al vs. Cinemark USA, Inc., District of Texas EP-97-CA-502-H referenced by John Salmen in "U.S. Accessibility Codes and Standards: Challenges for Universal Design," in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.12.5. 58 Mazumdar, Sanjoy and Gilbert Geis, “Interpreting Accessibility Standards: Experiences in the U. S. Courts,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.18.12.
44 Some businesses are challenging the ADA due to the vague wording of the provision concerning reasonable job accommodation, particularly for workers injured on the job. Must the business re-train injured employees to do a different kind of work? For example, should the business pay college tuition to retrain a machine operator who lost a hand on the job? Should the business be required to reconfigure an expensive piece of equipment instead? The answers to these questions are being resolved through the courts. At the present time, no prescription has been written to define reasonable job accommodation.
Given a 67% unemployment rate among people with disabilities,
Congress passed the Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency Act of 1999. This welfare reform bill provided rehabilitative services that made it possible for some previously unemployable people to work. Employers were encouraged to rehabilitate those injured on the job. Costs typically ran $500 per injury. An examination of the situation often showed a condition equally hazardous to other employees. Occasionally, a tool was redesigned to reduce the risk of further injury. According to the Job Accommodation
Network, the employer saw a 26:1 return on investment in employee rehabilitation.59
59 Job Accommodation Network, Second Quarterly Report, Job Accommodation Network, Morgantown,
45 International Response to the ADA
After the passage of the ADA, two international organizations formed committees to address the issue of disability. The United Nations and the
European Charter attempted to define disability and to recommend remedial action. Hindered by the economic and cultural diversity of their membership, they were able to issue only lofty statements and general guidelines. Individual nations including Norway, Italy, Thailand, Australia,
Japan, and Canada brought the issue home for further action. This chapter deals with the gradual acceptance in the international community of access as a human right.
United Nations
Two actions undertaken within the United Nations were especially helpful to the young universal design movement. The first was the World
Health Organization’s International Classification of Impairments,
Disabilities and Handicaps (ICIDH) was published in 1980. It was an attempt to develop a code for the entire spectrum of human bodily functions.60 The second was the United Nations declaration of the year 1982
WV, July, 1999, referenced by James L. Mueller in “Office and Workplace Design,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.45.1. 60 http://www.deakin.edu.au/tedca/ncet/information/resources/icidh.html
46 as the International Year for Disabled Persons added legitimacy to the universal design movement.
The United Nations adopted Standard Rules for the Equalization of
Opportunity for Persons with Disabilities in 1993. According to Maria
Cristina Sara’-Serrano and John Mathiasson, the rules were less a set of guidelines and more a point of reference on accessibility.61 The Rules relied primarily on the State to draft, implement, and enforce accessibility legislation for public spaces. Accessibility legislation for private residences and non-public buildings was not mentioned.
Activists such as Gerben DeLong informed the public of the compensatory possibilities of modern medical technology. Architects like
Ronald Mace helped identify disabling environments. Persons with disabilities were encouraged to become involved in public life. The
Independent Living Movement gained momentum from the closure of public institutional facilities for people with disabilities and the corresponding rise in the demand for accessible housing. Through public advocacy, architectural and attitudinal barriers were challenged.
61 Sara'-Serrano, Maria Cristina and John Mathiason, "United Nations Standards and Rules" in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.11.1.
47 European Charter
The European Charter on Sustainable Design and Construction, adopted in 1998 by the Commission of the European Communities focused on sustainable development. The emphasis was on meeting the needs of the present generation without exhausting existing resources.62 The members envisioned full participation in society for all citizens. They strongly supported the idea of diverting community welfare resources to facilitate participation for marginalized groups. They anticipated adjustments to facilities to make them accessible. They believed that these measures were required to empower all persons to participate in society. Employment opportunities were seen as the means to integrate people with disabilities into society. Signatories of the Charter agreed that architectural barriers to participation should be removed. Architects were encouraged to use a person-centered approach to design, but there was no agreement on what the model should be.
Norway
In Norway, familiarity with accessibility guidelines from other countries made it easier to develop legislation for Norway. In 1997 the
62 Walsh, C. J., “Sustainable Human and Social Development: an Examination of Contextual Factors,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill,
48 Norwegian government conceived a strategy to make public buildings more accessible. Unfortunately, very few people with disabilities were invited to the meetings. People with disabilities were invisible. Government strategies changed to incorporate universal design in the ordinary planning process.
Potential users were encouraged to become involved in the early stages of the design process. Universal design was added as a requirement to the curricula for architects, planners, industrial designers, and occupational therapists. Olav Rand Bringa, a member of the Norwegian Council on
Disability, remarked on lingering resistance within the design profession.
“The main inertia in the system is not the unwillingness of the players: politicians, planners, users, and educational institutions, but rather their inability to understand that accessibility for people with disabilities is relevant to their work and discipline.”63 Husbanken, the national bank in
Norway actively supported universal design education in an effort to overcome this shortsightedness.64
2001, p.33.3. 63 Bringa , Olav Rand, “Norway’s Planning Approach to Implement Universal Design” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.29.11. 64 Christophersen, Jon, ed., Universal Design, 17 Ways of Thinking and Teaching, Oslo, Norway, Husbanken, 2002.
49 Italy
Fabrizio Vescovo, an architect in Rome, Italy, estimated that 20% of the total population in 1989 experienced either reduced mobility or reduced sensory ability.65 In his opinion, the ultimate goal of the Italian legislation was to enhance the independence of each individual through the removal of architectural barriers. He observed that most designers limited themselves to the safe prescribed dimensional standards contained in many different sets of regulations. He felt that a fear of litigation stymied innovative solutions.
Accessibility legislation was passed in 1989 by Regione Lombardia in northern Italy.66 Comprehensive renewal of existing building stock in Italy was the focus of a set of regulations passed in 1996. Those regulations applied to modification of the urban environment. The scope included: public transportation, pedestrian access, traffic patterns and circulation, parking, street furniture, green areas and sports facilities.
Thailand
The government of Thailand initiated two approaches to people with disabilities. The first was a commitment to remove physical barriers from
65 Vescovo, Fabrizio, “Accessibility as Universal Design: Legislation and Experiences in Italy,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.26.1.
50 public spaces. The second was the establishment of a welfare fund. It provided educational and economic assistance for those who registered for services. Job training and placement were included. Very few eligible persons registered because of the Buddhist belief that disability was a punishment for sins in a past life.
Australia
Among the Pacific Rim countries, Australia led the region in accessible built structures, streets and transportation systems.67 Disability legislation in Australia followed the civil rights model. The Commonwealth
Discrimination Act (CDA), passed in 1992, did not specifically describe discrimination nor address how discrimination was to be prohibited. The
CDA was even less specific than the ADA. The National Access Working
Group, formed in 1999, was attempting to define universal design, accessibility, and inclusion in relation to the built environment in Australia.
Compliance with the Australia Adaptable Housing Standards A. S. 4299-
1995 was voluntary.
66 d’Innocenzo, Assunta and Morini, Annalisa, “Accessible Design in Italy,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.15.4. 67 Parker, Kenneth J., “Developing Economies: A Reality Check,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.32.4.
51 Japan
In 1950 the first and only Japanese Building Standard Law (JBSL) was enacted. Changes to the JBSL were motivated by concern for public safety. For example, accessibility was not covered by the law, but design standards for earthquake were. Local provinces were empowered to issue regulations for their districts. For example, Hiroshima, Japan successfully addressed the needs of urban pedestrians with limited vision through the use of tactile pavers and audible traffic signals. Machida City issued the Design
Guidelines of Buildings and Facilities toward Realizing a Welfare City in
1974, an attempt to make the city accessible for wheelchair users. The guidelines were unenforceable.
Passage of the ADA in 1990 was a remarkable event according to
Satoshi Kose, director of the Housing and Building Economy Department,
Building Research Institute, Tsukuba, Japan.68 The Japanese believed that the private business sector in the United States was immune from civil rights legislation. From the perspective of the Japanese, the enforcement of the
ADA by the US DOJ was unprecedented. Local governments in Japan began to acknowledge the right of access. Previously hidden people with disabilities appeared in public as opinions changed.
68 Kose, Satoshi, “The Impact of Aging on Japanese Accessibility Standards,” in Universal Design
52 The Japanese version of accessible legislation, the Japanese with
Disabilities Act passed in 1994. The JBSL was not amended. Preferential interest rates were offered to developers who incorporated usable barrier- free design features in their buildings. Tax incentives were offered, but an onerous application was required. During the Asia-Pacific Decade of
Disabled Persons (1993-2002), the United Nations Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) worked with Japan to reveal problems and solutions related to aging.
Canada
Over the past 30 years in Canada, designers challenged the concept of design for the universal, or optimal, male form. Leonardo da Vinci’s
Vitruvian Man, “Le Modulor”69 by Corbusier in 1961 and even C. G.
Ramsey70 and R. Wittkower’s71 “Average Male” in 1988 have traditionally been cited as standards for dimensional correlation to the human form.
Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.17.2. 69 Corbusier, Le, The Modulor: A Harmonious Measure to the Human Scale, Universally Applicable to Architecture and Mechanics, 2nd edition, London, Faber and Faber, 1961, referenced by Shauna Mallory- Hill and Brian Everton, “Accessibility Standards and Universal Design Development in Canada,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.16.2. 70 Ramsey, C.G., and Sleeper, H. R., Architectural Graphic Standards, 8th edition, Chichester, UK, John Ray Hoke, Jr., ed., Wiley, 1988, referenced by Shauna Mallory-Hill and Brian Everton, “Accessibility Standards and Universal Design Development in Canada,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.16.2. 71 Wittkower, R., Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism, New York, St. Martin’s Press, 1988 referenced by Shauna Mallory-Hill and Brian Everton, “Accessibility Standards and Universal Design Development in Canada,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.16.2
53 Vitruvius defined the ideal human form in terms of universal geometric harmony. For example, da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man” is imprisoned within the circle and the square in two positions. The thinking that persisted from the high renaissance to modern times established interior dimensions in terms of male accessibility.
Shauna Mallory-Hill and Brian Everton in Manitoba, Canada, described the evolution of building codes and enforcement of the law in
Canada.72 Human rights legislation in Canada progressed in line with human rights expectations in North America. The Canadian Human Rights
Act of 1976-77 prohibited discrimination based on disability. A Canadian
Human Rights Commission was formed in 1978 to educate the public and professionals about the principles of equality, to provide a forum for the resolution of complaints, and to improve access to services and employment for people with disabilities.
Summary
Although the philosophy of accommodating multiple user groups is held by many nations, most of the accessibility legislation has focused exclusively on accommodating persons who use a wheeled vehicle for
72 Mallory-Hill, Shauna, and Brian Everton, “Accessibility Standards and Universal Design Development in Canada,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.16.4.
54 mobility.73 Designers appear to incorporate wheelchair accessible dimensions into their designs from the perspective of satisfying the applicable code rather than adherence to any theoretical position.74 Because seated persons have a different range of reach than standing persons, it is not possible to design exclusively for one group without excluding the other.75
Often redundant amenities are required to accommodate both groups. As architects add amenities, costs rise.76 It is no surprise then that the minimums specified by the code become maximums once the budget for a project is figured.77
There is a wide variation in the codes written to implement Design
For All. For example, the statutory requirements in Italy are written as performance codes.78 Although numerous texts have been written to give examples of alternative technical specifications that meet the intent of the law, application and enforcement of the many laws and ministerial decrees
73 d’Innocenzo, Assunta and Morini, Annalisa, “Accessible Design in Italy,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.15.5. 74 Vescovo, Fabrizio, “Accessibility as Universal Design: Legislation and Experiences in Italy,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.26.3. 75 Goldsmith, Selwyn, Designing for people with disabilities, 2nd edition, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1967. 76 Goldsmith, Selwyn, “The Bottom-Up Methodology of Universal Design,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.25.2. 77 Salmen, John, "U.S. Accessibility Codes and Standards: Challenges for Universal Design," in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.12.4. 78 Vescovo, Fabrizio, “Accessibility as Universal Design: Legislation and Experiences in Italy,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.26.2.
55 varies throughout the European Union.79 There is no single set of building codes that applies across the continent to similar structures. Differences exist in access to concrete structures as compared with timber construction, for example.
In the United States, civil rights legislation and building code enforcement were applied to remove lingering obstacles to full accessibility for persons who use wheelchairs.80 In some instances, vague guidelines were rewritten as prescriptive legislation. While building codes attempted to correct dangerous physical conditions caused by architectural barriers, civil rights legislation was drafted to improve the quality of life for persons with all types of disabilities. For example, dimensional requirements found in most building codes did not address the needs of persons with sensory impairment. Advocates challenged owners in court to make buildings easier to navigate through improved way-finding devices.
The universal design movement has redefined itself through a significant paradigm shift.81 The early efforts of the movement focused on gaining physical access to facilities and public services. The term
79 Walsh, C. J., “Sustainable Human and Social Development: an Examination of Contextual Factors,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.33.14. 80 Salmen, John, "U.S. Accessibility Codes and Standards: Challenges for Universal Design," in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.12.5. 81 Ostroff, Elaine, “Universal Design: The New Paradigm,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.1.1.
56 “accessibility” was used interchangeably with “handicapped-accessible” and was most often associated with people who depended on personal mobility devices such as wheelchairs. Once those persons previously confined to the home were seen in public venues struggling with architectural barriers, proponents of the movement focused on the removal of those barriers. The term “Barrier-Free Design” implied that persons using wheelchairs could access the building. The third shift was indicated by the use of the term
“universal design.” Because Ronald Mace and others who first used the term were primarily architects, universal design was most often associated with architecture. As the idea developed, the Principles of Universal Design were applied to other fields. To claim that something was a universal design implied that the designer had considered the abilities of more than one target user group, including specialized design criteria for age, physical size, economic status, functional limitations, sensory deprivations, and/or cognitive impairment.
57
Chapter 4. How the Experts Define Universal Design
Universal design is a term that originated within the profession of architecture. It was first used in discussions pertaining to access to buildings. Supporters typically adopt one of three ideological stances. The pragmatist argues the probability of improved market share to justify any increase in design costs. The moralist touts the civil rights of persons with disabilities. The phenomenologist sees the things themselves as the handicap rather than any physical, mental, sensory or cultural difference between user groups.
When presenting the concept of “universal design” to clients, the accessibility consultant is likely to appeal to all these positions to determine which ideas resonate with the audience. For the pragmatist, practicing universal design makes economic sense. For example, manufacturers can reduce per unit cost by increasing the size of their target market. Moralists are swayed by an appeal to their sense of fairness. Accessibility is legally required for the built environment in the United States and in some other countries. Those swayed by the moral/ethical argument will comply with
58 the spirit of the law because it is the right thing to do.82 Others see value in a diverse society and use their influence to include persons with disabilities in the public realm. These persons respond favorably to the argument that publicity generated from a successfully designed product is good for the corporate image.
Persons who share the phenomenological perspective are apt to view individuals as normal and the environment as disabling. Jim S. Sandhu, a consultant, author and advocate, credits Sweden with the normalization movement as an outgrowth of the 1960s.83 This revolution in thinking fostered design for people who were not average. The challenge for designers was to accommodate all body types and ranges of intelligence.
Sandhu noted two persons who first promoted the idea. In the early 1960s,
Gunnar Dybwad generated interest in integrative architecture through his position at the World Health Organization in Geneva. His disciple was
Kenneth Bayes who established the Centre on Accessible Environments in
1969. Selwym Goldsmith in the United Kingdom and Karl Gruenwald of the Swedish Social Services Department incorporated the normalization principle into their work in the 1970s. Simultaneously in the United States,
82 Story, Molly Follette, “Universal Design of Products,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.49.13. 83 Sandhu, Jim S., “An Integrated Approach to Universal Design,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.3.2.
59 Sandhu noted,84 there were three people who pushed the ideas into the education arena. They were Elaine Ostroff, Ronald Mace and James Pirkl.
Ideological positions are readily identifiable for each of the experts whose opinions are presented next.
The late Ronald Mace was the first to coin the phrase “universal design.”85 He often stated, “Universal design is an approach to design that incorporates products as well as building features which, to the greatest extent possible, can be used by everyone.”86 Mace, who used a wheelchair, knew first hand how architectural barriers inconvenienced and excluded the public. He and others were often asked to modify existing buildings to make them accessible. In the video “Introduction to Universal Design” Mace described most early solutions for architectural barriers as ugly and stigmatizing. He searched for alternative, more aesthetic solutions. Mace claimed that he suggested the term “universal design” as a way to distinguish products and designs that benefited more than one target user group from those that were specifically created for persons in wheelchairs.87
84 Sandhu, Jim S., “An Integrated Approach to Universal Design,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p. 3.3. 85 Mace, Ronald, G. Hardie, and, J. Place, “Accessible Environments: Toward Universal Design” in Design Intervention Toward a More Humane Architecture, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser, Jacqueline C. Vischer and Edward T. White, eds., New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1991. 86 Ostroff, Elaine, “Universal Design the New Paradigm,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.1.5. 87 VideoTakes, Inc., “Universal Design Education,” video-recording. Berkeley, University of California, College of Environmental Design, 1995.
60 Although Mace focused on accessibility for architecture, some of his colleagues worked in other professions. The movement broadened its focus to include physical, cognitive and sensory limitations regardless of their cause.
The Guimaraes Scale
Professor Guimaraes, a pragmatist, has developed a rating system for inclusive architectural design. The lowest rating is for temporary accessibility, also called “visitability.” Making homes, businesses and public buildings visit-able by persons using a wheelchair is less expensive than making them permanently accessible. Guimaraes laments that visitability results in restricted access for clients and no access for disabled employees.
Adapted facilities are those significantly remodeled after construction.
Accessibility features may be usable, but they look like an afterthought. For example, a homeowner decides to add a ramp to the front of his residence.
He builds the ramp directly over the stairs without consideration of slope and without landings. The resulting ramp is a challenge to ascend and a hazard to descend. In some instances, the adaptation destroys the ambience of the original environment. These score a 2 on Guimarares’ scale.
61 Adaptable environments are created with future modifications in mind to accommodate a person using a wheelchair. Specific features are: floor plans which permit maneuverability, halls and doorways which are wide enough for a wheelchair, and reinforcing studs in the bathroom walls which permit the installation of grab bars at a later date. A temporary ramp may be required to enter the front door, but at least one entrance has no stairs.
Closets upstairs are positioned over downstairs closets and are of adequate dimensions and structural capacity to accommodate a personal lift if desired at some future date. Adaptable environments score a 3 on Guimarares’ scale.
Adequate settings deserve a 4 rating because they take into account a wider range of users. These homes have grab bars in the bathrooms which can function as towel racks and counter tops in the kitchen at various heights for the entire family. The stove may have controls on the front panel.
Adequate public buildings provide two drinking fountains at different heights, automatic doors into the main foyer, accessible toilet facilities, elevator service, wide hallways and doors, and both stairs and ramps with handrails at any change in level.
Adequate settings have also been called “Barrier-Free Design” which in Germany is synonymous with “universal design.” Brochures developed
62 to explain the guidelines and regulations that apply to building for people with disabilities and the elderly have contributed to the perception that structures built according to those guidelines are only for the elderly and people with disabilities. Karin Piltner, a marketing consultant with KOOB
Agentur fuer Public Relations, and Brigitte Halbich, a bathroom design consultant with HEWI Heinrich Wilke GmbH in Germany, remark that
“people rarely wish to be considered old.”88 The stigma associated with the
“barrier-free design” has made the term itself a hindrance.
The fifth Guimaraes category is universal design. The highest rating is awarded to those environments that accommodate persons with sensory, cognitive, and motor-skills limitations. For example, few modifications to the structure are required for persons with temporary disabilities: way finding is intuitive; kitchen appliances and storage are reachable by seated persons and standing persons; counter tops are usable by adults and children; toilets are accessible for persons using a wheelchair; and fixtures such as faucet handles can be operated by all. In accordance with the principles of universal design, little physical strength is required to perform everyday tasks. Public buildings include features such as conveniently located
88 Piltner, Karin and Halbich, Brigitte, “Housing Policy and Funding Mechanisms for Elderly and Disabled People in Germany,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.39.2.
63 parking facilities and accessible elevator control panels as well as those accommodations listed in the fourth category. These examples describe the fifth category and represent the utopian ideal from the perspective of a person using a wheelchair. Additional accommodations would be required for the average male and for people with sensory or cognitive disabilities.
Other Expert Opinions
How have other leaders of the movement defined universal design?
The late M. Powell Lawton, psychiatrist and Director of the Philadelphia
Geriatric Center, noted how older patients in residential care units responded to their environment. He recommended the placement of familiar objects within the patients’ rooms to rekindle past memories. Powell preferred interior designs that stimulated brain development over those that focused solely on deficiency-reduction.89 John Zeisel, president of Hearthstone
Alzheimer Care in Lexington, MA recommended a proactive environment.
For example, a nursing home might fill a safe courtyard garden with colorful scented flowers and a fountain. Universal design principles improved the quality of life for the patients in an Alzheimer’s care facility.90 Patricia A.
89 Lawton, M. Powell, “Designing by Degree: Assessing and Incorporating Individual Accessibility Needs,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.7.4. 90 Zeisel, John, “Universal Design to Support the Brain and its Development,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.8.4.
64 Moore, gerontologist and president of Moore Design, Inc. traveled to 116 cities in North America during 1979-1982 disguised as an older woman.91 In
“Experiencing Universal Design", Moore gave her description of the universal house. “When the design of a home responds to the full array of all residents, their families, and friends, then it is a universal house.”92
Zeisel, Moore, and Powell favored empathic, educational experiences that considered the environment from the perspective of the elderly.
Assunta d’Innocenzo, director of research for National Research
Council (CNR) in Rome, Italy, and Annalisa Morini, a civil engineer and researcher for the same organization, described the three levels of accessibility for private spaces legislated in 1989 by Regione Lombardia in northern Italy.93 These were adaptability, visitability, and total accessibility.
Deferred accessibility or adaptability provided for future modifications of an existing structure. The concept of visitability or partial accessibility required that a person with disabilities could enter the dwelling and could use the toilet. Total accessibility meant that a person with sensory deprivations and
91 Pastalan, Leon R., Mautz, R. K. and Merrill, M., “The Simulation of Age Related Sensory Losses: A New Approach to the Study of Environmental Barriers,” in Environmental Design Research, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser, ed., Stroudsburg, PA, Dowden, Hutchinson and Ross, 1973. 92 Moore, Patricia A., “Experiencing Universal Design,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.2.10. 93 d’Innocenzo, Assunta and Morini, Annalisa, “Accessible Design in Italy,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.15.4.
65 limited mobility could safely use all the facilities in the home. At least one path of travel through the building was required to be fully accessible.
Universal designers can anticipate the ways someone could be disabled and can, in many instances, compensate for the condition.
Vanderheiden distinguishes between the products made for universal commercial consumption and the universal design theory behind them.94
Designers should consider the limitations of both manufacturing capabilities and materials when striving for a more usable, profitable product. The task of accommodating all persons with all types of disabilities is daunting.
Vanderheiden believes that industry resists the terminology “universal” because they realize that very few products are truly usable by everyone. He recommends reducing the task to its essential steps.95 First, features are prioritized from the user’s viewpoint. Second, the more frequently a step must be completed, the more accessible it must be. Once the universal design process is understood, it becomes easier to consider alternatives for dimensional and functional limitations. Vanderheiden is a pragmatist.
94 Vanderheiden, Gregg, “Fundamentals and Priorities for Design of Information and Telecommunications Technologies,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.65.5. 95 Vanderheiden, Gregg, “Fundamentals and Priorities for Design of Information and Telecommunications Technologies,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.65.7.
66 Singanapalli Balaram, head of the Design Foundation Studies at the
National Institute of Design in India, for example, acknowledges the problem of finding a universal solution in India. He observes that the conveniences available to the wealthy in India are unobtainable by those less fortunate. “It is the vast majority of the rest of the population that faces the problem of accessibility acutely. Universal design in the majority world has to address these cultural-specific needs and influence society in bridging the gulf in a sustainable manner.”96 Designers must consider the cost of their products as well as who can use them. While an automatic garage door opener can benefit any garage owner, it has little value to a homeless beggar.
Summary
The difference between universal design and a universal solution is that the first is a philosophy and the second is a goal. The realization of the goal depends on the problem at hand and the resources available. The philosophy is a way of understanding. It is not a physical product. People who practice the philosophy of universal design realize that one solution does not fit all applications. From the descriptions provided by the experts in this chapter, it should be apparent that universal design as it applies to
96 Balaram, Singanapalli, “Universal Design and the Majority World,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.5.19.
67 architecture and urban planning is more than a set of dimensions. Universal design results in enabling environments through the foresight of the designer. Simply, it is good design.
68
Chapter 5. Universal Design and Urban Policy
For more than 45 years after passage of the first accessibility legislation, most public and private spaces remain inaccessible. Two trends within the profession of architecture share the blame for this lack of progress. The first is the emergence of the professional urban planner from the ranks of architects during the middle of the twentieth century. The second is the reemergence of the star architect patronage system.
Opposition to these trends during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s resulted in political activism on behalf of people with disabilities.
The Birth of the Urban Planner
Architects have always planned for urban settlements. During the past 60 years, changes in demographic trends due to the availability of jobs in the cities led to the emergence of the urban planner. According to Joan
Ockman in Architecture Culture 1943-1968 the basis for modern urban design was established in 1929 by the Athens Charter.97 Published in 1943 in German occupied France, and drafted by a professional group of
European architects known as Congres Internationaux d’Architecture
69 Moderne or CIAM, the Athens Charter included guidelines for the development of the city. Urbanism contained four components: dwelling, work, recreation and circulation. Although pedestrian accessible city centers were desirable, merchants and mayors were confronted with the proliferation of the automobile. Because the stigma of being disabled kept many people with disabilities indoors, out of sight and uneducated, they were not part of the decision making process. Specialists in urban planning emerged from the ranks of classically trained architects. All used the cultural and anthropometric data for a six-foot, healthy, male as their design criteria.
Concepts for the planning of cities during the first half of the twentieth century were dominated by the CIAM principles.
Urban planners in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) after the
World War II followed the “Sixteen Principles for the Restructuring of
Cities” issued to control the rebuilding of Berlin, Dresden and Rostock.98 In theory, the designers could have made accessibility a priority. In reality, people with disabilities remained invisible. The German government demanded intimate villages of limited size, modeled after their historic
97 Ockman, Joan, Architecture Culture 1943-1968, New York, The Trustees of Columbia University and Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1993, p. 14. 98 Ockman, Joan, Architecture Culture 1943-1968, New York, The Trustees of Columbia University and Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1993, p. 123.
70 walled cities. This concept was challenged after the war by massive migration to urban areas.
Housing those left homeless by the World War II was a daunting task.
What is most surprising is that the needs of the injured were not part of the design criteria in any country at that time. The failure of the GDR to codify accessibility at this time was unfortunately part of the European mind set.
Perhaps this oversight can be excused for two reasons. First, antibiotics were not readily available to the common man, so those injured were not expected to live. Second, very few architects and bureaucrats were living with a disability. Even CIAM did not address the issue.
Accommodating a large, able-bodied, young immigrant influx drove the building boom in urban areas in the United States. Of the hundreds of thousands who fled their homeland, very few persons with disabilities undertook the arduous journey. City planners such as Robert Moses and his staff in New York applied the policy of Eminent Domain through Title I of the Federal Housing Act of 1949 to warehouse poor immigrants.99 Desirable locations were cleared with Federal money for the benefit of rich property owners. He planned public housing on a scale previously unimagined,
99 Ockman, Joan, Architecture Culture 1943-1968, New York, The Trustees of Columbia University and Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1993, p. 55.
71 leveling entire neighborhoods and destroying previously pedestrian- accessible communities.
While the Europeans struggled to rebuild a shattered continent,
Americans were creating suburbs. Post-war prosperity in the United States made it possible for almost every family to own a car by 1950. As automobiles replaced other modes of travel, accommodating more of them in urban areas became difficult. In the United States, Victor Gruen, a professional urban planner, advocated the suburban shopping mall as a solution to city congestion.100 Gruen envisioned shopping and entertainment areas separated from residential neighborhoods and accessible by car. No one envisioned the problems which would arise from urban sprawl. Gruen’s ideas were reinforced by unprecedented personal wealth, the proliferation of the automobile, and cheap land beyond the city limits. The separation of residential and commercial spaces on a scale unimagined in crowded
European cities fueled the American love affair with the automobile.
Gruen’s most controversial proposal called for the removal of slums from the inner city and the relocation of those persons into clean, new suburban neighborhoods. Under Gruen’s proposal, persons of various economic
100 Ockman, Joan, Architecture Culture 1943-1968, New York, The Trustees of Columbia University and Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1993, p. 193.
72 means would be mixed together. Although the theory had merit, the lack of a public transportation system left the poor stranded.
The Rebellion against Orthodox Modern Architecture
By the middle of the twentieth century, the modern movement had become just a style. Rigid, inflexible, orthodox modern architecture (OMA) dominated the profession. Without a motivating ethical force, OMA lost its moral footing. A chip here, a crack there, architectural revolutionaries tore off the façade. Young, classically trained architects rejected their teachers with adolescent fervor. Inspired by new manufacturing technology and building materials, they sculpted geometric shapes and rejected traditional ornamentation.
Urban areas in the 1960s continued to experience unprecedented growth and its related problems. The population of New York rivaled
Tokyo. The strains of urban congestion taxed electrical power, telephone service, medical facilities, and water, sewerage and transportation systems.
In the United States, massive infrastructure improvements, primarily highways, were made without consideration of the existing urban fabric.
Older, poorer neighborhoods were divided by transportation corridors.
73 Entire communities were destroyed by the right of eminent domain. The automobile was king.
On the European continent and in the United States, the 1960’s were marked by student protests. The Civil Rights movement exploded. Some urban planners such as Henry Lefebvre questioned the scientific theories used by intellectuals to create experimental suburban neighborhoods at public expense.101 When these utopian model communities often failed, residents were left without access to basic services. Lefebvre showed that social experimentation abused the poor and was morally unjustifiable.
Because people with disabilities were hidden within the ranks of the poor they benefited indirectly from Lefebvre’s activism.
Paul Davidoff criticized agency-driven urban renewal projects. He believed white collar bureaucrats were designing houses for the poor under the assumption that their lifestyles were similar when in fact poverty, ignorance and lack of opportunity made them vastly different.102 Often the projects were removed from centers of employment, medical services, commercial districts, and public transportation. Davidoff claimed that the problems of urban residents were directly related to their lack of
101 Ockman, Joan, Architecture Culture 1943-1968, New York, The Trustees of Columbia University and Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1993, p. 427. 102 Ockman, Joan, Architecture Culture 1943-1968, New York, The Trustees of Columbia University and Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1993, p. 443.
74 representation. Traditionally, urban residents were excluded from the process that defined solutions for urban congestion, pollution and sprawl.
The major problem from his perspective was their lack of economic, political, and social clout. Davidoff encouraged the poor and people with disabilities to become a part of the political process. He demanded empowerment for the disenfranchised poor, a complete metamorphosis in architectural thought and a rejection of the traditional architect-client relationship.
Changes in architectural thinking during the 1960s were not limited to houses. Urban planners also rebelled against OMA in the 1960s. Aldo
Rossi criticized urban planners who built cities with skyscrapers. For example, pedestrians were conspicuously absent in Brasilia. He believed that cities built to monumental scale were uninhabitable. A single, high-rise apartment building could house an entire medieval city, but it could never replace it.103
Architectural historian Charles Jencks104 recorded the rise and fall of theories and manifestos by aspiring star architects. The debate centered on the relationship between function and aesthetics. The advertising industry
103 Rossi, Aldo, “The Evolution of Urban Artifacts,” The Architecture of the City, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1982, p. 159. 104 Jencks, Charles “Pop,” Modern Movements in Architecture, New York: Anchor, 1973.
75 welcomed visually diverse forms that could be given trademark names and commercial value. Commissions were awarded to architects based on their ability to produce the unusual.
Madison Avenue’s emphasis on new and different forms translated to post-functionlism in the field of architecture. Peter Eisenman led the parade.
From 1964 the theoretical work of Peter Eisenman gained recognition. He landed his first public commission at age 51, The Wexner Center for the
Visual Arts in Columbus, OH in 1985. The Eisenman design started with a simple geometric shape, perhaps a circle or square. This shape was transformed into repeated fragments. It could be displaced non-sequentially like cookies on a plate. A variety of non-corroborating tendencies could be applied to all or one of the cookies. The resulting structure was both sculpture and architecture. It could be occupied but not easily inhabited.
The assignment of functions to spaces was independent of the relationship between functions. For example, at the Wexner, the wall of one gallery was all windows. These were eventually covered to prevent sunlight from damaging the art.
One of the movements which emerged after the passage of the ADA was Universal Design. Proponents sought to improve design with the goal of enhancing life for all. The movement required the consideration of
76 multiple-user program requirements. Building evaluators, such as Wolfgang
Preiser105 compared the programming needs of the potential user to the accommodations available in existing structures. It included all built structures and tools. It touched machine design, homes, transportation, city planning, the landscape and architecture. Other criteria reinforced the principles of universal design. Issues included flexible use, understandable layout, and inclusive design. One of the more idealistic goals of universal design was to encourage and stimulate human creativity. C. J. Walsh106 feels that universal design philosophy did not go far enough to ensure the social well-being of all people in the built environment.
The needs and limitations of the user dictated the form under universal design. Post-functionalism was the other extreme. The two styles were mutually exclusive. Karsten Harries107 argued that post-functionalism lacked a compelling, moral compass. Post-functionalists purposefully distorted form to engage the participant. Universal designers anticipated and removed obstructions.
105 Preiser, Wolfgang F. E., ed., Building Evaluation, New York, Plenum, 1989. 106 Luck, Rachael, Haenlain, Hans and Bright, Keith T., “Project Briefing for an Inclusive Universal Design Process,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001. 107 Harries, Karsten, The Ethical Function of Architecture, Cambridge, MIT Press, 1998.
77
Making Urban Environments User Friendly
Incorporating universal design into the existing urban fabric must be accomplished one block at a time. Advocates take a three-prong approach: change attitudes, remove barriers, improve safety. The fact is that most of the world has been slow to change. There is a strong preference for doing it the way it has always been done. This chapter contains summaries of projects undertaken to improve accessibility in urban spaces during the last decade of the twentieth century.
Change Attitudes
Riadh Tappuni108 identified several misconceptions that contribute to exclusion of persons with disabilities from the public realm. Most of these are rooted in a pragmatic philosophy. The cost-benefit ratio of making public and private spaces accessible is perceived as too great. These arguments are heard worldwide, but especially in developing economies.
The first misconception is that people with disabilities are seen as a drain upon society. Governments spend public funds to provide food, clothing, and shelter for these individuals. Their ability to make significant
78 contribution to the public good is discounted. This attitude denies the reality that people with disabilities achieve in proportion to the availability of opportunity. For example, Clovernook School for the Blind and St. Rita’s
School for the Deaf in Cincinnati, Ohio, have proven for many years that a person with a disability can learn useful job skills.
The second misconception focuses on the cost of making accommodations for people with disabilities. Remodeling existing properties to make them accessible is always more expensive than including accessibility from the beginning. War torn cities are the most likely places for accessibility-focused urban rebuilding projects. For example, the
Lebanese Company for the Development and Reconstruction of Beirut
(Solidere) was formed to reconstruct the Central Business District (BCD) of
Beirut in the 1990’s.109 Their proposal encompassed 4.4 million square meters, a fourth of which consisted of Post-war rubble. The results indicate that incorporating accessibility into the design of new facilities is cheaper than renovating existing facilities.
The third misconception is based on the cost of assistive devices advertised in magazines. Many devices require sophisticated technological
108 Tappuni, Riadh, “Access in Rebuilding Beirut’s Center,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.63.1. 109 Tappuni, Riadh, “Access in Rebuilding Beirut’s Center,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.63.2.
79 interfaces which are not available to people in developing nations who might benefit from them. Marcelo Pinto Guimaraes speaks for many, “Today, adaptable design ideas for independent living are rare high-tech solutions seen only in books and magazines. They look so specific and complex that people believe they suit only the needs of wheelchair users and no one else’s.”110
This attitudinal barrier ignores those new technologies which can help developing nations bypass entire stages of industrial development. For example, the cellular phone, the satellite and the smart card make it possible to place a phone call from almost everywhere. An infrastructure of telephone poles and lines is no longer required. Emerging battery and solar cell technology make it possible to operate a computer without access to an electrical transmission grid. Advances in technology are driving the second industrial revolution.
The fourth misconception concerns the numbers of people living with disabilities. During most of the last century, persons with birth defects were hidden from the world in institutions. Because the public realm was so inaccessible, persons with acquired disabilities were forced to remain at
110 Guimaraes’, Marcelo Pinto, “Universal Design Evaluation in Brazil: Development of Rating Scales,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001. p.57.3.
80 home. Advances in rehabilitation therapy and pharmacology have enabled many of them to return to work.
Demographic trends show that life expectancy has increased. Age- related disabilities are a fact of life. Persons over the age of 65 are now a significant percentage of the population. Our senior citizens have the power and the money to demand the removal of physical barriers. The elderly are evenly dispersed throughout society. Suddenly, people with disabilities are visible. Adult children caring for their parents now welcome those improvements that permit their parents to move independently through the environment.
Advocates for people with disabilities prefer terms like universal design over terms like barrier-free design or accessibility. The goal of universal design is to expand the user market through the consideration of multiple, potential user groups. The goal of accessibility legislation is to provide access for people with disabilities. According to Edward Steinfeld and Scott Shea, separation of people with disabilities through special legislation can create stigma.111 This tendency has been noticed in other countries as well.
111 Steinfeld, Edward, and Scott Shea, “Fair Housing: Toward Universal Design in Multifamily Housing,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.35.2.
81 The passage of the ADA in the United States took the world by surprise. In Japan, the perception that American businesses would be exempt from accessibility legislation was disproved. In Norway, it made the previously invisible disabled population visible to policy makers and lending institutions. In other countries, it provided a template for making housing accessible for the elderly. In short, it revitalized the accessibility movement worldwide by defining accessibility as a civil right.
Universal design in the United States is persistently perceived as compliance with ADA according to Elaine Ostroff. For successful incorporation, universal design principles must be considered early in the design process. Although consideration of special needs is a required step in the design process, code provisions for compliance are frequently considered after the design is essentially complete. Sometimes resentment undermines the spirit of the law.112 The trade journals could perform a great service to the profession if they were to showcase those instances where thoughtful inclusion of ADA-inspired solutions contributed to the aesthetics of a well- designed building. This lack of representation reflects the vacuum in leadership in the field of architecture.
112 Ostroff, Elaine, “Universal Design Practice in the United States,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.43.10.
82 Ostroff firmly believes in the value of legislation to change human nature. “The history of the civil rights legislation highlights the constant political action that is required to educate and to advocate for universal design. Although there is a growing marketplace demand for universal design, without the underlying legislation that is shaping the larger-scale environment, the integration into professional practice may be subverted.”113
The twin hammers of civil rights legislation and enforced building code compliance are required to make change happen.
Since the passage of ADA, the politics of disability have given people with disabilities a voice in the design process. An interesting change in semantics was observed in the United Kingdom. Advocates rejected the tendency to label someone as disabled or handicapped. Instead the environment itself was blamed. For example, a person can use a wheelchair without giving it much thought. When the wheelchair is rolling smoothly along, the user concentrates on a destination. Dianne Pilgrim, Director of the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewett Museum compares the four wheels of her personal mobility aid to another person’s feet. A person in a wheelchair can travel side-by-side with a pedestrian until they encounter a flight of stairs.
113 Ostroff, Elaine, “Universal Design Practice in the United States,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.43.29.
83 The stairs are a handicap. The reliability of her wheelchair is not diminished by the flight of stairs. It works just fine in the elevator.
Remove Physical Barriers
Sandra Manley, as the associate head of the School of Planning and
Architecture at the University of the West of England in the United
Kingdom, promotes accessible public spaces for pedestrians. According to
Manley, there are many instances where an accessible building is unapproachable. The cause may be a vehicular-pedestrian traffic conflict or it may be a limitation of space. For whatever reason, persons with mobility impairments cannot traverse the public space between the street and the door. Examples include instances where the spaces between buildings are not accessible or the walk signal may not allow enough time for all to cross the street. A pedestrian-hostile urban center creates its own demise. When there are fewer people on the street, crime increases. As a result, many persons feel safer at the mall.114
Given the proliferation of the personal motor vehicle over the past fifty years, urban planners after World War II designed cities for the efficient flow of automobile traffic. Large public spaces were often
114 Manley, Sandra, “Creating an Accessible Public Realm,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.58.5.
84 converted to parking lots. Alleys were eliminated. In many cities, the path for the pedestrian was longer than that for the automobile. Suburban neighborhoods were also affected. For example, when developers built a cul de sac in a residential development they often omitted a cut through sidewalk for the children. As a result, the neighbors complained when children rode their bicycles through the yard to visit their friends on the next street over.115 Each of these environments has undesirable consequences.
The first increased dependence upon the automobile. The second contributed to the alienation of neighbors. The inaccessible design compromised the safety of residents.
Public transportation planners in the previous century designed for an ambulatory population. Evidence is found at most access points for public transportation. To wit, subways rarely have elevators and most have turnstiles that are impassable for persons in wheeled vehicles. Buses have stairs, although some buses now have lifts for wheelchairs or ramps.
Distances in airports are a deterrent. All major airlines now offer wheelchair assistance to the gate. Some airports have added moving sidewalks and subway systems. Electric carts are occasionally available for those who schedule such services in advance.
115 Manley, Sandra, “Creating an Accessible Public Realm,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F.
85 To reduce the proliferation of physical barriers for pedestrians,
Manley proposed that persons with disabilities be used as consultants on accessibility audit teams. She reported success using this technique to conduct a street audit in Bristol. A team of people with various physical and sensory disabilities were hired to conduct the accessibility audit.116 Their mission was to identify physical barriers along a path through downtown.
Features such as uneven pavement, blocked or damaged sidewalks, improperly placed street furniture, and pedestrian-vehicle conflicts were noted. The information gained from the accessibility audit was entered into a Global Information System (GIS). When changes to a district were proposed, the information in the GIS helped the planners. Solutions were devised to reinforce the local district identity. For example, signage, perhaps a neighborhood logo, was developed to aid way finding.
In India, the Persons with Disabilities Act of 1995 was implemented in 1996. Accessibility audits were executed in New Delhi, Beijing, and
Bangkok during 1996-1998 as pilot projects initiated by the United Nations
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific UN ESCAP.117
In each case, a local group of advocates for people with disabilities acted as
E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.58.7. 116 Manley, Sandra, “Creating an Accessible Public Realm,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.58.12.
86 advisors. Elderly persons with age-related disabilities and younger persons with sensory or motor skill disabilities were included on the audit team.
Highly visible sites were selected. The motivation behind the projects was a combination of anticipated fiscal gain from tourism and the resultant international recognition for progressive urban planning.
In the Fangzhuang Residential District in Beijing, an area likely to attract tourists, public buildings, residential buildings and the surrounding environment were all part of the survey.118 Money from the Chinese government and from the Urban Construction and Development Group assisted building owners with the cost of implementing the committee’s recommendations. A media blitz on television, radio and in newspapers and a program in the public school increased the public awareness of barrier-free design.119 The Municipal Construction Committee handled improvements to buildings such as accessible public toilets, handrails, and ramps. The
Municipal Public Works Management Department renovated sidewalks with curb cuts and tactile pavers. The Municipal Communications Management
Bureau installed audible traffic signals.
117 Sato, Katsushi, “Promoting Non-handicapping Environments in the Asia-Pacific Region,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.59.1. 118 Sato, Katsushi, “Promoting Non-handicapping Environments in the Asia-Pacific Region,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.59.3. 119 Sato, Katsushi, “Promoting Non-handicapping Environments in the Asia-Pacific Region,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.59.6.
87 The Ministry of Urban Affairs and Employment, Government of
India, in cooperation with UN ESCAP, selected the I. P. Estate in New Delhi for a pilot barrier-free project.120 Various professional and government groups had their offices in this area and were potential employers for people with disabilities, a primary motivation for the project. There were cultural, recreational and educational facilities within the neighborhood. Workshops were well attended. UN ESCAP and the Ministry of Urban Affairs and
Employment jointly hosted a seminar promoting barrier-free design and mainstreaming opportunities in 1996.121 Architects, engineers, planners, real estate developers, policy makers, reporters, user groups, and advocates attended. Media coverage included articles in newspapers and professional journals.
In New Delhi, the emphasis was on creating barrier-free buildings per the ESCAP guidelines. The modifications included changes to the interior and to the exterior environments. Changes, limited to the first floor, were made to toilet facilities, doorways, and halls. Outside, parking spaces were created for people with disabilities. Appropriate signage and other way
120 Sato, Katsushi, “Promoting Non-handicapping Environments in the Asia-Pacific Region,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.59.9. 121 Sato, Katsushi, “Promoting Non-handicapping Environments in the Asia-Pacific Region,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.59.10.
88 finding devices were added. Curb cuts, tactile pavers and ramps were installed as needed.
One of the busiest commercial districts was selected in Bangkok for a pilot barrier-free design project.122 The district was often visited by international tourists. The desire to improve the accessibility of this area attracted local funding partners for the pilot project. A student team audited
11 streets around the National Stadium to identify physical barriers to access. Advocates for people with disabilities were actively consulted. The government, the Tourism Authority of Thailand, and a local hotel-restaurant management group approved funding for sidewalk improvements. UN-
ESCAP conducted seminars. The SIAM Cement Group developed tactile pavers for the renovated sidewalks. The Thailand Environmental Institute, a nongovernmental agency, provided trees, pavers, and street furniture for a
700 m site.
Tappuni reported that the Solidere123 reconstruction proposal encompassed 4.4 million square meters, a fourth of which consisted of Post- war rubble. While several buildings of historic and civic importance were rebuilt, most of the buildings were demolished. The Economic and Social
122 Sato, Katsushi, “Promoting Non-handicapping Environments in the Asia-Pacific Region,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.59.12.
89 Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) was invited in 1994 to provide technical assistance on accessibility for the project. Their efforts were endorsed by the Lebanese National Council for people with disabilities.
Before the war, the target area had been a cultural center for the Arab world. The proposed reconstruction included financial, cultural, and entertainment centers and support services such as housing, food and lodging. Other countries in the Middle East had developed their own resources to compete for businesses displaced by the war. A significant motivation behind the Beirut project was to regain their position of influence in the region. Incorporating universal design principles into the plans increased their competitive advantage.
ESCWA-Solidere developed national standards for barrier-free design by extracting from various international standards those parameters applicable to the environment and culture of Lebanon. Anthropometric measurements were established for the typical Lebanese adult. A design manual was published and distributed to all the builders associated with the project. Solidere retained control of the public spaces and was therefore better able to control the construction of those built spaces.124
123 Tappuni, Riadh, “Access in Rebuilding Beirut’s Center,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.63.4. 124 Tappuni, Riadh, “Access in Rebuilding Beirut’s Center,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.63.5.
90 A post-occupancy evaluation (POE) was conducted on the new public spaces and the renovated/reconstructed buildings. Feedback was used to suggest improvements for those projects still under construction. The benefit of post-occupancy evaluations in Lebanon was the database created for projects still on the drawing board. Problems with accessibility were most often found in buildings designed by post-functionalist star architects.125 These could have been avoided if the users’ needs had been considered during the design phase. Many of the problems identified through the POEs were correctable. Several problems were the result of irreversible design decisions made by the architect in an effort to build an aesthetically impressive form to catch the attention of other architects.
Tappuni believes that universal design can effectively integrate function and aesthetics. According to Tappuni, “One of the profound conclusions is that the reluctance or resistance to apply accessibility guidelines is imbedded in the attitude of the design profession where the user’s needs are often blurred by the architects’ urge for aesthetic creativity. This is nurtured by the popular architectural literature, where buildings are discussed and admired similar to products of fashion.”126
125 Tappuni, Riadh, “Access in Rebuilding Beirut’s Center,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.63.9. 126 Tappuni, Riadh, “Access in Rebuilding Beirut’s Center,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.63.15.
91 Urban redevelopment projects in Japan include the Saitama New City
Center near Tokyo. Gihei Takahashi, an associate professor in the
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, at Toyo University, claims that the design team consulted with forty people with various types of disabilities. On the first floor, the plan calls for a continuous path of travel lined with yellow Braille pavers from the train station to each of the facilities. These include a hotel, business offices, parking lots, a post office, a sports arena and a park. Way finding devices include lighted, digital signage at the entrance, printed signs accessible to both adults and children, a voice guidance system and a magnetic sensor system to send and receive messages from people wearing a portable receiver. Flexible signage permits toilet facilities to be designated either male or female depending on the expected attendance at an event.127
Public parks in Japan provide a refuge for residents in a crowded urban landscape. Yoshisuke Miyake believes that exposure to nature has healing and therapeutic advantages. “For people who are disabled and elderly, gaining access to nature goes beyond mere physical access. It involves exploration of the realm of healing of their soul and spirit, plus the
127 Takahashi, Gihei, “From Access for Disabled People to Universal Design: Challenges in Japan,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.30.11.
92 therapeutic effects of nature.” Accessible gardens designed by Miyake include the Sensory Garden in Osaka and the Rinku Park/Symbolic Green
Park/South Zone, also in Osaka. Interviews were conducted with more than
600 disabled and elderly people during the design phase. People with visual impairments requested flowers with contrasting or strong colors, but with a light fragrance. Loudly cascading water was unsettling, perhaps because it interfered with their ability to hear other orienting noises. Tactile maps were requested because many could not read Braille. Children wanted play equipment which presented multiple levels of challenge. People with mobility limitations requested wider paths so two persons in wheelchairs could explore the parks together. Maps of the various routes were requested. Seating options for persons using a wheeled vehicle included seating for ambulatory companions. Poor maintenance of rental equipment and toilet facilities was criticized. Help was requested at the activity centers, such as the fishing pier.128 The various requests garnered during the survey process were honored in the final park design.
The Hula Nature Reserve which lies north of the Sea of Galilee and the Tel Dan National Park near the Kibbutz Dan in the northern part of Israel were renovated to accommodate people using wheelchairs, strollers, or
128 Miyake, Yoshisuke, “Landscape Design,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and
93 canes. The features include walkways, ramps and drinking fountains.
Minor modifications to the visitors’ center made its facilities accessible.
The cost of the improvements was modest, according to Avi Ramot, spokesperson for the Israel Center for Accessibility located in Jerusalem.129
Valerie Fletcher, Director of the Adaptive Environments Center, described how a community task force improved the design of the South
Boston Waterfront.130 In 1998, the city of Boston designated 1000 acres of waterfront for redevelopment. More than $20 billion in public funds was committed to infrastructure improvements. The Adaptive Environments
Center worked with the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) to make the resulting environment into “A Neighborhood Fit for People.” The
Adaptive Environments Center convinced BRA that maximizing the public good required exceeding the minimums specified in the building codes. The resulting waterfront community was truly accessible.
Universal design can also be applied to public transportation systems.
Problems to address include way finding, changes of level, long distances, and vehicle loading. In many instances, the elevator is used to change levels
Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001. 129 Ramot, Avi, “Israel - A Country on the Way to Universal Design,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.31.4. 130 Fletcher, Valerie, “A Neighborhood Fit for People: Universal Design on the South Boston Waterfront,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.60.1.
94 and moving sidewalks, wheelchairs, and shuttles are available to negotiate the long distance between the entrance and the loading platform. Way finding devices may include printed signs, lighted digital displays, remote signaling devices, tactile pavers and color-coded directional indicators.
Edward Steinfeld, an architect at the University of Buffalo, New York, praised the bus system in Curitiba, Brazil which was designed for the young and the old regardless of ability in an effort to eliminate the need for personal automobiles within the city.131 The Lille Metro System in France is fully accessible for persons with mobility limitations, according to Louis-
Pierre Grosbois, architect and professor at E’cole d’Architecture, La Villette,
Paris, France.132 Access and egress have been made easier by improvements to the rolling stock: sliding doors on the train are synchronized with doors on the platform and all doorways are flush with the platform. Retractable ramps have made the Grenoble Tram Systems easier to board.133
Not all environments can be made 100% accessible for everyone. The
National Park Service in the United States has developed a rating system for
131 Steinfeld, Edward, “Universal Design in Mass Transportation,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.24.21. 132 Grosbois, Louis-Pierre, “The Evolution of Design for all in Public Buildings and Transportation in France,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.27.8. 133 Grosbois, Louis-Pierre, “The Evolution of Design for all in Public Buildings and Transportation in France,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.27.11.
95 hiking trails.134 One or more paths may be set aside for persons using mobility devices. The intermediate paths are accessible to most walkers.
Some sections may be rutted, steep or narrow. The most difficult paths are designed to appeal to experienced hikers.
Similarly, playgrounds may be designed for children of various age and ability levels. Susan Goltsman, a registered landscape architect and founding partner with Moore Iacofano Goltsman in Berkeley, California, believes part of the attraction of playgrounds is the challenge of learning skills at the next level. This does not prevent designers from including features which appeal to less-skilled, older children. Rather, it encourages designers to learn which types of play are age-appropriate and to cluster them accordingly.135 For example, water appeals to all age groups.
Ambulatory children are able to walk down a simulated creek bed, letting their toes feel the various surface textures along the path. A child who cannot walk may be able to sit beside it on the ground. A better design would permit someone in a wheelchair to see, hear, or touch the water at some point.
134 Robb, Gary M., “Guidelines for Outdoor Areas,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.20.8. 135 Goltsman, Susan, “Universal Design in Outdoor Play Areas, “in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.19.1.
96 Improve Safety
One of the most common age-related disabilities is the loss of sight.
Cynthia Stuen, senior vice president for education at Lighthouse
International, and Roxanne Offner, a consultant to Lighthouse International, cite statistics provided by the World Health Organization in 1997. There are
45 million blind people and another 135 million people with low vision that cannot be corrected.136 Many of those are elderly who have lost vision through disease. Women are more likely to become blind than men according to the World Health Organization. Given the demographic trends, the number of persons with low or no vision will increase with the aging of the world’s population. Stuen and Offner note that the vision impaired rely on familiar clues to master their environment. For example, curb cuts that are so useful for persons with mobility limitations generally provide no warning about edge distance from the road for the blind. Contrasting paint at the edge of the sidewalk helps people with vision impairment. Another example, the city of Hiroshima in Japan uses tactile pavers to provide the missing information.
There are several ways to make the environment safer for persons with reduced vision. Four of these are: way finding devices; tactile
97 pavements; logical layout; and audible signals. Designers need to address the issue through redundancy of way finding devices, logical placement of facilities such as restrooms, and consistent usage of visual clues such as color and texture.137 For example, large, open spaces can be made less threatening through colored flooring to indicate the path of travel.
Hazardous overhangs should be blocked. Automatic sliding doors are preferred for building entrances. Decals located at the sight line can be used to distinguish doorways from windows.
Access to stairways should be identified to prevent someone from falling. Tactile flooring at the top and the base of the stairs is commonly used to warn pedestrians. A contrasting color and/or no-slip edging on stair nosing make the stairs safer. Tactile tiles are very common in Hiroshima for stairways.
Summary
Urban renewal projects started since the passage of the ADA were driven by different motivations. The Lebanese reconstruction project, motivated by a desire to regain economic and cultural importance, became a showcase for the economic benefits of accessibility. Those facilities that
136 Stuen, Cynthia and Offner, Roxanne, “Adding Vision to Universal Design,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.61.1.
98 were not accessible became glaring examples of hubris against the backdrop of applied universal design. Manley used the Bristol project to identify architectural barriers in public spaces. Unique in her approach was the employment of those persons most inconvenienced by the existing built environment. Pilot projects in Thailand, India, and China were initiated by
UN ESCAP to promote its agenda during the Asian and Pacific Decade of
Disabled Persons 1993-2002. In Boston, the elderly and people with disabilities were considered part of the public who would benefit from improvements to the waterfront. Incorporating accessibility criteria into the plans was required to maximize the public good from the expenditure of public funds. Improved public transportation systems benefited both citizens and the environment. Accessible parks and recreation areas have extended the benefits of exercise. Although each of these projects came into being for different reasons, the resulting public realm became more viable and people with disabilities could enjoy it.
137 Stuen, Cynthia and Offner, Roxanne, “Adding Vision to Universal Design,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.61.6.
99
Chapter 6. Universal Design for Private Spaces
Private spaces are those locations where the individual can separate from others for some period of time. Generally speaking, these locations are perceived as being safe, a refuge. The most intimate private space for many is the place where they eat and sleep. In the West, that is generally a house or an apartment.
Philosophers have argued over the difference between home and residence. One of the clearest examples of this debate can be found in
Martin Heidegger’s essay, “Building Dwelling Thinking” which was presented at the Second Darmstaedter Gespraech on August 5, 1951. The theme was man and space. Conspicuously posted was their preamble,
“Building is a fundamental activity of man - Man builds, by joining spatial figures, thus shaping space - Building, he responds to the spirit of the age -
Our age is the age of technology - The plight of our age is homelessness."138
In support of the traditional view of homelessness, many of the conference papers dealt with the problems of rebuilding Europe. After
World War II, displaced residents returned home to find rubble. Millions of
100 people were in the process of resettlement. Then, thousands slept in the street. Applications of new technology and manufacturing techniques were lauded as the solution. Karsten Harries "In Search of Home" explored the possibility of returning to the lost Eden through technology.139 Similarly, R.
Buckminster Fuller in "Accommodating Human Unsettlement"140 claimed that all homelessness could be solved by building self-sustaining homes.
Deferring to Aristotle in his essay "On Reading Heidegger" Kenneth
Frampton writes "the minimum physical pre-condition for place is the conscious placement of an object in nature….the mere existence of an object in and of itself guarantees nothing."141 He continues, "Place…arises at a symbolic level with the conscious signification of social meaning and at a concrete level with the establishment of an articulate realm on which man…may come into being."142 Place used in this context is synonymous with Heidegger's locale. Dwelling is the process by which things come into being. The placement of the tribal village is a deliberate act, pregnant with social meaning. The focal practices of the community provide the
138 Darmstaedter Gespraech Mensch und Raum, ed. Otto Bartning Darmstadt: Neue Darmstadter Verlagsanstalt, 1952 referenced by Martin Heidegger in "Building Dwelling Thinking," from Poetry, Language, Thought, translated by Albert Hofstadter, Harper, Colophon Books, New York, 1971. 139 Harries, Karsten, "In Search of Home," www.theo.tu-cottbus.de/Wolke/eng/Subjects/subject982.html 140 Fuller, Buckminster, "Accommodating Human Unsettlement,” in Classic Readings in Architecture, Jay Stein and Kent Spreckelmeyer, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 1998. 141 Frampton, Kenneth, "On Reading Heidegger", from Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995, Kate Nesbitt, Princeton Architectural Press, 1999.
101 articulated realm for the hunter-gatherer. When man comes into being, he dwells.
From the perspective of the universal designer, the goal of building for a client is to nurture this desire to dwell. Once residency is established, it is very difficult to move away. For that reason, the desire to age in place has less to do with age and more to do with place. Philosophers and psychologists explore person-environment behaviors in an attempt to explain why. The theoretical writings of architects such as Christian Norberg-
Schulz and Christopher Alexander suggest that persons experience positive feelings of attachment to familiar physical forms. Ties to home and place encourage dwelling. Alexander in Pattern Language links feelings with specific geometric shapes. Charles Moore, Donlyn Lyndon and Gerald
Allen describe the architect’s task as trying to fit the owner’s desires within the constraints of the community. They portray the owner’s dilemma as the task of converting previously-claimed space into personal space.143
A phenomenologist such as Heidegger separates the built thing from the activity of building. Homelessness from Heidegger’s point of view is
142 Frampton, Kenneth, "On Reading Heidegger", from Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995, Kate Nesbitt, Princeton Architectural Press, 1999. 143 Moore, Charles, Allen, Gerald and Lyndon, Donlyn, The Place of Houses, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1974.
102 caused by man’s inability to dwell.144 The desire to remain in a given neighborhood, for example, is predicated on perceptions of belonging that have nothing to do with living in a particular house. Kevin Lynch in “The
Waste of Place” observed that a city exists in a specific place for a variety of reasons.145 The inhabitants cling to that place. They will rebuild after almost all known disasters recycling the very stones of the previous habitations. This attachment to place supports Heidegger’s concept of homelessness as being something other than a lack of shelter. It is a spiritual condition. Man dwells and in dwelling, he builds. Homelessness results from an inability to dwell.
The Aborigines in Western Australia dwell on the land in ways that are very different from the European colonists living in Australia. The
University of Western Australia, Equity Office, funded the design of community housing for these indigenous people who live in a remote location in Australia.146 The beauty of the assignment was the opportunity to work collaboratively with a client whose perspective was radically different from that of the designer. When the students from the University of Western
144 Heidegger, Martin, “Building, Dwelling, Thinking,” in Basic Writings. David Farrell Krell, ed., Harper, San Francisco, 1993. 145 Lynch, Kevin, “The Waste of Place,” in Classic Readings in Architecture, Jay Stein and Kent Spreckelmeyer, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 1998. 146 Pedersen, Annette, “Introducing Universal Design to a Colonial Context,” in Universal Design, 17 Ways of Thinking and Teaching, Jon Christophersen, ed., Oslo, Norway, Husbanken, 2002, p.299.
103 Australia first approached their task, they saw a people who were homeless.
Their initial response was to design rudimentary shelter using the same criteria they would have applied to urban housing. The culture of the
Aborigines required a different approach. The Aboriginal concept of place takes into consideration significant past events while the European concept of place is primarily concerned with ownership. The Aboriginal people in
Australia provide an example of dwelling in the land.147 This underscores the need for empathic understanding of the client’s needs to create truly universal design.
Aging in Place
“Aging in place” is the term most frequently used in context with housing for senior citizens. Services provided by neighborhood organizations, including meal delivery and social activities, permit older adults to remain in a familiar setting even after the onset of age related disabilities. In some communities, door-to-door transportation is available.
Larger urban areas may offer housekeeping and building maintenance services for a fee.
147 Pedersen, Annette, “Designing Cultural Futures at the University of Western Australia,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.53.1.
104 James Harrison, associate professor in the Department of Architecture at the National University of Singapore, sees universal design as a solution for age-related disabilities. He feels that this intuitive approach to design anticipates and circumvents problems and results in non-handicapping environments.148 The ability to remain in a familiar environment is especially beneficial for older persons. They have established paths of travel, business relationships, and a social network that can compensate for some reduction in sensory and cognitive abilities.149
In some Asian Pacific countries, independent living centers adjoin major hospital facilities. These offer rehabilitative services and encourage independence. Independent living centers exist in both Singapore and
Malaysia, but are more common in Singapore. Activist groups for people with disabilities, such as the Disabled People’s Association (DAP) in
Singapore, firmly support independent living centers.
Personal independence is maintained longer when the environment is safer. Harrison uses the fear of falling as an example.150 Aging persons are
148 Harrison, James D., “Housing for Older Persons in Southeast Asia: Evolving Policy and Design,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.40.1. 149 Harrison, James D., “Housing for Older Persons in Southeast Asia: Evolving Policy and Design,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.40.12. 150 Harrison, James D., “Housing for Older Persons in Southeast Asia: Evolving Policy and Design,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.40.16.
105 reluctant to recognize the hazards they encounter in a familiar setting. As people age, they experience reduced personal mobility and the likelihood of falling increases. Jake Pauls, a certified professional ergonomist, provides consulting services in building use and safety through his practice in Silver
Springs, MD. Pauls has established criteria to improve stair safety. During the design phase, the placement of the staircase within the building as well as the ratio of height to riser depth should be reviewed for safety. Rather than counsel that the older person may avoid stairs altogether, modifications can be made to reduce the likelihood of falling. Sometimes a sturdy handrail may be the only modification required to make ascending and descending the stairs safer. Additional lighting and the removal of carpet may be recommended. Often the edge of the tread is painted with a bright color to make it more visible.
A few developers in the United States are incorporating accessibility features in private houses. At the 2002 Homerama in Cincinnati, OH, a showcase for upscale homes, United Custom Builders was the only developer who featured wide hallways and elevator service to all three floors. A ramp was used to ensure access from the house to the garage. A similar trend has been noticed in houses for the wealthy in India.
106 Group Living Arrangements
Accessible group living communities may include a mix of housing and service options. Most adult residence facilities in the United States are privately owned and operated. Mary Ann Clarke Scott, Sylvia Nowlan, and
Gloria Gutman, all of the Gerontology Research Centre at Simon Fraser
University in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, noticed a change in the language used to indicate housing accommodations for special needs.
Marketing efforts reflect the emergence of senior citizens as a savvy consumer group.151
The affluent World War II generation has demanded and received much nicer housing than what was commonly considered a nursing home 50 years ago. For example, Maple Knoll Village in Springdale, Ohio, offers assisted-living services. Seniors with good health occupy the village cottages. Housekeeping services are available. Building maintenance is included. A restaurant on-site serves meals on linen tablecloths. Residents can also live in apartments with resident-controlled access and other security provisions. Communal meal service is provided. Finally, seniors in poor health have access to medical care and nursing home services. Although
151 Scott, Mary Ann Clarke, Nowlan, Sylvia and Gutman, Gloria, “Progressive Housing Design and Home Technologies in Canada,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.36.14.
107 Maple Knoll is considered an above average facility, it is by no means unique.
In some Asian Pacific countries, independent living centers adjoin major hospital facilities to offer rehabilitative services. They also encourage independence after major surgery. Similar facilities can be found in the
United States and France. In the Southeast Asia, nursing homes remain an unpopular choice for long term care. The expectation still exists that older adults will live with their children.
The Swiss Care Apartment accommodates a group of up to 8 elderly people.152Mattias Hurlimann, an architect in Zurich, Switzerland, describes the apartments as fully-accessible. Each apartment is located in a typical multi-family apartment building. Modification of the bathroom and kitchen facilities cost a mere 10,000 Swiss francs sometime in the late 1990’s. The residents can remain in the care apartment for the rest of their lives. Day staff care for the residents and then leave. The night staff has an assigned room and often sleeps uninterrupted through the night, getting up only for emergencies.
152 Huerlimann, Mattias, “The Care Apartment Concept in Switzerland,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.37.1.
108 Private Residences
Allowing people to age in place helps them avoid expensive nursing home care or hospitalization.153 Unfortunately, single-family houses built 50 years ago in the United States lack the infrastructure to accommodate modern machines and appliances. Although a ranch style house of the
1950’s is easier to modify than a two-story construction, the hallway width is often too narrow for a wheelchair. The main reason people move into a nursing home is because their home cannot be modified to accommodate their disabilities.
Changes in family structure and life-style dictate changes in the design of houses. Architect and disability advocate, the late Ronald Mace in conjunction with the Center for Universal Design and the School of Design at North Carolina State University identified specific features that could be incorporated into most single-family homes at little additional cost. These include: futuristic, adjustable sinks which can be lowered as needed; roll-out cooking surfaces that disappear after the meal to widen passages through the kitchen; and stacked closets with a removable floor panel that can be converted to accommodate a personal elevator. Commercially available
153 Balandin, Susan and Chapman, Robyn , “Aging with a Developmental Disability at Home: An Australian Experience,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.38.7.
109 accessible appliances include the front-loading washer and dryer. Some appliances such as a dishwasher may need to be raised on a platform, but are otherwise usable. Rolling shelving in the pantry can compensate for lack of reach. A moveable storage system, an improvement on the old dumb waiter, can transport items from the basement to a higher floor. The multi-mode bathing fixture converts from a roll-in shower to a sunken tub. A step-less threshold permits wheelchair entry. Innovations in electronic devices include talking thermostats, programmable appliances, motion-detectors for light switches, cordless telephones, and remote controls for windows and doors. In the United Kingdom, many of these features were applied to the design of Lifetime homes. Homes that are adaptable may cost up to 5% more to build, caution Balandin and Chapman. These costs are offset by the benefit of aging in place.
Young adults are starting to demand aging-in-place features in their homes. In Canada, home automation technologies are being quickly absorbed by consumers of all ages. These include such diverse products as the Internet, security systems, and health telematics. The Internet with its related shopping, communication and information options is increasingly popular. Sophisticated security systems, automatic environmental controls, programmable lighting, and audio-visual devices are all part of universal
110 design. The ability to transmit information about temperature, pain, and other medical symptoms through the technology called health telematics may make office visits passé.
Housing Guidelines
The 1988 Fair Housing Amendments to the Civil Rights Act of 1968 established standards for multifamily housing in the United States and extended coverage of the fair housing law to people with disabilities. Seven guidelines were issued by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD). According to Edward Steinfeld and Scott Shea, these were:
“1. An accessible building entrance on an accessible route
2. Accessible and usable public and common use areas
3. Usable doors
4. An accessible route into and through the dwelling unit
5. Environmental controls in accessible locations
6. Reinforced bathroom walls for grab bars
7. Usable kitchens and bathrooms.”154
154 Steinfeld, Edward and Scott M. Shea, “Fair Housing: Toward Universal Design in Multifamily Housing,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.35.1.
111 These requirements are minimum design criteria and do not meet the needs of the severely disabled. An apartment built to the HUD guidelines would not meet the expectations for universal design. In response to complaints by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) about the cost of implementing the guidelines, HUD hired a consultant to evaluate their impact on new construction. Steven Winter Associates conducted cost comparisons with Tourbier and Walmsley, Inc, E. Steinfeld, and Building
Technology, Inc. The estimated increase for compliance was less than 1%.
Some features added market value to the unit. These included designs without stairs, lever handles on doors and faucets, and pivoting or removable grab bars.155 Advances in bathroom technology have created soft bathtubs and hand-held showerheads, adjustable height sinks and toilets, and convertible vanities, all of which were considered desirable.
Society has an interest in avoiding the expense of long term care.
Nursing homes are seen as the worst possible alternative for various reasons.156 In Germany, government health insurance covers the cost of mobility aids and medicines. The German Foundation for Elderly Care
155 Steven Winter Associates, Tourbier and Walmsley, Inc., E. Steinfeld, and Building Technology, Inc., The Cost of Accessible Housing, U. S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, Washington, DC, 1993, referenced by Edward Steinfeld and Scott M. Shea, “Fair Housing: Toward Universal Design in Multifamily Housing,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.35.8.
112 recommends home modifications to improve the quality of life and to avoid the need for nursing home care.157 Financial assistance is available for home modifications. Specific laws determine who qualifies for subsidies to remodel existing housing stock. Funding is distributed to individuals.
Reinforcing the stigma of the well intended legislation, approval for the use of public funds is obtained after a medical expert corroborates the application. Because long term care insurance is mandatory for all employed persons, the balance is often paid by the insurer if the cost of the proposed home modifications exceeds the government subsidy.
Multi-generational homes are the norm in Singapore due to the expense of housing. Often elders provide child care while younger adults work outside the home. This arrangement reinforces the traditional ties to family. When adult children live apart from their parents, they may receive a rebate or other financial incentive to remain in the same neighborhood.
Family members in Singapore are expected to be caregivers for their older relatives.158
156 Piltner, Karin and Halbich, Brigitte, “Housing Policy and Funding Mechanisms for Elderly and Disabled People in Germany,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.39.4. 157 Piltner, Karin and Halbich, Brigitte, “Housing Policy and Funding Mechanisms for Elderly and Disabled People in Germany,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.39.2. 158 Harrison, James B., “Housing for Older Persons in Southeast Asia: Evolving Policy and Design,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.40.18.
113 The trend toward independent living in Singapore has been slowed by the expense of land for new construction. Older housing stock is generally inaccessible. Not only are the interior dimensions limiting but most apartments have flights of stairs leading to the front door to keep rain from intense tropical storms out of the home.159 Elevators in older high rises stop at every other floor. Renovation of these older units would be prohibitively expensive. Public opinion expressed through newspaper articles has been in favor of elderly-friendly housing.160 In response, the Housing and
Development Board (HDB) decided to construct accessible studio apartments close to community social and retail facilities. Criticism of these new units is that large complexes are set aside for elderly residents, creating a ghetto and isolating the aged from family. HDB is, according to Harrison, willing to consider studio and family-sized apartments for a multi- generational mix. Their near monopoly on the housing market makes it very difficult for commercial developers, who might be more responsive to market demand, to compete.161
159 Harrison, James B., “Housing for Older Persons in Southeast Asia: Evolving Policy and Design,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.40.16. 160 Harrison, James B., “Housing for Older Persons in Southeast Asia: Evolving Policy and Design,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.40.12. 161 Harrison, James B., “Housing for Older Persons in Southeast Asia: Evolving Policy and Design,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.40.4.
114 Residences for people with developmental disabilities are now intermixed within the community in Australia. According to a report published in 1994 by the Ministerial Council of Review on Aging, the life expectancy for the persons with cerebral palsy and the life expectancy of their non-disabled peers have increased due to improved health care and modern pharmacology.162 They too want to age in place. Living with family or in a group home setting is preferred over living in an institution for people with disabilities.163 Adaptable homes that incorporate many of the features of universal design enable them to continue their preferred lifestyle.
Bathrooms
Abir Mullick, an associate professor at the University of Buffalo,
Buffalo, NY believes that accessibility standards define only the minimum level of accessibility and therefore, are insensitive to individual differences.164 This is most apparent in standards for bathrooms. The universal bathroom incorporates multiple fixture placement and counter height options. The only ideal is usability.
162 Ministerial Council on Review on Aging, “Positive Aging: On our Agenda,” NSW Government Printers, Sydney Australia, 1994, referenced by Susan Balandin and Robyn Chapman, “Aging with a Developmental Disability at Home: An Australian Experience,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.38.4. 163 Intellectual Disability Services Council, Having a Place in the Community, Disability Services Office, Adelaide, Australia, 1994, referenced by Susan Balandin and Robyn Chapman, “Aging with a Developmental Disability at Home: An Australian Experience,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.38.3.
115 Although rooms for bathing were used by the Minoans in Crete in
1800 B.C., bathing fell out of favor during the Renaissance.165 Bathroom technology reappeared in the rural areas of the United States during the
1800’s. Three fixtures--the tub, the sink, and the toilet--remain standard.
With urban crowding, centralized waste removal systems and water delivery systems were a necessity. By 1920, middle class Americans could afford indoor plumbing. The typical size for those bathrooms was 5’ x 7’.
Interviews with consumers were conducted by the Center for
Inclusive Design and Environmental Access (IDEA) at Buffalo, NY. They produced an extensive list of design features for the universal bathroom.
Wall mounted toilets were preferred because they were easy to clean. Non- slip flooring, knee space under the sink, outward opening doors, space for wheelchair maneuverability, and recessed storage and no protruding corners were some of the recommendations for layout.166 User-specific fixtures were rejected, although the roll-in shower is gaining acceptance.
164 Mullick, Abir, “Universal Bathrooms,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.42.1. 165 Mullick, Abir, “Universal Bathrooms,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.42.3. 166 Mullick, Abir, “Universal Bathrooms,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.42.6.
116 The German sanitary fixture manufacturer Hewi has embraced the idea of universal design according to Piltner and Halbich.167 Several of their products have won the “Comfort and Quality” seal introduced by the TUV
Rheinland Product Safety GmbH (TUV) and the German Society for
Geronto-Technology (GGT). The awards identify effective barrier-free designs and promote safety and quality in manufactured products. At the second Hewi Forum in 1998, the design for all philosophy was presented.
Products with aesthetic, ergonomic design appealed to a broad spectrum of customers.
In response to requests, adjustable bathrooms were developed at the
Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access (IDEA) in Buffalo,
NY. These combine innovations in drain and plumbing technology with traditional bathroom fixtures mounted onto moveable panels. The result is a highly personalized space. Sinks can be lowered for children or raised for tall adults. Redecorating is a daily possibility! 168
167 Piltner, Karin and Halbich, Brigitte, “Housing Policy and Funding Mechanisms for Elderly and Disabled People in Germany,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.39.17. 168 Mullick, Abir, “Universal Bathrooms,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.42.14.
117 Kitchens
Mullick and Densie Levine, an architectural research associate at
IDEA, approached the redesign of the standard kitchen to make it more usable by all family members.169 Children in particular are unable to reach faucets and dishes. Persons using mobility assistive devices such as walkers and wheelchairs lack reach, strength or mobility to function in the traditional kitchen. Cognitive impairments due to age may result in fire when cook- tops are inadvertently left on.170
Designing for all potential users is a commendable goal, but a rarely achieved reality. Requirements for the universal designed kitchen affect everything from counter height to lighting. They include under-counter knee clearance, easy to grip control knobs and non-glare lighting. To facilitate cooking and cleaning, they recommend a shallow sink, raised appliances, a side-by-side refrigerator and storage systems with sliding shelves and drawers. To accommodate differences in height they recommend a variety of counter heights and work spaces located near appliances, and reachable outlets, receptacles, switches, and controls.
169 Mullick, Abir, and Levine, Denise, “Universal Kitchens and Appliances,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.41.1. 170 Mullick, Abir, and Levine, Denise, “Universal Kitchens and Appliances,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.41.3.
118 Corporations, universities, and trade associations have developed their own recommendations. The National Kitchen and Bath Association
(NKBA) proposed that drawers be used instead of cabinets.171 While cabinets with countertops at 28” to 32” are recommended for seated persons, a 45” high snack bar may be preferred by tall people. The Real Life Design kitchen sponsored by General Electric (GE) featured a dishwasher raised 9” off the floor to make it easier for a person using a wheelchair to load and unload.172 The oven was placed at counter height, separated from the cook top. Folding cabinet doors can be opened as needed to provide knee space under the counters. Marc Harrison, a professor of Industrial Design at the
Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) led a team of students in rethinking kitchen design.173 Data gathered during time and motion studies were used to identify tasks required to prepare a meal. Corporate sponsors donated equipment. Universal design advocates provided advice. Modular kitchen kits were developed. RISD has signed an agreement to permit Maytag to market their Universal Kitchen.
171 Mullick, Abir, and Levine, Denise, “Universal Kitchens and Appliances,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.41.5. 172 Mullick, Abir, and Levine, Denise, “Universal Kitchens and Appliances,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.41.6. 173 Mullick, Abir, and Levine, Denise, “Universal Kitchens and Appliances,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.41.7.
119 Digital technology has been successfully applied to audio-visual appliances, environmental controls, and dimmer switches. Possibilities exist for simplifying food preparation. Mullick and Levine discuss the smart kitchen concept where appliances are linked together. Nicholas Negroponte at Massachusetts Institute of Technology researches how the digital revolution can be integrated into appliances.174 One example is the coffee maker with an integrated clock and bean grinder. Smart appliances such as the combined washer-dryer save time and facilitate workflow. Universal values of safety, convenience and usability can be easily marketed.175
Summary
Universal design for private residences must consider not only the physical building that provides shelter, but must also reflect the individual’s desire to remain in the community. Too often the architect thinks of the dimensional requirements of the footprint without understanding the activities that will fill the space and the ways in which the existence of the structure will affect the external community. When the owner and occupant are the same, the architect can design the space for that personality, those
174 Mullick, Abir, and Levine, Denise, “Universal Kitchens and Appliances,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.41.12. 175 Mullick, Abir, and Levine, Denise, “Universal Kitchens and Appliances,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.41.17.
120 preferences, and individual taste. When the occupant is some nameless entity, the architect must accommodate a more complex client profile.
For hundreds of years, fifty was considered old. Now that science has doubled the life expectancy, buildings have to accommodate people in their third and fourth ages. They have access to tools and medicines which make daily living easier, yet their daily tasks have not significantly changed.
Universally designed personal residences have the potential to accommodate the aging process and thereby to permit the occupants to age in place. The successful home is the one which remains after its neighbors have been demolished.
121
Chapter 7. The Future of Universal Design
The past century has seen a remarkable change in attitudes toward the acceptance of persons with disabilities in public spaces. A hundred years ago it was against the law for disfigured persons to appear in public in many cities in the United States. Now, vocational schools provide job training for persons with impaired physical, sensory and mental abilities. As a result of civil rights legislation, persons with disabilities have become productive citizens in the United States. Their presence in public is no longer an oddity.
The next hurdle is for designers to see people with disabilities as clients.
Educating the Next Generation
Elaine Ostroff at the Adaptive Environments Center created a
Universal Design Education Project (UDEP) in 1994 to change the way designers teach architecture, industrial design, interior design, landscape design, and urban planning. Strategies for Teaching Universal Design, published by Adaptive Environments and MIG Communications in 1995 highlights teaching strategies that worked. In some universities, faculty selected for UDEP encountered resistance from those not involved in the experiment. Welch wrote, “Many of the UDEP faculty have had difficulty
122 achieving significant dialog with their design colleagues about the incorporation of universal design values into design education, in general, and into their programs’ design curriculum, more specifically.”176 Students seemed more interested in being taught than the faculty in teaching.
Several schools have successfully incorporated universal design into the curricula. Infusion is one means to teach design for all. For example,
Iowa State faculty integrated universal design into several courses offered at different levels with success. State University of New York (SUNY) at
Buffalo found that introducing the concepts during second year studio was more effective than incorporating it in fourth year studio. UDEP faculty also tried to infuse all classes taught during a given year with universal design criteria. The ability of UDEP faculty to control the curriculum varied with the pedagogical culture of the school. Some schools, such as Aarhus School of Architecture in Denmark, strongly support universal design principles and hold competitions for students to present their ideas for sustainable, accessible buildings.177
UDEP also developed several injection strategies using a single course to teach the principles of universal design. Sometimes a workshop
176 Welch, Polly ed., Strategies for Teaching Universal Design, Boston, Adaptive Environments, and Berkeley, CA, MIG Communications, 1995.
123 was offered. Often UDEP instructors were able to offer a specific class or design studio. Instructors at California Polytechnical Institute at San Luis
Obispo encouraged students to select a target user group and to demonstrate an understanding of the obstacles that their group faced in every day living.
Some schools hire consultants who have a particular disability to work with a design studio class. At California Polytechnic State University students used public performances and videos to educate others about universal design. Art installations, designed by students, were placed across the campus at the University of Oregon for the same purpose.
Welch has developed a five component strategy for infusing universal design into design education. Welch’s first component is that students need to understand the context of the code. Dry presentation of anthropometric data and building codes robs students of the background to understand the underlying reason for criteria. “The sort of belligerent compliance that is practiced today by design professionals has its roots in the well-intended but unimaginative, and sometimes inaccurate, approach that some educators take to addressing the ADA.”178
177 Ostergaard, Poul, “Architects of Tomorrow, Accessibility of the Future – Teaching Accessibility at the School of Architecture in Aarhus,” in Universal Design 17 Ways of Thinking and Teaching, Jon Christophersen, Husbanken, 2002. 178 Welch, Polly and Stanton Jones, “Teaching Universal Design Through Inclusiveness,” in Designing for the Twenty-First Century: Proceedings of an International Conference on Universal Design, 1998.
124 Welch’s second component is to teach students how to apply user needs research. Students learn to describe people with disabilities as people first. Personal identity is a composite. A person who uses a wheelchair can have the same thoughts, feelings, and ambitions as someone who walks.
Stereotyping individuals can lead to errors in design. For example, wheelchair users who were interviewed during the design of Rinku Park in
Osaka told landscape architect Yoshisuke Miyake they wanted paths wide enough to accommodate two persons side-by-side.179 If both people use wheelchairs, the required path dimension is wider than if only one person uses a personal mobility device. A third person in a wheelchair might approach from the opposite direction. Someone reviewing plans for a park might arbitrarily reduce path width to 5’ thinking that a walker might want to pass a wheelchair, but never considering the other scenario.
Welch’s third component is user involvement in the design process.
Students should be encouraged to take field trips to facilities designed for their target user group. When possible, potential users of a facility should be invited to address the class. POE expert Wolfgang Preiser recommends the development of a building evaluation database to identify designs that worked and designs that did not.
179 Miyake, Yoshisuke, “Landscape Design,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and
125 Welch’s fourth component encourages the development of self- awareness in students. One controversial class offered at the University of
Cincinnati examines gender and the built environment. Students often drop the class because they are uncomfortable with the subliminal cultural messages reflected in architecture. Students need to acknowledge their person-environment relationship and their power to change it.
Changing the world through the built environment was a goal of the modernists and of the utopians. The precedent for improving society through design has been established. Welch’s fifth component encourages students to critically analyze disabling environments. Students need to be encouraged to infuse politics and/or ethics into their design.
Attitudes need to change. Students taking classes in inaccessible facilities see reinforcement of the status quo. Recognition of aesthetic, enabling design can be more effective than a thousand complaints. Welch writes, “Resistance to change is often articulated informally by design faculty with the argument that the design curriculum is already overloaded and that universal design considerations, like client accommodation, can be learned best after graduation in the office setting. Resistance also comes
Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.48.16.
126 from faculty that equates universal design with ugly ramps and homogeneous spaces.”180
The Foundation for Interior Design and Research (FIDER) explicitly requires all students graduating from accredited colleges to be able to apply universal design principles. State licensing requires familiarity with ADA codes. The professional certification exam includes questions about universal design. With all these agencies supporting design for all, why are so many students uninformed? The answer can be discovered by looking at the design school curriculum. If universal design thinking were part of every class, students would automatically design accessible buildings.
Interior design as a profession is relatively new. Louise Jones identifies Candice Wheeler and Louis C. Tiffany as the first to propose the idea of a professional interior designer in their book Interior Decoration as a
Profession for Women. The second book was published in 1913, The House in Good Taste by Elsie de Wolfe (1865-1950), a professional decorator.
Through numerous magazines and books, the concept of interior design was confused with the artistic decoration of interior spaces. Interior design today is not about drapes and paint. Rather, the designer adapts the spaces to the needs of the users as appropriate to function. This may involve the design or
180 Welch, Polly and Stanton Jones, “Advances in Universal Design Education,” in Universal Design
127 selection of a particular line of office furniture, incorporation of task-specific lighting, sound amplification and environmental controls, recommendations for floor and wall textures and colors, and functional layout of amenities.
Louise Jones, a faculty member at Eastern Michigan University
(EMU) was selected for the UDEP in 1993. The EMU interior design department collaborated with the Environmental Design for Aging Research
Group (EDARG) and UDEP faculty at the University of Michigan (UM), specifically Leon Pastalan in architecture and Ronald Sekulski in industrial design. A senior design studio at EMU was asked to propose an adaptive reuse of a vacant hotel. The studio at UM was to design the products to be used inside the facility. Functional spaces within the hotel included senior co-op apartments, activity centers, an indoor pool and fitness center, facility management offices, a restaurant, commercial office spaces, an indoor park, retail spaces, classrooms and faculty offices. Consultants with a wide range of disabilities were chosen from the community to work with the students.
Most of the students initially met with their assigned consultant at home.
Each student designed one residential apartment. Teams of students designed public interior spaces. Later in the semester, the consultants
Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.51.20.
128 participated in the midterm project critique in the studio.181 The most important lesson the students learned, according to Jones and the other faculty involved with the UDEP studios, was that “...universal design is invisible-that is, it is simply good design.”182
Ruth Morrow, a practicing architect and lecturer at the University of
Sheffield in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom, was asked to coordinate the DraWare project at the School of Architecture at the
University College in Dublin, Ireland based on the UDEP model and funded by the European Social Fund of the European Community. The faculty knew that design for accessibility, what Morrow terms the forerunner to universal design, was not a part of the standard architectural curriculum.
Faculty who taught universal design were considered mavericks. Morrow commented that the students at DraWare who enthusiastically embraced the inclusive design philosophy were not prepared to apply them. And, she said,
“It seemed that schools of architecture simply did not have the means by which to evaluate the design produced.”183
181 Jones, Louise, “Universal Design in the Interior Design Curriculum,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.52.7. 182 Jones, Louise, “Universal Design in the Interior Design Curriculum,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.52.16. 183 Morrow, Ruth, “Universal Design as a Critical Tool in Design Education,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001. p.54.2.
129 The faculty at DraWare certainly made an attempt to stress the relationship between the built structure and the end user. Faculty addressed the issue of disconnectedness between the end user and the architect, particularly when different socioeconomic status was involved. First year students were required to attend a workshop where they compared their bodies to the stereotypical, fit, young, healthy, and male. A third-year lecture series presented inclusion topics such as sensory input, way finding and orientation, air quality, and other person-environment issues.
History/theory seminars in the fourth year included discussions about racial and gender issues, sexual orientation, disenfranchised persons such as the mentally ill, drug abusers, prostitutes, street people, etc. and the way they inhabit city spaces. The gap between the architect and the rest of society was also discussed. The faculty attempted to fully integrate universal design concepts into the curriculum. Various universal design studios were offered.
A landscape design studio was asked to design a park for the community of
Tullamore. Local groups-women, people with disabilities, seniors, tourists- were asked to define their needs for the students. Another studio focused on the design of a senior Centre for Independent Living. Conversations with seniors raised the students’ awareness of the needs of the end user.184
184 Morrow, Ruth, “Universal Design as a Critical Tool in Design Education,” in Universal Design
130 Unfortunately, not only were some of the students lacking skill sets to participate in UD classes, but some of the instructors were, too. The
DraWare faculty noted that it was easier to communicate design concepts when the students were engaged in the discussion. Unfortunately, many lecturers lack skills needed to facilitate discussions. Many of the user/consultants were not familiar with architectural drawings and could not offer feedback on design. Students and faculty were often so steeped in jargon that they could not describe the space designed in vernacular language. The emphasis on form resulted occasionally in poorly conceived details.185 Students lacked the skills to make their plans resemble the renderings. One student designed an official government building with numerous stairs leading to a grand entrance. The elevator for those who needed it was off to the side and hard to locate. One student at DraWare lost interest in the project because the site was uninspiring, reclaimed land in a slum. Morrow commented, “It seemed that reality was just too real.”186
Schools that want to lessen the communication gap between the user and the architect should devote more resources to reality-based education.
Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.54.5. 185 Morrow, Ruth, “Universal Design as a Critical Tool in Design Education,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.54.12. 186 Morrow, Ruth, “Universal Design as a Critical Tool in Design Education,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.54.13.
131 Chitose Ikeda and Noriko Takayangi assert that, “Usable design for people who are elderly and for people with disabilities is ultimately usable for all people.”187 The authors are affiliated with the NEC Design, Ltd.
(NEC), Tokyo, Japan. Tama Art University (TAU), Department of Product
Design, contacted NEC because of the firm’s desire to promote universal design in commercially viable products. Instructors at TAU wanted students to be involved with a practical, applied learning experience in industry.
Several products were redesigned as a result of the 4 year collaboration. Design criteria included universal design principles, reasonable price, reliability, and elegant design. When industry consultants guided the student teams, the resulting proposals were more realistic. The final product from the viewpoint of NEC was a commercial success. The university felt the experience improved the student’s ability to communicate and to work through the design process.188
In the United States, considerable money has been made available for universal design research. There are 6 nationally funded Regional Education
Research Centers (RERC). Products for the built environment are designed
187 Ikeda, Chitose and Noriko Takayanagi, “Universal Design Research Collaboration between Industry and a University in Japan,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001. 55.1. 188 Ikeda, Chitose and Noriko Takayanagi, “Universal Design Research Collaboration between Industry and a University in Japan,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.55.15.
132 by the Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access (IDEA
Center) at the University at Buffalo. The Center for Universal Design at
North Carolina State University is another RERC devoted to research on applications of universal design for the built environment. There are two
RERCs conducted by the Trace R&D Center at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. They are the RERC on Information Technology Access and the
RERC on Telecommunications Access. The University of Florida is home to the RERC on Technology for Successful Aging. Two new RERCs are planned: the RERC on Workplace Accommodations and the RERC on
Accessible Medical Instrumentation.189 Students involved with these projects are thoroughly immersed in universal design philosophy.
If the nature of the built environment is to become enabling, it is the next generation of designers who will make it so. Students enter the university eager to learn. Most have no preconceptions concerning design style. They depend on their instructors to expose them to the latest in technology. Perceptions of good and bad design are delivered with the lecture. Students generally try to ferret out what the teacher values. The primary work of advocates, then, is the training of the instructors and the grooming of the next generation of universal design advocates.
189 email correspondence between the author and Molly Story, September, 2002.
133 Testing Universal Design
The evaluation of a built structure from the users’ perspective is the objective of Post-Occupancy Examination (POE). According to Ziona
Strelitz, Principal, ZZA Research, “The idea of a POE is to compare the reality of a building in use to the theory.”190 Public school districts in the
United States have a legal mandate to educate everyone within their borders.
As enrollments increase, schools must decide how to improve their facilities for the benefit of all the children. A transition plan is recommended to help districts upgrade its facilities for compliance with accessibility legislation.
John Petronis has helped public school districts in New Mexico assess the condition of their existing facilities and determine how to best meet the challenges of universal design within the limitations of their budget.191 This has led to innovative design solutions. He has established 7 steps for an accessibility transition plan. The first step is to assess needs, establish goals, and determine the budget. The second step is to identify which of the district buildings should be targeted. The third step involves evaluating the target facilities to identify the specific deficiencies that need to be corrected.
The fourth step is to rate the capital improvement projects in terms of their
190 Streliz, Ziona, “Post Occupancy Evaluation,” 1999; www.rware.demon.co/uk/poe.htm. 191 Petronis, John P. and Robie, Robert W., “A Capital Planning Approach to ADA Implementation in Local Public School Districts,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.62.6.
134 difficulty and cost. The fifth step is to develop spending priorities. The sixth step is to identify funding sources and to develop a long-range capital plan. The seventh step prioritizes the renovations.
Building evaluation is an important tool for identifying correctable deficiencies. Previously built facilities used for similar purposes can be used as a baseline for new design.192 Existing facilities must be evaluated prior to renovation. In all cases, the post-occupancy evaluation should be performed by a trained evaluator.
Preiser offers clients a choice of three levels of evaluation: indicative, investigative, or diagnostic.193 Indicative POEs are based on the first impression, a walk through by a trained observer. The most glaring incompatibilities are usually identified. Key personnel may be interviewed informally. They can usually pinpoint areas of potential hazard such as places where the photocopy machine blocks an emergency egress or trash cans block the hallway. They know if there is inadequate workspace or storage. The best features of the building and the worst are usually documented by photographs and presented with recommendations to the customer.
192 Preiser, Wolfgang F. E., “Toward Universal Design Evaluation,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.9.15, Figure 9.8. 193 Preiser, Wolfgang F. E., “Built Environment Evaluation: Conceptual Basis, Benefits and Uses,” The Journal of Architectural and Planning Research, 11:1 (Spring 1994) p. 7.
135 The second level of POE is investigative. During to the walk-through, portions of the building may be videotaped. A survey will be developed and administered. Questions will be tailored to the type of building and may include questions representative of complaints received by the facilities management. Follow-up interviews may be held with tenants to further define the problem. Dimensional surveys and other measurements may be taken. The report will be much more detained than the indicative POE.
The third and most expensive POE is the diagnostic level. It is similar to the investigative POE, but data collection may be phased or repeated. As new clients move into the building, they may be interviewed as part of the service. As improvements are made, additional surveys may document user satisfaction. Additional measurements may be taken. For example, with the change in seasons, the owner may request that the evaluator document how the environmental control systems function under differing loads.
Information gathered can affect the functional program for the next building.194
A universal design evaluation (UDE), according to Preiser, “is the process of systematically comparing the performance of universally designed products, buildings, places, and systems with explicitly
194 Preiser, Wolfgang F. E., “Post Occupancy Evaluation Training Workshop, University of Cincinnati,”
136 documented criteria for their expected performance.”195 The indicative UDE walkthrough would focus on the principles of equitable use, flexibility in use, simple and intuitive use, perceptible information, tolerance for error, low physical effort, and size and space for approach and use. An investigative UDE would include some verification through physical measurements to show that ADA standards had been met. Interviews with elderly or disabled users would be recommended. A survey rating the facility for perceptual compliance with universal design principles would identify areas needing improvement and areas that work. Designers often overlook improved technology for the blind and deaf and grip-able handrails at all stairways for the elderly. The diagnostic UDE might, for example, cover 4 quarters at a university dining facility.
Different strategies can be applied to the evaluation methodology.
User participation is encouraged during the walkthrough. Users often are better at identifying problem areas than describing them. Preiser often trains users in the POE process and invites them to participate in the walk- through.196 Surveys identify likes and dislikes, compliance or non-
Cincinnati, OH, 1999; www.rware.demon.co/uk/poe.htm. 195 Preiser, Wolfgang F. E., “Universal Design Evaluation,” Proceedings, Designing For the 21st Century II, Ostroff, Elaine, ed., Boston, Adaptive Environments Center, 2000, www.adaptenv.org/21century/proceedings.asp. 196 Preiser, Wolfgang F. E., “POE Training Workshop and Prototype Testing at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Office Building in Mission Viejo, California, USA,” in G. Baird, et al. eds., Building Evaluation Techniques, London, McGraw-Hill, 1996.
137 compliance. Interviews are another way to get detailed information from users. The annotated plan consists of building plans with comments. For example, it is easy to mark something on a map during the walkthrough than it is to mentally reconstruct the space later without the map. Photography is almost always used during a POE/UDE. It is useful to have a checklist and a notebook during the walk-through to record observations.
Behavioral mapping has been used primarily in environment-behavior psychological research. The map consists of an annotated plan and tables of data based on observed behavior. Comments include numbers of people engaged at an activity during a specified time in a given location. Tabulated data can be statistically analyzed and graphed. The implications for UDE are to assist interior designers in activity placement relative to the offered amenities. For example, a restaurant with east and west facing windows may notice a preference for seating based on time of day, whereas a restaurant with north facing windows may not observe patrons favoring one side of the space over another. To discourage smokers from smoking, the manager may designate the smoking section on the west during the summer and on the east during the winter.
“The ADA standards only provide information on compliance with prescriptive technical standards, and nothing about performance –how the
138 building or setting actually works for a range of users.”197 Building evaluations survey both the physical building and the users. The survey documents dimensions and perceptions. Once collected, the data can be used to evaluate the building for its current use and for a proposed future use in a classic feedback and feed forward scenario.198 Preiser envisions a national building evaluation database for all building types. Firms could develop new building programs based on what was considered successful in the past.
Summary
Many assistive devices are used by the general public. The National
Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research website contains a link to a list of 300 projects they are funding.199 Many products created to assist someone with a disability are marketed without any reference to their origin as an assistive device. The OXO Good Grips kitchen utensils, developed for a woman with arthritis, is a best seller. Voice recognition technology forms the basis for those hands-free cell phones included with the purchase of every new Cadillac. Accessible toilet stalls with the wider, open-swing
197 Preiser, Wolfgang F. E. , “Toward Universal Design Evaluation,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.9.15. 198 Preiser, Wolfgang F. E., “Design Innovation and the Challenge of Change,” in Design Intervention: Toward a More Humane Architecture, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser, Jacqueline C. Vischer, and Edward T. White, eds., New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1991.
139 doors are usable by anyone. Vibrating pagers, developed for the deaf, are used at concert halls to page doctors without disrupting the performance.
These devices are simply good design, yet the public does not identify them with universal design. They remain hidden in a big box of miscellaneous junk.
Several mainstream products have been embraced by people with disabilities. These include textiles like Velcro which is used on clothing, rubber sheeting that is used to open jars, and pencil and bicycle grips made from soft foam tubing. Through the internet, distances too far to walk have been virtually eliminated. Magnifying glasses have been used for decades.
The cordless telephone and headset are relatively new inventions. All of these products are considered universal design, but are not marketed as such.
Universal design has no name recognition among the general public. How can the movement garner support from the masses if the potential beneficiaries remain clueless about its existence?
Changes in architecture and urban design following the principles of universal design have the greatest potential to improve daily life for people with age-related disabilities. Following the empathic model, as
199 http://www.naric.com
140 recommended by Leon Pastalan200 and publicized by Patricia Moore,201 designers can change the way older people experience the world. The passage of the ADA and the worldwide acceptance of the right of access should have excited educators about the possibilities of inclusive design.
Instead, proponents are regarded as mavericks. As the percentage of senior citizens continues to climb, what will it take to change the way architects design spaces?
No dominant architecture theory has emerged since the mid-twentieth century. Mark Jarzombek wrote, “History is not the authentic form of history-unto-itself, but a mode of operating by which presences consume their own disguises.”202 When the historian records events, he has the power to change them. The receptivity of architectural historians to universal design has been hostile perhaps because early designs for people with disabilities were dull and ugly. Proponents eagerly await their star architect to grab the attention of the kingmakers. Universal design still lacks the glamour required to make it the dominate design theory of the century.
200 Pastalan, Leon, R. K. Mautz, and J. Merrill, “The Simulation of Age Related Sensory Losses: A New Approach to the Study of Environmental Barriers,” in Wolfgang F. E. Preiser, ed., Environmental Design Research, Stroudsburg, PA, Dowden, Hutchinson and Ross, 1973. 201 Moore, Patricia, “Experiencing Universal Design,” in Universal Design Handbook, Wolfgang F. E. Preiser and Elaine Ostroff, eds., New York, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.2.4. 202 Jarzombek, Mark, The Crisis of Interdisciplinary Historiography, Cambridge, MIT Press, 1991.
141 Change for the sake of change has been roundly criticized. The lure of new materials, enhanced computer design capabilities and revolutionary construction techniques beg for experimentation. Historians such as Jencks,
Vidler and Jarzombek may compare the positions of stars, but they cannot predict the future. Seniors need enabling environments, but most are unaware of the options that exist for private homes. Without a dynamic voice, universal design remains handicapped by the wheelchair and reduced to building code compliance.
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Appendix A – Acronyms
ADA- Americans with Disabilities Act AARP – American Association of Retired Persons AIA – American Institute of Architects ANSI – American National Standards Institute APHA – American Public Health Association ARCOR – Canadian Aging and Rehabilitation Product Development Corporation ATBCB – Architectural and Transportation Barrier Compliance Board ATCOA – Asian Training Centre on Aging BMA – Bangkok Metropolitan Authority BORP – Bay Outreach Program BRA – Boston Redevelopment Authority BSA – Boston Society of Architects BCA – Building Code of Australia CCC- Canadian Codes Centre CCDS – Canadian Centre of Disability Studies CCBFC – Canadian Commission on Building and Fire Codes CDA – Commonwealth Discrimination Act CHEA – Council on Higher Education Accreditation CHRA – Canadian Human Rights Act CIAM – Congres Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne CIBFD – Canadian Institute for Barrier-Free Design CNR – National Research Council in Rome, Italy CSA – Canadian Standards Association DAP – Disabled People’s Association in Singapore DBTACs – Disability and Business Technical Assistance Centers DNA – deoxyribonucleic acid DOJ – Department of Justice DRA – Disability Rights Advocates DREDF – Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund EDARG – Environmental Design for Aging Research Group EMU – Eastern Michigan University ESCWA – Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia FIDER – Foundation for Interior Design and Research GDR – German Democratic Republic
158 GE – General Electric Company GGT – German Society for Geronto-Technology GI – Government Inductees HDB – Housing and Development Board in Singapore HUD – Housing and Urban Development in the United States IDEA – Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access in Buffalo, NY JBSL – Japanese Building Standard Law NAHB – National Association of Home Builders NEC – NEC Design, Ltd. NKBA – National Kitchen and Bath Association OMA – Orthodox Modern Architecture POE – post-occupancy evaluation RISD – Rhode Island School of Design Solidere – Lebanese Company for the Development and Reconstruction of Beirut SUNY – State University of New York TAU – Tama Art University, Department of Product Design in Tokyo, Japan TUV – TUV Rheinland Product Safety GmbH UDE – Universal Design Evaluation UDEP – Universal Design Education Project UM – University of Michigan UN-ESCAP – United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific US – United States US DOJ – United States Department of Justice
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