Inclusive employment practice is not usual employment practice. While businesses might have a positive attitude towards the diverse nature of their customer base this does not always apply to their recruitment practices. But a handful of organisations are giving it a try. The Australian Network on Disability (AND), which specialises in assisting organisations to be more inclusive in their human resource practices, has developed an index. This year the top performers are the Federal Department of Human Services, the Australian Taxation Office and ANZ. AND has just published their 2017-2018 benchmark report. It can be downloaded in PDF, Word, video or podcast.
Author: Jane Bringolf
Cities and the NDIS
The overall aim of the NDIS is to enable people, previously excluded from mainstream activities, to join in and participate. However, the rest of society hasn’t caught up yet and the NDIS isn’t set up to make those changes happen. That’s up to the people who are not NDIS recipients. The Conversation has an article based on research carried out by University of Melbourne and La Trobe University. The research team has produced a report, How will the NDIS change Australian Cities? This paper sets out the research agenda on the urban policies that we need if the NDIS is to meet its aims. Housing is a key factor in this policy mix. And it is not just the built environment – services have to shape up too. The Conversation spells out the issues well.
Universally designed infrastructure planning
One of the underpinning tenets of universal design is to involve users in the design process – at the beginning. Involving citizens in early stages of design can avoid costly retrofits, but more importantly, it is more likely to give people what they want. That means they are more likely to use it. Transport planning can also be universally designed. An article in The Fifth Estate argues that to leave out citizens is asking for trouble, and it is also undemocratic. Infrastructure is a public thing regarless of who owns it, runs it or controls it. It is about good city governance. Planners need to do three things:
- consult and engage citizens early in infrastructure planning
- improve quality and access of citizen engagement at the strategic planning stages
- use more sophisticated strategic planning tools and practices to improve decision-making
The original article was in The Conversation.
Another look at missed business
Champions of universal design are often told that to effect change you need a good economic argument. Several such arguments have been written, but have met with little success in terms of gaining greater acceptance of universal design and inclusive practice. Shops, buses, buildings, hotels, meeting places, schools, parks, tourist destinations, and homes still remain inaccessible to many. The tourism sector has recognised that telling hotels and holiday businesses that they are missing out on a significant market is not sufficient of itself to make change. What is needed is more “How to…”. The latest publication discussing economics, is on the purchasing power of working age people with disability. It travels over familiar ground with the latest statistics, facts and figures relative to the United States. It compares the disposable income of people with and without disability and with 
different disabilities, and goes on to discuss the data from a marketing perspective.
The full title of the paper is, A Hidden Market: The Purchasing Power of Working-Age Adults with Disabilities, by Yin, Shaewitz, Overton & Smith. Published by the American Institutes for Research. You can download from Researchgate.
Note: The economics of universal design in housing by Smith, Rayer, Smith (2008) is an excellent example of economists applying their skills to a social problem. Nothing has changed yet.
Universal Design in Housing
For anyone not familiar with the movement for universal design in housing, Introduction to Housing has a chapter that gives a really good overview of how to incorporate UD into the design. It covers each of the design features and explains that they can be factored into moderately sized homes. The chapter addresses each of the classic principles of universal design and how they apply to housing design. A case study illustrates the features. As with many Google Books, many of the pages are freely available, but for the full chapter you will need to contact the authors, Hartje, Ewen and Tremblay or purchase the book.
Introduction to Housing, 2nd edition, is edited by Katrin B. Anacker, Andrew T. Carswell, Sarah D. Kirby, Kenneth R. Tremblay.
Urban design for the not-so-average
How quickly can you get across a pedestrian crossing? The Department of Health says the average walking speed required is 1.2 metres per second. However, the average speed of the older pedestrian is 0.7 to 0.9 metres per second, according to an article in The Guardian. So we need urban design for the not-so-average.
Cities are designed with a mythical average person in mind, but this so-called average is getting older. Have designers updated their data on this? The article discusses many issues that have been mentioned elsewhere: older people having problems getting outdoors; time to sit down; a bus driver who lets you sit before moving off; and of course, uneven pavements – or no pavements at all.
Global Network of Age Friendly Cities
Across the world 258 cities have signed up to the World Health Organisation’s Global Network of Age Friendly Cities. One has to ask “only 258?” The title of The Guardian article is, Our cities must undergo a revolution for older people. It questions the approaches of urban designers and has links to other useful references.
Norway takes a universal design approach to the WHO Age Friendly Cities Guide and has given it an update.
Environments in an Ageing Society
This year the topic for the annual review of Gerontology and Geriatrics is Environments in an Ageing Society: Autobiographical Perspectives. The contributors have long-standing research careers – some are well known in Australia: Edward Steinfeld, Jon Pynoos, Laura Gitlin, Susanne Iwarsson, and Sheila Peace. The chapters cover home, neighbourhood, ageing in place, and social change. Each chapter is written from the researcher’s perspective providing reflections of their experience and learning. As an academic publication you will need institutional access for a free read, or you can purchase chapters separately. Here is the introduction:
“Through the autobiographical perspectives of 16 preeminent researchers and scholars of Environmental Gerontology, this state-of-the-art Annual Review critically examines the broad range of topics that comprise this interdisciplinary field. The writings of these individuals, who have contributed to and shaped the growth of the field over the past three-plus decades, trace the growth and evolution of Environmental Gerontology and provide understanding of, and insights on, the role of environments for older adults and an aging society at multiple levels.
Inclusion in the chemistry lab
Three articles were published in Accessibility in the Laboratory about creating inclusion in school and research laboratories. Good to see this topic discussed as it broadens our thinking about universal design and where it needs to be applied (that is, everywhere). The first is about accommodating students with disability in chemistry teaching laboratories. This is especially important now that the STEM subjects are being promoted and encouraged. The second is focused on the modifications that labs might need to undertake. They include people with reduced hand strength in their discussions. The third is about invisible, or not readily observable, disabilities that need to be considered. They discuss stigma and other challenges students face in the lab. Each chapter can be purchased separately if you don’t have institutional access for a free read. The book is published by the American Chemical Society. Here are the full titles:
Laboratory Safety for All: Accommodating Students with Disabilities in Chemistry Teaching Laboratories
Accommodating Persons with Physical Disability in the Lab
Hidden or invisible disabilities and Laboratory Accommodations
Hobsons Bay Universal Design Policy Statement
Hobsons Bay City Council is situated south-west of Melbourne with a significant stretch of coastal area. As with many local councils in Victoria they are keen to embrace the principles of universal design in their planning policies. As part of their access and inclusion strategy they plan to implement universal design principles in new buildings, buildings with significant upgrades, retrofits of existing buildings, features and public open space. They started with a Hobsons Bay Universal Design Policy Statement.
The policy statement includes a table where the 7 classic principles of universal design are translated into specific guidelines for council staff. The policy statement discusses the myths, regulatory framework and how to implement universal design, and how to go beyond compliance.
A short document and a good template for other councils to use. Policy statements don’t need to be long and wordy. This one gets to the point.
Preferences of older people in residential design
Guy Luscombe did a great report on his findings from a study tour of residential settings for older people. He found aspects such as natural light were of important to residents. A similar study was undertaken in Hong Kong looking at age, gender, marital status, etc., to see the preferences of older people in residential design
The importance of living in a space you like has ongoing health benefits (or detriments if not). This is a thorough study using qualitative techniques which looks at residents preferences. Differences emerged about windows, but there seemed to be some general agreement about bedroom size. The title of the paper is, Comparison of facilities management in private domestic buildings among different elderly groups in Hong Kong. Here is the last part of the abstract:
“The result shows that satisfaction with natural daylight was significantly different among elderly people of different genders, while the one-way between-groups ANOVA indicates that satisfaction with the size of bedrooms, turning spaces at doors, temperature in bathrooms and/or toilets, colour, accessibility and ease of closing or opening the doors were significantly different among elderly people belonging to different age groups and of different marital status and education level.
Designers and private developers are therefore recommended to increase the sizes of bedrooms, install windows on opposite sides of walls in the flats and ensure there is an adequate light reflection ratio for wall and floor colours, in order to accommodate elderly people’s special characteristics.”