Jane Bringolf, Author at - Page 55 of 111

Local Government and Accessible Housing

Local government rarely gets pro-active about accessible housing or Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA). But the City of Whittlesea bucked the trend. This local government area is one of the fastest growing communities in Victoria. It also has a significant population of residents with a disability, most of whom are ineligible for SDA housing. Consequently, action was needed for mainstream accessible housing.

The Disability Housing Project was established as part of Council’s commitment to inclusion. The project identified the level of demand for both accessible and SDA housing. This information was then used to inform policy and strategic action.

The slide shows the five elements of the project. — Slide showing five elements of the housing project

Rosie Beaumont and Linda Martin-Chew tell their story of venturing into the emerging disability housing market in their presentation at the UD2021 Conference. Council wanted to explore opportunities to progress commitment to accessible and affordable housing. They involved disability advocates, housing developers, strategic and social planners and residents with disability in the project. Developers keen to get into the SDA market were not going to solve the need for accessible housing overall. This was especially the case in the rental sector.

The end result was better industry engagement to promote housing that benefits the whole community. It is an example of joining the dots between the niche of specialist housing and mainstream housing.

There is more detail in the published extended abstract, “From Niche to Mainstream: Local government and the specialist disability housing sector”.

Editor’s Note: Rosie and Linda were clearly passionate about the topic in their presentation. Whittlesea was one of only four councils that joined the campaign for mandated access features in all new housing.

Inclusive Towns Project

The Inclusive Towns Project was a collaborative affair between Bendigo City and Lodden Shire Councils. It focused on local businesses to show how being inclusive makes economic sense. The aim was to show that improving the accessibility increased their customer base.

Nikki Williams’ presentation at UD2021 Conference had some interesting statistics. One third of complaints to the Victorian Human Rights Commission were about disability. One third of these were about employment, and another third about goods and services. Consequently, the aim of the project was to tackle equal access to goods and services and employment.

A project officer, admin support, and six casual staff with disability were appointed to run the project. It was the role of the casual staff to visit businesses and collect information about their accessibility. They followed up with an action plan and then a review.

One of the key barriers to overcome was previous poor experience with Council. They also had to overcome lack of understanding of disability in terms of employment and customers. Many businesses thought it would be expensive to make changes.

Feedback showed that solutions were easier to to implement than first thought. Businesses saw good outcomes from small changes and enjoyed positive feedback from customers.

The end result of the project is a website with information for businesses and the value of being inclusive. It also has a lot of resources.

The project also saw change both in the community and within Council. The need to build capacity with staff to understand disability better was key.

Nikki Williams’ explains the project well in her presentation along with her conference abstract.

Speaking fluent universal design

Head and shoulders of Stefano Scalzo. — Stefano Scalzo Executive General Manager Planning and Development

Stefano Scalzo was speaking fluent universal design at the UD2021 Conference. In his keynote address he showcased what the Victorian Government is doing to progress universal design in state projects. Stefano gave practical examples of how universal design has been applied in real life, to real buildings for real people.

Stefano Scalzo is the Executive General Manager, Planning and Development with the Victorian Government. Their universal design approach is based on their Universal Design Charter, which is:

- - Equity
  - Respect
  - Participation
  - Sustainability
  - Responsibility
  - Awareness
  - Collaboration

This is not a building code compliance approach: it’s a human rights perspective and putting people first.

Universal Design Charter slide with 7 elements — The 7 elements of the Universal Design Charter

It’s part of the tender process

The Government’s commitment is not just a policy – it is action. Their procurement process asks prospective tenderers to tell them how they will achieve universal design. And they are promoting a culture of inclusion where universal design is integrated at the beginning of every project.

Stefano explained more about the tender process and then showed us several examples of buildings that met their charter. He added that we are really just beginning and there is so much more to learn. And he challenged us to keep the conversation going. Specifically he asked delegates to commit to the conversation by:

- - Taking this back to your Director
  - Presenting to your team
  - Forming an advisory group
  - Redrafting the design
  - Listening – really listening – to someone with lived experience
  - Adopting a charter
  - Adjusting your process
  - Thinking beyond accessibility – to participation, safety, welcome
  - Going beyond compliance
  - Delivering more than a minimum standard.

It was wonderful to hear a government representative speaking fluent universal design. This is the kind of leadership we all need in Australia if we are to become truly inclusive.

Stefano shared his slides and his speech notes which have a lot more detail about the work they are doing in Victoria.

Michael Walker’s presentation expanded on aspects of this presentation. Victoria is clearly committed to inclusion and universal design.

What is Easy Read and who needs it?

page from Access Easy English on COVID. Writing for readers. — ***Example of Easy English***

Easy Read is a good example of how less is more. But conveying messages in fewer words is more difficult than writing more words. Easy Read is for people with low levels of literacy. It’s mostly used for essential information such as health alerts and legal terms and conditions. Writing with minimal words is a skillset of its own. It’s not easy. But it does make you think about what you really need or want to say.

Proficient readers can use Easy Read versions to get the take-home message quickly and easily. That’s also why it’s universal design – it’s for everyone. However, Easy Read is not the same as Easy English – the example in the image. It has even fewer words and focuses on actions not just information. Cathy Basterfield says that Easy Read is not simple enough for some people and explains this in a simple poster analysing the difference

Easy Read not the same as plain English or plain language. Complex documents such as research reports are beginning to include a plain language summary. However, these require an average level of literacy. They are usually presented as a paragraph or a list of sentences in dot points. Easy English drills down further to the key words and concepts. The techniques include:

- - a lot of white space
  - directly relevant illustrations (not photos) to convey the meaning of the text
  - short words and sentences
  - minimal punctuation
  - positive phrasing
  - bullets to separate items in a list.

Editors can learn from Easy English

The Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading blog has a more detailed article. It summarises Cathy Basterfield’s presentation at their annual conference. She shows how editorial professionals can learn from Easy English.

Blog writer, Anna Baildon, said she learned a lot from the session and had her assumptions challenged. She said she could see “the links to plain English but it goes further”. The headlines she remembers are:

- - It’s hard to write in Easy English
  - Access to written information should not be a reading test. It should be enabling
  - Unpacking the language so the meaning becomes accessible.
  - Access to information is a right. ‘Access’ means that a person reads, understands and knows what they can do.

The Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading has a guide to Editing in Plain English.

Many people need it

More than 40% of the population has low literacy skills. In some remote parts of Australia and in institutions it is higher than this. There are several reasons why so many Australians need information in easy to understand formats:

– acquired disabilities
– lifelong disabilities
– poor educational outcomes
– psychiatric or mental illness
– dyslexia
– early school leavers
– older people
– different cultural backgrounds
– hearing impaired and/or people from the Deaf community

Accessibility and universal design needs to be considered at the outset of any project, not as an afterthought. Information formats such as brochures and websites are no exception. Some important government documents include an Easy Read version, but this is still rare.

Cathy Basterfield has pioneered much of the work on Easy English in Australia. People with high level literacy skills can grasp the key points with little effort. And there are times when people with good literacy skills need help. For example, the stress of a court hearing can temporarily affect one’s reading skills and level of understanding.

Cathy Basterfield presented a paper on this topic at the Australian Universal Design Conference, UD2021. There is a related post on choice of typeface or font for easy reading. Cathy has an Easy English blogsite that explains more. She did a lot of work for COVID-19 too.

There is an Easy Read version of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Bumpy Road website is a good example of Cathy’s work for interacting with the justice system.

Interoception: A universal design approach

Interoception is an internal sensory system where you notice physical and emotional cues. Most people develop this system and gain awareness of their internal cues as they grow up. But not everyone does. Dr Emma Goodall’s workshop, Interoception: A universal design approach, enlightened us and linked it to universal design in learning (UDL).

Emma explained how poor awareness or misinterpretation of our internal body state, like feeling thirsty or hot, makes it difficult to regulate our emotions and behaviour. Then she took us through some interoception activities so that we were all able to notice our own bodies.

One of the slides showing atypical interoception and difficulty noticing body signals, and difficulty interpreting them. — One of Emma Goodall’s slides showing atypical interoception.

After understanding the theory and having a practice, we were able to consider interoception in our own lives and apply it in other settings. It is particularly useful for teachers of school children who have difficulty learning. Emma explained how students and teachers are more engaged at school and there are fewer suspensions and exclusions.

Emma made the point that when children and young people have not yet developed interoception skills they will struggle with their emotions and with social interactions. Even just being around others may be difficult for them to manage. This will, of course, affect their ability to learn in and out of school.

Presentation slides and paper

The slides from Emma’s presentation give an overview of interoception and how it applies to children and young people. The title of her presentation is, Interoception as a universal design for learning strategy to support well-being and engagement in learning in education for all children and young people.

There is more in Emma’s published paper where she explains how educators, families and other professionals can implement interoception activities. Other contexts where it is useful is the justice system, mental health and aged care.

Emma has more resources and information on the Positive Partnerships website.

Post by Dr Emily Steel

Public Toilets and social and economic participation

Public toilets are not dinner party conversation, but they are essential to our wellbeing. They are costly to build and maintain yet we need more of them. They also need to be fit for purpose because they are about social and economic participation. The Changing Places toilet campaign is a case in point. There wouldn’t be many people passionate about public toilets, but Katherine Webber had plenty to say at the UD2021 Conference.

Katherine’s presentation was titled, Access and Inclusion in Public Toilets: Impacts on social and economic participation. The presentation slides show lots of different examples. Toilet design is often dismissed as just needing to be functional and designs vary little. But public toilets are “difficult to get right. And no wonder. They are mired in cultural baggage, struck in the fixedness of fixtures and bound by massive, often ancient infrastructure (Lowe 2018:49).

Public toilets also support tourism and economic development, night-time economy, and access to public spaces and public art.

Katherine describes more in her written paper on this topic. She was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study toilets in other countries.

Accessibility with help from Standards

The ISO Guide 71 eleven goals of accessibility. — Slide showing the 11 accessibility goals.

Who wants to refer to the instruction manual if they can avoid it? In the same way, standards documents get overlooked unless it’s mandatory to comply. But there is one standards document that is worth looking at. It can help us progress accessibility and universal design. On day two of UD2021 Conference, Emily Steel explained how the international accessibility standard works.

Emily Steel pointing to the 11 Goals of the Guide on the presentation slide. — Emily Steel with the 11 Goals of the Guide.

The international standard has done all the thinking for us. The document guides standards committees as they write and update standards for their specific industry or profession. It is also useful for any committee developing guides or standards for accessibility and universal design. So, we don’t have to re-invent the wheel.

The Guide’s use of the the term “accessibility” relates closely to universal design. “The extent to which products, systems, services, environments and facilities can be used by people from a population with the widest range of characteristics and capabilities to achieve a specified goal in a specified context of use”.

The Guide has two main parts. The first describes user needs and 11 accessibility goals. These are similar to the 8 Goals of Universal Design. The second describes human characteristics and abilities, and design considerations.

Guide 71 was adapted by the European standards authority and is titled, CEN-CENLEC Guide 6. It is basically the same information. You can see a previous post about this document.

There is also an Accessibility Masterlist by Gregg Vanderheiden. It’s a collaborative resource for understanding access features in digital applications. Also worth a look.

All standards should ensure they meet the goals of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Guide 71 shows how to do this.

Ageism, Attitudes and Stereotypes

Two men are working on a construction site. One is holding a circular saw which has just cut through a large timber board. Are they a stereotype? Probably not. Ageism attitudes and stereotypes. — Working at any age – no need for stereotypes

Do we deploy so-called positive stereotypes of older people as a means to combat ageism and ageist attitudes? If we say older people make more loyal and reliable employees, what does that say about younger people? But are these stereotypes valid? Philip Taylor discussed these important issues about ageism, attitudes, stereotypes and work.

Professor Taylor’s keynote presentation at UD2021 was thought provoking. It challenged almost everyone in the room to re-think their concepts about ageism and work. It seems there are more complaints related to age by younger people. He asked, is there such a thing as ageism or are there other factors that discriminate? And how does this work with concepts of equity and diversity?

Then there are the contradictions related to age: The Federal Government wanting everyone to work until age 70, yet National Seniors are proposing older people should make way for younger people and retire early.

Here’s a quote from one of the slides, “The very arguments for employing older workers put forward in business cases concerning commitment, loyalty and experience risk confirming broader societal perceptions that they are of the past and thus, less able to meet the demands of modern workplaces” (Roberts, 2006).

There is a greater variation in job performance between people of the same age than between people of different ages. Professor Taylor’s presentation slides have a good amount of text to get the key points of his presentation. Maybe it is time for a product recall on advocacy for older people.

Are you ageist? Probably

This is about language. An article in The Guardian reports on a survey that found one third of British people admit they have discriminated against others because of their age. The SunLife report, Ageist Britain, highlights casual ageism and the impact it has on everyone. But it is ingrained in everyday language. It seems younger people think that life after 50 must be ‘downhill all the way’. But such attitudes infiltrate all parts of everyday life. That’s how older people are excluded from employment, harassed on public transport, and even when shopping.

Language can demean and depress. “Old fart”, “little old lady”, “bitter old man” and “old hag” were, researchers found, the most used ageist phrases on social media. Four thousand people in the UK were surveyed. Thousands of tweets and blogposts were also analysed for discriminatory and ageist language. And that’s without journalists using the term “the elderly” for anyone aged over 65.

Editor’s note: Terminology related to people with disability has changed over the years and is generally more inclusive. However, we are a long way behind with our language for older people. They are still viewed as a burden and a problem. Worse still is the terminology of ‘tsunami’ as if longevity is a national disaster.

A UD approach to all building types: A guide

What does it mean to take a universal design approach to designing all building types? In a nutshell, it means designing for as many people as possible. It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach either, although some say it is.

The concept of universal design has come a long way from its roots in barrier-free-design. It covers everything from tangible objects to customer service.

A guide from the Centre for Excellence in Universal Design covers all types of public buildings: offices, transport, retail, shopping centres, restaurants and bars, museums, galleries, libraries, entertainment centres, religious buildings, hotels, outdoor areas, parks and historic sites. The whole guide takes a universal design approach to all aspects of building design and across all types of buildings. It’s a very detailed guide, but the sections have clear subheadings.

The Building for Everyone guide contains checklists for each section and pictures show some of the design issues arising. This is a comprehensive publication and brings together all building types together in one place. This makes it a good resource for local authorities that need to join the dots between all buildings in their community. It is also useful for planners and designers involved in one or more of the building types.

Also, have a look at Designing Homes with Dementia in Mind.

Festivals and markets for everyone

Organisers of festivals, markets and events need to think about accessibility and inclusion in their planning. Ordering an accessible Portaloo doesn’t suddenly make the event accessible. The layout of stalls and entertainment areas also need to be considered.

Lee Wilson makes a plea to organisers of festivals and markets for more inclusive thinking in his post on Linked In. He gives an overview of things to think about and that includes emergency procedures. Information should also be accessible, particularly to people who do not read English well, or have low vision. Auslan interpreters and audio describers make festivals and events enjoyable for people who are deaf or blind. There are several good resources on making events inclusive:

Accessible Events Checklist from the WA Government

Accessible Events Guide from Meetings and Events Australia

Event Accessibility Checklist from Australian Network on Disability (AND)

The City of Sydney’s Vivid Festivals have a high level of accessibility which is planned from the outset.

Author: Jane Bringolf

Local Government and Accessible Housing

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