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7th International Conference on Universal Design, was held 22-24 November 2024 in Norway. The book of open access conference papers is available now.
Conferences and calls for papers
Author: Jane Bringolf
Videos more effective than policy
Policy is often seen as the way to make change. But when it comes to being inclusive it hasn’t worked very well. If policies, codes and papers are not accessible to all stakeholders, how can we create inclusion? Janice Rieger says videos are more effective than policy.
The title of her short paper and workshop is, Reframing Universal Design: Creating Short Videos for Inclusion. Her research provides insights on how videos travel and reach different audiences. This results in a significant impact and enacted change and informed policy. Dr Rieger concludes that “video impacts more than policies, codes and papers ever can”.
Here is an extract from her paper:
“Video is a visceral medium, offering the opportunity to reframe universal design practice and education. It captures movements and can be co-created with people with disabilities. Videos co-created for inclusion encourage detailed and rich embodied knowledge and experiences because information is prompted by association with one’s surroundings. Significantly, videos have the capacity to excavate personalized knowledge of those with different abilities and uncover systems of exclusion that are often hidden or naturalized, and shamedly rendered invisible through policies, codes and papers.”
In a short video titled, Wandering on the Braille Trail, Sarah Boulton explains how she navigates the environment using her white cane and tactile ground markers.
Local Government and SDA
Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) is not just something the NDIS deals with. When it comes to planning and building, local government has to get involved. SDA will not solve all the housing problems for people with disability within a council area. So, the City of Whittlesea is pro-actively tackling this issue. Their approach is outlined in a paper for the upcoming Universal Design Conference.
As Linda Martin-Chew points out in her paper, many people with disability are not eligible for SDA housing. So Council needed to understand the risks and benefits for residents with disability and the SDA market. As Whittlesea has a strong focus on access and inclusion they decided to take action.
Linda’s paper, From niche to mainstream: local government and the specialist disability housing sector outlines how Council tackled the issues. This should make for an interesting and informative presentation at the Conference.
Better Placed: Action for Good Design
Policies and guidelines can be inclusive and thoughtful without needing to even mention universal design. The NSW Government Architect’s policy, Better Placed, has many of the elements of universal design without mentioning it.
A universal design approach to any design is about taking a holistic perspective. The Better Placed objectives are easily linked to the 8 Goals of universal design, which are adaptable to the language of any discipline. In this case it’s urban planning and infrastructure development. The key objectives of this integrated design policy for the built environment are:
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- Better fit
- Better Performance
- Better for community
- Better for people
- Better working
- Better value
- Better look and feel
The NSW Government Architect defines a well-designed built environment as healthy, responsive, integrated, equitable and resilient.
The accompanying document, Implementing Good Design takes the ideas and turns them into actions. There’s an evaluation guide as well.
“Better Placed confirms our collective wishes for the future design of our infrastructure, architecture, and public spaces, and endorses the power of design to enable a better and resilient future for our communities.” – Peter Poulet, former NSW Government Architect.
Urban Design Toolkit from NZ
The Urban Design Toolkit is a practical manual explaining the what, the how and when of urban design processes. This New Zealand publication supports the implementation of their Urban Design Protocol. Each section is written in the same straightforward format with the same subheadings. Some sections give examples as well.
The five key sections are Research and Analysis, Community Participation, Raising Awareness, Planning and Design, and Implementation. The Toolkit is now in its third edition. There is no specific mention of universal design in the Toolkit, but some elements are evident in the Urban Design Protocol:
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- competitive places that thrive economically and facilitate creativity and innovation
- liveable places that provide a choice of housing, work and lifestyle options
- healthy environments that sustains people and nature
- inclusive places that offer opportunities for all citizens
- distinctive places that have a strong identity and sense of place
- well-governed places that have a shared vision and sense of direction.
The first section begins with an accessibility audit, but it does not mention the inclusion of marginalised groups. Taking a universal design approach to the framework adds extra value.
The New Zealand Ministry for the Environment published the online Urban Design Toolkit.
Transport and disability sector engagement
How do you find the people who are most disadvantaged by transport system design when they don’t or can’t travel? If you can’t find them then how will you know what an inclusive transport system looks like? A guide to disability sector engagement for transport professionals is a great idea.
One of Bridget Burdett’s research interests within the transport sector is transport inequity. Her paper, which includes a good practice guide, explains the issues and how to address them. One of the key issues is for professionals and users to understand each other. The language of transport takes time for professionals to learn, let alone community members. So that’s one place to start.
Burdett’s paper sets out recommended practice for transport and lists specific terms of engagement. The research for the Guide was commissioned by the New Zealand Transport Agency. The title of the paper is, Disability sector engagement: Good practice guide. The Guide will be useful for engaging with the disability sector for any infrastructure project.
Bridget has also written a case study about a wheelchair user and her experiences. It’s titled, Transport and Disability: Brook’s Story. Here’s one of the quotes from Brook:
| “I was told by a security guard, “you can’t be here, it’s a fire risk”. And I said, Why? Am I more flammable than other people?” |
Accessible tourism: From charity to business
Hotels in Australia are required to have a percentage of rooms that offer accessible accommodation. Hotel managers generally refer to these rooms as “disabled rooms” and think the job of access is done and dusted. Little thought is given to other hotel facilities. This is where legislation brings compliance but not inclusion. It is still a matter of non-disabled people doing “special” things for disabled people. A charity approach is no longer good business.
A book chapter explores the issues reflecting on equity in terms of sustainable development. The aim of sustainable development is to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the needs of future generations.
The author considers different approaches to the issue of social participation. Charities began the “special” recreational activities and social enterprises developed them further. The commercial uptake of these activities still has a way to go. The concept of “reverse integration” is introduced and discussed.
The title of the book chapter is, Accessible and equitable tourism services for travelers with disabilities: From a charitable to a commercial footing. It is free to download from ResearchGate.
Abstract
Until recently, charities and nonprofits have been the primary providers of recreational services for persons with disabilities (PwD). Increased pressure for a self-sustaining financial existence, as well as the acknowledgment of the value that the market of PwD has, have led to such services increasingly finding their way in competitive commercial environments as well. The chapter traces the development of inclusive holidays for persons with and without visual impairment based on sighted guiding from the historical changes in the understanding of the concept of disability as well as the provision of recreational and tourism services for PwD. The author argues that reverse integration – the approach that these holidays follow – is a viable and efficient way of offering equitable tourism services, particularly when businesses embrace social entrepreneurship. The chapter is built on the assumption that offering accessible and equitable tourism products for PwD is an integral element of corporate sustainability and responsibility in the tourism industry.
Citation: Tomej, K. (2019). Accessible and equitable tourism services for travelers with disabilities: From a charitable to a commercial footing. In D. Lund-Durlacher, V. Dinica, D. Reiser, & M. Fifka (Eds.), Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility in Tourism: A Transformative Concept (pp. 65-78). Springer Nature
UD, UDL, Accessibility and Ableism
Access to information during the COVID-19 pandemic became even more problematic for some users as everything went online. So what can UD, UDL and Accessibility do to help to combat ableism?
An article by John L. O’Neill discusses Universal Design, Universal Design for Learning and Inclusive Design. In this context, the concept of Inclusive Design has a focus on the digital world. He covers the history of each, much of which will be known to UD followers.
O’Neill argues that all three can be combined in innovative ways to ensure access to information. This is logical because each has the same goal – inclusion. He uses a case study where he merges three concepts:
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- universal design principle of perceptible information,
- the tenet of multiple means of representation from Universal Design for Learning,
- adaptive systems from inclusive design.
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From the abstract
Discussions about accessibility surged at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. because people became more dependent on web information. This article explores different disability models to understand the oppression of people with disabilities. The different principles and methods of Universal Design, Universal Design for Learning, and Inclusive Design are combined in innovative ways to ensure that all citizens have access to information without barriers.The kerbside and mobility
The idea of smart cities, driverless cars, and artificial intelligence is propelling us into the unknown. But there are some things we can predict. Everyday things will be seen in a new light. The kerbside for example. Other than kerb ramps most of us don’t think about the kerbside and mobility. But somebody else has.
The Future of Place webpage has a link to a report that looks at the Future Ready Kerbside. The publication by Uber and WSP explores what the future might hold in the context of shared mobility and liveable cities.
The kerb is the intersection between the pedestrian area and the road. How space is allocated each side of the kerb dictates who can access these spaces. The kerbside is not passive infrastructure so we need to prepare for its future use. It needs careful management by city leaders.
There are ten recommendations in the Executive Summary of the report and they include:
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- Co-design the vision for places in partnership with the community, businesses and governments.
- Move from general parking to pick-up/drop-off for people and goods to improve kerbside productivity and access to local places.
- Take a people-and-place first approach so that new mobility is an enabler and not a detractor to realising the co-designed vision.
- Street design guidelines must get ahead of new mobility and proactively focus on the best possible outcomes for people and places.
- Prioritise walking to access local places, along with transit and
micro-mobility, supported by funding for local infrastructure.
The full report is titled, Place and Mobility: Future Ready Kerbside and has more technical detail. Both the full report and the executive summary have interesting infographics and images depicting how the future might look.
The right to participate and co-design
How do you include people in decisions that will affect them when it’s not easy for them to participate? It’s a chicken and egg situation. So, asking people with disability to contribute takes more than a survey or a community meeting. It needs a much more thoughtful process. Janice Rieger has some thoughts on the right to participate and co-design polices and processes.
Janice Rieger discusses the issues in relation to the next National Disability Strategy. Her briefing paper is titled, Right to Participate: Co-designing Disability Policies in Australia. Focusing on process rather than the end product sets the framework to reach a shared understanding. Her three recommendations for co-designing in practice are:
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- Focus on abilities not disabilities
- Employ expertise to help
- Value the importance of creative practice
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Public sector co-designing is an emerging field of practice. It provides the opportunity for creativity and innovative ideas. Reframing participatory engagement through a social justice lens takes us towards a co-designing process.
Editorial Introduction
“We are entering a new era in Australia as we envision a new disability strategy to replace the current national disability strategy (2010–2020). During this transition, we can reflect on and recognise the changing disability landscape in Australia and ensure that we create a just and inclusive Australian society.
Recent consultations and reports have called for people with a disability to directly engage in designing the new disability strategy in Australia, but what does that entail, and how will the rights of people with disabilities be upheld throughout this process?
This brief describes public sector co-designing practice—an emerging practice aiming to open up new trajectories for policy development through a co-design process and to provide best practice recommendations for the next disability strategy in Australia.”
Evolving inclusive design is about desirability
Inclusive design is about desirability. Accessibility is part of it – useability for everyone. The concept of inclusive design in UK had a focus on product design, but it has moved on – evolved. A short film, Evolving Inclusive Design explains how the concept has evolved from product design to web design, to service design and then to system design.
In the video Hua Dong emphasizes that inclusive design is important for everyone. She says: “As designers, we can design with people for people, design with disability for ability, design with old people for young people and design with diversity for unity.”
Hua Dong explains the concepts in a straightforward way in the film. In the earlier years the focus was on user capabilities. It then moved to an interactive focus and design became about the process of using things. User diversity introduces concepts of user experience. The video is 14 minutes but worth the watch.
Although there is a particular focus on product and service design, many points can be transferred to the work with architecture.
The video is a great resource for design students and people new to the concepts.
Inclusive design and universal design the same goals. However, there are some who would argue nuanced differences because they come from different histories. Regardless, we need to get on with the job rather than debating terminology. Besides, if universal/inclusive/design-for-all is also about diversity, we can have diverse ways of expressing the concept. The key is to design for the diversity of the population.