Campi, Isabel DESIGN for ALL and HUMAN RIGHTS
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DESIGN FOR ALL AND HUMAN RIGHTS ISABEL CAMPI EINA SCHOOL OF ART AND DESIGN, AUTONOMOUS UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA [email protected] Health Survey (World Health Organisation, MAIN TEXT 2002-2004) and the Global Burden of Disease Study update (World Health The names 'Design for All', Organisation, 2004). 1 According to the WHS 'Universal Design', 'Inclusive Design' and there are about 785 million people with 'Transgenerational Design' are all used to disabilities (15.6% of the global refer to a relatively recent movement in population), while the GBD raises this which, though in practice it uses the figure to 975 million people over 15 (19.4% technology and the knowledge of of the world population) living with ergonomics – a science that made great disabilities. Out of the total world progress during the second half of the 20th population for 2010, the WFS estimated century –, performance is not the end goal. that 110 million people (2.2% of the world In Design for All, ergonomics is a valuable population) have significant functional instrument but not the final objective. difficulties, while the GBD estimates that The aim of this paper is to identify 190 million people (3.8% of the world the foundations of the Design for All population) have severe disabilities or the movement and how they have developed equivalent to the disability caused by over history. problems like tetraplegia, severe depression or blindness. Statistics and demographic trends On a global level the main The statistics for disability in the recognised causes of disability are world are staggering and the argument that infectious disease (HIV, malaria, polio, disabled people are a minority no longer leprosy, trachoma), chronic disease holds. The latest and most rigorous work at (diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, mental international level on disability is the World disorders, cancer, respiratory diseases), 1 traffic accidents and, very especially, almost 60,000 centenarians. The U.S. ageing. This is one of the clearest global Census Bureau estimated that by 2020 trends of the 21st century, as statistics there will be between 7 and 8 million show that old people make up a very large people over 85 and about 214,000 over proportion of the disabled population 100. (World Health Organisation and the World Bank, 2011). 2 In spite of the differences between developed and developing countries, the fact is that people not only live much longer in old age, but also, thanks to progress in medicine, war veterans, injured people and people suffering from infectious diseases who at one time would not have survived now do so in reasonable conditions. The combination of low birth rate and longer life expectancy results in an increasingly ageing population with varying The statistics on disabilities in Europe – the degrees of disability. continent with the world's oldest population-– are also significant. According Not only do people live longer, they to the 2008 Demographic Year Book , in also live with more difficulties. The two Europe there were 118 million people over world wars created a huge population of 65, which amounts to 16.1% of the veterans with disabilities, while antibiotics population, compared to 113 million and other developments in medicine mean people under 15, which amounts to 15.5% that people survive accidents and diseases of the population (United Nations Statistics that were once fatal. These demographic Division, 2008). According to figures from changes result in a population that is older the European Disability Forum, 15% of the and has more disabilities than it seems. population of the European Union – some 80 million people – suffer some kind of One example of this trend can be disability and it is estimated that 40% of the found in the work done by the Center for population has reduced mobility. 3 The EDF Universal Design based on the U.S. Census puts continued emphasis on the low rates Bureau, which estimates that by 2010 the of employment integration of people with United States will have 40 million people disabilities, who tend to be considered over 65, four million people over 85 and inactive population. Only 20% of people 2 with disabilities enter the labour market, as other lack of livelihood in circumstances opposed to 68% of people without beyond his control'. disabilities. From 1945 to 1955 the United From victims to people with rights Nations Secretariat and the Economic and Social Council were the main bodies in Curiously, although the Design for matters of disability, centred on furthering All movement really took off in the 1990s, the rights of people with physical work and action by the United Nations in disabilities and on projects to prevent favour of the rights of people with disabilities and promote rehabilitation. disabilities go back much further, to the years after the Second World War, when From 1955 to 1970 the United numerous war veterans began the fight Nations began to shift from a charitable against discrimination. Since then, the approach to disability to a social one. movement in support of employment and Furthermore, the 1970s brought a new social integration for disabled people has approach to the matter as the concept of followed a long and eventful path whose the human rights of people with disabilities bases can be consulted in History of United began to be internationally accepted. Nations and Persons with Disabilities During the 1980s, with the object (United Nations, 2011). According to this of improving their integration in society, a document, from 1945 to 2007, at the rate number of initiatives were taken on a of almost one a year, the United Nations national and international level to improve carried out a consistent series of actions the situation of disabled people. To this directed at recognising the rights of end, programmes were launched that were disabled people. directed at rehabilitation and prevention The first thing to be said is that the and national committees were established Universal Declaration of Human Rights, representing 141 countries whose goal was proclaimed in 1948, lays down the to make improvements in the following foundations for the promotion and areas: the social and economic situation of protection of human rights when it states people with disabilities, programme that every individual has 'the right to development and implementation, security in the event of unemployment, research, decision-making policies, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or legislation, decentralisation at national and local levels and aid to developing countries. 3 During the 1990s five United ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all Nations World Conferences were held that human rights and fundamental freedoms put the emphasis on the need to create a by people with disabilities and to promote 'society for all', calling for participation by respect for their inherent dignity'. citizens in all spheres of society, including The countries that ratified this people with disabilities. As a result, thanks convention took on an international to the United Nations declarations, at the commitment to implement the provisions end of the 20th century there was a of the legal text. The CRPD puts people genuine change in mentality on the way with disabilities on the human rights disability was understood, with a shift from agenda, shifting the paradigm from charity the medical model to the social model and to rights, from a medical model to one an increased awareness that people are based on social/human rights. Disabled disabled by their environment as much as people are no longer considered victims or by their bodies. In fact, environment – patients; they are people with rights and along with poverty – have a marked effect with a part to play in society. on the impact and scale of disability. Disability and environment are The Convention , passed by the UN interdependent. For example, people with General Assembly in December 2006 and visual or auditive impairments who have ratified by all the countries of the European access to every type of glasses and hearing Union the following year, is a legally aids can work and lead a practically normal binding treatise on human rights forming life. On the other hand, wherever these part of the United Nations human rights aids are not technically or economically apparatus. accessible these people become disabled because they can not work or lead an Nevertheless, legal recognition of independent life. the rights of people with disabilities could be worthless without rigorously up-to-date At the turn of the millennium, more social research. The latest research on than 40 countries introduced laws against disability at world level is the World Report the discrimination of disabled people. The on Disability published in 2011 by the most recent and extensive recognition of World Health Organisation and the World the human rights of people with disabilities Bank. It explicitly acknowledges that is the Convention on the Rights of Persons disability is a human rights related issue with Disabilities (United Nations, Enable, because: 1) disabled people experience 2006). 4 Its aim is to 'promote, project, and 4 professional and social inequality; 2) Many definitions have been given disabled people suffer lack of respect and of the concept of Design for All . Here we violations of their dignity, and 3) disabled shall turn to the Stockholm Declaration people are often denied their autonomy passed on 9 May 2004 at the Annual (World Health Organisation and the World General Meeting of the European Institute Bank, 2011). for Design and Disability, which says: The concept of Design for All 'Design for All is design for human diversity, social inclusion and The change in thinking over equality. This holistic and disability – from medical to social and from innovative approach constitutes a body to environment – was a direct call to creative and ethical challenge for town-planners, architects, engineers and all planners, designers, designers, to the extent that their bad entrepreneurs, administrators and practices not only prevented access to the political leaders.