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 '', '' and there are about 785 million people with 'Transgenerational Design' are all used to (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% 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 caused by over history. problems like tetraplegia, severe depression or blindness. Statistics and demographic trends On a global 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. . 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 , 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, to the extent that their bad entrepreneurs, administrators and practices not only prevented access to the political leaders. built environment but also to information , vehicles, culture, etc. In this Design for All aims to respect it was seen that highly specialised enable all people to have equal and design of technical opportunities to participate in assistance and rehabilitation had to evolve every aspect of society. To achieve towards a much broader concept this, the built environment, committed to the integration of people everyday objects, services, culture who have difficulty interacting with their and information – in short, environment, whether they are disabled or everything that is designed and not. The for the made by people to be used by Disabled therefore gave way to the much people – must be accessible, broader philosophy of Design for All . In convenient for everyone in society fact, Design for All is a philosophy that to use and responsive to evolving seeks to engage all designers as its goal is human diversity. none other than to ensure that no-one is The practice of Design for discriminated by products or services on All makes conscious use of the the basis of age, size, sex, race, culture or analysis of human needs and ability. aspirations and requires the involvement of end users at every

5 stage in the design process.' progress always leads to social progress. (European Institute for Design and Furthermore, the very real danger of a Disability, 2004). nuclear war destroying the entire planet loomed throughout the Cold War, Design for All sets out to eradicate triggering concern for environmental a series of bad practices by professionals, problems on a global level. such as, for example, making based The Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the on values corresponding to average Soviet Union broke up in 1991 and with it measurements on anthropometric tables, the utopia of socialism that had fed the taking oneself as a model in checking the more progressive and committed sectors of functionality of a service, using icons or design since the 1920s. It became difficult symbols (with the idea of customising a to keep up the belief that an egalitarian design) that are not universally recognised society could be achieved through and could therefore lead to confusion, and design, because the taking it for granted that there are places, dream of egalitarianism had faded. products or services intended for a specific Stripped of ethical standards, the more public and that the rest of the population avant-garde sectors of design took to pure will not use them; using excessively aesthetic speculation and announced the professional or unfamiliar language in arrival of the post-modern style. It seemed reports, official forms, web sites, that the only place for design was in the information panels, etc. intended for the service of product differentiation and of general public (Various Authors, 2002) 5. market interests. So could this also be the In search of new ethical standards end of the utopia of design? Had all ethical standards been given up? I think not. During the second half of the 1980s an earthquake shook the world of design, During the 1990s, two social bringing down the few utopias of projects arose that were once again to Modernism that still remained standing. inspire the world of design. One was Green Nevertheless, no-one can say that tehy Design; the other was Design for All. The would have reached the end of the 20th energy and hope that various century intact anyway, as the destructive groups and universities put into the efficacy shown by military weapons during invention and planning of an environment- the Second World War seriously friendly world without barriers makes me questioned the idea that technological

6 think we really are looking at one of the new ethical standards of the 21st century.

1 The first Global Burden of Disease was Conclusions commissioned from the World Bank in 1990 to report on the relative weight of premature mortality and disability brought about by Although no-one can deny that Design different diseases, injuries and risk factors. for All is also a tool for improving the offer 2 Disability figures are much higher amongst of products on the market – the population people between 80 and 89, the fastest-growing figures given above indicate that age group at the global level, with an annual companies offering products 'For All' or increase of 3.9%, and it is calculated it will 'universal' products have a promising reach 20% of the world population over 60 in 2050. See tables 2.2 and 2.3 of the World Report future before them – the idea that design on Disability (World Health Organisation and can and must be at the service of human the World Bank, 2011) p. 35.. rights is an attractive one to designers. I 3 think the success of Universal Design, The EDF has taken its figures from various Eurostat and Eurobarometer documents. Transgenerational Design and Design for All is due to the synergic conjunction of three 4 The Convention on the Rights of Persons with factors in time: Disabilities and its Optional Protocol was

adopted on 13 December 2006 at the United 1. The change in the concept of Nations Headquarters in New York, and was disability that has shifted from opened for signature on 30 March 2007. There medical to social and from body to were 82 signatories to the Convention, 44 signatories to the Optional Protocol, and 1 environment. ratification of the Convention. This is the highest number of signatories in history to a UN 2. The exhaustive development of Convention on its opening day. It is the first international legislation demanding comprehensive human rights treaty of the 21st respect for the human rights of century and is the first human rights convention people with disabilities. to be open for signature by regional integration organisations. The Convention entered into force 3. The search for new ethical on 3 May 2008. standards for design to replace 5 those that once inspired See: Various Authors (2002), Libro blanco del diseño para todos en la universidad , p. Modernism. 45.

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