The introduction to a special issueof Design Issues focuses on the way design can reproduce inequality in society. It asks questions such as: In what ways do designers or design processes emerge in relation to social inequalities? How can the discussion of inequality be broadened within design practices? This introduction discusses the rise of design and refers to different concepts and debates relating to design and designing. An academic journal asking important questions about the role of design in exercising power, creating accessibility, capitalism and consumption, cultural reproduction, oppression and neglect. An important contribution to the discourse on design.
“This collection offers Design Issuesreaders insight into the multi-layered connections between design and inequalities. All the articles address issues that are both deeply sociological and acutely concerned with design. They move across themes like the economy, labor, gender, disability, politics, colonization, material culture, class, and (social) policy. The essays clearly position themselves in the context of design inequality by pushing for greater criticality and reflexivity in design scholarship and practice.”
A research paper from Colorado State University brings together all the elements for successful ageing in place. These are universal design in housing, walkable and wheelable communities. It discusses home and place, and what it means for residents. Simply providing “age-friendly” infrastructure is insufficient to support population ageing.
While the situation is a little different in the US, the research supports Australian studies and the advocacy for universal design in housing. However, the recommendation for market incentives in terms of certification has not worked in Australia. The situation is similar in New Zealand. It has not produced mainstream uptake of accessible housing.
Colorado’s aging population is growing, yet our housing options are not evolving to support this population. Housing that accommodates people as they age is crucial to balancing demands on other services. We need more than assisted living facilities to support successful and healthy ageing.
Most homes in Colorado are not built using principles of universal design that support successful ageing in place. The outcomes of engagement activities show that advocating for lifelong housing is a critical step to advance age-friendly housing.
This paper summarizes key research and industry trends related to lifelong homes. These include the barriers in the marketplace, and the key qualities of lifelong homes. Based on this research, we present a path forward for advancing affordable, healthy, and safe home options for our growing population of older adults in Colorado and beyond.
A design guide for inclusive leisure facilities is an excellent resource for designers, policy makers and municipal authorities. Lots of drawings and graphics provide design guidance and highlight the key points. Using the principles of universal design means that it is not a standardised design template.
Privacy and comfort for all users is one of the key elements. Mixed gender spaces for caregivers and parents with young children are also important. Local cultural customs also need to be considered. The classic gender segregation of space has already evolved into more universal space because of disability legislation.
The guideaddresses confusion over language and terminology, use of space and general design principles. The title of the guide is, Designing for Inclusivity: Strategies for Universal Washrooms and Change Rooms in Community and Recreation Facilities. It covers: inclusivity for families, people with disability, transgender and non-binary people, privacy, increased efficiency and forward thinking design. The principles are:
1. Strive for inclusivity and access for all 2. Use openness to enhance safety through activity and shared monitoring 3. Create privacy where most needed to enhance comfort 4. Welcome everyone with signage that emphasizes function and is clear, inclusive, and positive 5. Ensure supportive staff operations and communications
Universally designed leisure facilities
What does washroom and change room design have to do with social justice? Darryl Condon answers this question in a Pools and Leisure Magazine article. He has a good grasp of all the relevant design issues across the diversity and inclusion spectrum for universally designed leisure facilities.
The advice and information is explained using a universal design approach, which makes it relevant to other public facilities. Condon lists five design strategies that designers can take away. At the end of the article he advises that with any new facility, a diverse group of users should be consulted. A very thoughtful articlein this international magazine published via issuu. It has other articles of interest to designers and architects.
The article, Designing for Inclusivity: Strategies for universal washrooms and change rooms in community sport and recreation facilities, is on page 48. Pictures and graphics are a nice addition.
The article begins: “What does washroom and change room design have to do with social justice? A great deal. As architects, we must consider the social impact resulting from all aspects of our work. Universal washrooms and change rooms are increasingly crucial in the design of recreation and sport facilities and are one element in our approach to more impactful design”.
This article is also on Linked In and probably easier to read than the issuu version. The picture is from the Linked In version. The social inclusion aspect is also discussed by Katherine Webber in Toilets, Taboos and Design Principles.
The tourism sector continues to follow the medical model of disability where it’s the fault of the individual’s body rather than the design of the world around them. This approach affects the language used in promotional material. It also reinforces the mistaken idea that accessible “products” need to be special and separate. Stefania Gandin’s article looks at the language used in the tourism sector and the way tourism and travel is promoted.
Disability as a human characteristic and not being afraid to talk about it in promotional material and websites is essential. Or, of developing only specialised disability-specific products as being “accessible tourism”. The underpinning principle of inclusive tourism is being able to independently enjoy holiday or leisure time without any barriers or problems. The move from the terminology of “accessible” tourism to “inclusive” tourism could also help.
There will always be a need for specialist tourism products, particularly for people with physical disabilities who want adventure activities. But this does not cover everyone, including people with health conditions who want to travel in groups. After all, many disabilities are invisible.
This study aims to discover the main linguistic features characterising the promotion of tourism for travellers with disability.
Although accessible tourism represents an important sector in the market, detailed research on the language of tourism for people with disability remains limited and mainly tends to focus on the problems of physical access rather than considering the ways to improve its promotional strategies.
We investigated the relevant linguistic features of promotional materials advertising holidays and tourist services for people with disability. Then we related them to the communicative strategies of other marketing materials dedicated to the standard and translational language of tourism.
We show how mainstream tourism discourse still considers disability as a taboo topic, mostly ignoring or vaguely mentioning it in the general promotion of tourist destinations. New language is suggested to stylistically improve and further the accessible tourism sector within overall tourism promotion.
What does washroom and change room design have to do with social justice? Darryl Condon answers this question in a Pools and Leisure Magazine article. He has a good grasp of all the relevant design issues across the diversity and inclusion spectrum for universally designed leisure facilities.
The advice is explained using a universal design approach making it relevant to other public facilities. Condon lists five design strategies that designers can take away. He advises that any new facility requires consultation with a diverse group of users. A very thoughtful articlein this international magazine published via issuu. It has other articles of interest to designers and architects.
The article, Designing for Inclusivity: Strategies for universal washrooms and change rooms in community sport and recreation facilities, is on page 48. Pictures and graphics are a nice addition.
The article begins: “What does washroom and change room design have to do with social justice? A great deal. As architects, we must consider the social impact resulting from all aspects of our work. Universal washrooms and change rooms are increasingly crucial in the design of recreation and sport facilities and are one element in our approach to more impactful design”.
This article is also on Linked In and probably easier to read than the issuu version. The picture is from the Linked In version. Katherine Webber also discusses aspects of social inclusion in Toilets, Taboos and Design Principles.
Tourism Australia has a web page titled Accessible Tourism. It is not a “how to” page. It gives a brief description of what accessible tourism is and Australian policies and legislation. Then it refers readers to a list of other organisations or guides listed below. This is not an exhaustive list, but it is a good start for tourism businesses, planners and local government.
PhotoAbility– Stock image library featuring individuals with disabilities in travel, leisure and lifestyle settings.
Push Adventures – offers advice to make tourism businesses inclusive and accessible by a whole range of guests.
Sydney for All– A visitors’ guide to Sydney using universal icons to help users decide which attractions provide the appropriate level of access.
Accessible Victoria – The official tourist site for Melbourne and Victoria. Includes information on accessible accommodation, activities and attractions and the best ways to get around in Melbourne and Victoria.
Queensland Inclusive Tourism Guide – a guide for making businesses more accessible and inclusive. Covers legal obligations, knowledge about the market, and strategies to improve the accessibility to appeal to a wider range of visitors of all abilities and ages.
TravAbility– TravAbility is dedicated to Inclusive Tourism through education, advocacy, and by providing accessibility information for the world’s best travel destinations.
Travellers Aid Australia – An organisation that provides simple, practical travel-related support and aid to help visitors of all backgrounds travel independently and confidently.
Vision Australia – Vision Australia has fact sheets on issues relating to people who are blind and vision impaired. The fact sheets range from accessible design for homes to customer service tips.
Including people with disability also includes people with young children in prams, older people, and people with temporary disabilities. Accessible, or inclusive tourism is about ensuring tourist destinations, products and services are accessible to everyone, regardless of their physical limitations, disabilities or age.
Compliance with legal requirements in public spaces is rarely enough to guarantee access for everyone. People with invisible disabilities are often left out of designs. A focus on technical aspects often results in spaces that are still challenging for many. The American Society of Landscape Architects has a Universal Design page where they list some of the disabilities and impairments regularly overlooked. For example, dementia, deafness, vision loss, and autism. The classic 7 Principles of Universal Design are re-jigged to suit landscape design:
Accessible
Comfortable
Participatory
Ecological
Legible
Multi-sensory
Predictable
Walkable/Traversable.
Parks and Plazas
Poorly designed spaces limit the number of people who can use them – they might look great, but that is not enough. Everyone should benefit from great civic space. The American Society of Landscape Architects has a great guide to Parks and Plazas. The online guide includes good case studies and easy to follow tips. Here are a few of the points covered.
Connections to the street: Parks and plazas should meet the street at grade, ensuring that anyone can enter the space. When a grade change is needed, a choice of a ramp and steps creates a unified experience. Choose safe, slip resistant materials that are tactile and provide high contrast.
Clear identity:While maintaining a seamless entry from the street is important, creating a space separate from the street gives identity to the space. Trees can buffer noise and other sensory information from other areas.
Providing options: Public places serve many different groups of people, with differing needs. One solution is not going to accommodate everyone, but the scale of many public places creates room for spaces that give visitors different choices and opportunities.
Ease of access to restrooms: Bathrooms that are easy to locate allow families with children, people with disabilities, and older adults to readily use facilities that everyone needs. Placing bathrooms near streets and along major pathways of parks makes locating restrooms easier if the need arises. Clear and regular signage to toilets are an essential part of enjoying parks and plazas.
What is a great civic space? supports the parks and plaza guide. It looks at benefits of inclusion and the identity of place.
Parks Designed for Inclusion
The Parks and Recreation Report does an excellent job of covering just about everyone in terms of age, level of capability, cultural background, refugee status and sexual orientation. Statistics on each of the groups help focus the mind when it comes to designing parks and recreation facilities.
The Report is a concise document emphasising that everyone can take advantage of facilities, programs, places and spaces that make their lives and communities great. Published by the National Recreation and Park Association.
Sandstone seating and Turpentine Ironbark timber. Corian detail shaped to reflect the shoreline of Sydney Harbour,
NSW legislation dictates that Aboriginal heritage must be protected. It’s a means of enriching the built environment, and not just a legal necessity. So, it falls to landscape architects to lead the way.
A report by Arcadia Landscape Architects aims to show that engagement with First Nations people is not difficult. They are concerned that designers will unwittingly perpetuate the colonisation of space if they continue with established practice. As they say, it has to go beyond token responses of “ornamental recognition”. They add that engaging with First Nations people continues after the life of the design project.
The report aims to encourage the wider built environment industry to engage with First Nations people. The concept of Country is more than just land, water and sky. Country is language, family culture and identity, and is loved, needed and cared for.
“Arcadia emphatically rejects the softening of language when referring to British invasion and processes of colonisation. It is a trend for these processes to be referred to as “arrival” and “settlement”, however the softening of language perpetuates myths of terra nullius and denies First Nations people their history and suffering endured.”
The report covers:
Approach and a note on language
How to engaging with Knowledge holders
Engaging with Country, which has 5 steps and examples
Engaging with Industry
What to do when you can’t engage
Where to next? includes conducting cultural training
People expect to grow old, but they don’t plan to grow old. Public policy has to do more than just capture people when they can no longer care for themselves. Even if people plan for their older age, there are policy and built barriers preventing the continuation of a “decent life”. And housing is a key barrier.
The report, The 100-year life: the role of housing, planning and design, highlights the issues and provides recommendations. The report recommends an integrated approach to housing, planning and design to support people in later life. It stresses the importance of taking a universal design approach and co-production.
Developers, planners and local authorities also have an important role to play. And of course, focusing on older people means that people of all ages are included. While this is a UK project, there are many aspects that apply to other countries including Australia.
The research was conducted jointly by Design Council, Centre for Ageing Better and Social Care Institute for Excellence. The report in PDFwas published in June 2018. The report includes references and resources.
According to a research paper on designing information kiosks, they should be designed based on the following five principles if people are going to use them: 1. Do not make me think. 2. Do not make me wait. 3. Do not allow me to feel annoyed. 4. Do not take control away from me. 5. Do not take advantage of me (do not be evil).
These principles of human–computer interface design serve as critical concepts in kiosk design. Height setting, tactile feedback, and text colour should also be considered.
In a paper from Taiwan, the authors use the seven principles of universal design for the design of kiosks in the context of tourism and user centred design. The results of the study show different preferences for different aspects of temples. For example, participants preferred interactive representations of gods, but textual and graphic content for temple carvings.
There is lots of statistical analysis to back up their claims. This study has much to offer those who design museum-type interactive kiosks for visitors. The main aim of the study was to maintain commercial development of tourism in general and visitation of temples. The title of the paper is, Cultural tourism and temples: Content construction and interactivity design.
Abstract:
Cultural and creative industries have a crucial role in the post-industrial knowledge economy. However, our understanding of the importance of temples in connecting people with society is limited. To fill this gap, this study explores points of interest for tourists in Taiwan to analyse the design of cultural interest operation modes in temples’ interactive kiosk interfaces.
We also examine three cultural levels related to the design of interactive kiosks in temples. Results reveal that participants’ levels of interest vary depending on temple complexity.
Most participants prefer animated presentations of content related to two- and three-dimensional murals and the history and origins of temples. We illustrate how to develop a process for designing cultural and creative digital products. We construct a flowchart for guided temple tours and present an effective and suitable design method and its prototype product. This research has implications the revitalisation of historic sites to create new value.
Public toilets are a key factor in getting out and about. But are they useable by everyone? Ever thought about how they contribute to our economic and social growth? A myriad of issues are brought together for a thoughtful discussion in Katherine Webber’s Churchill Fellowship report. The report on toilets, taboos, and policy is based on her international study tour. It has several recommendations for design, maintenance and social planning. The title of the report is, “Exploring Accessibility and Inclusion in Public Toilets“. There is a one page checklist on public toilet design principles. See below.
The report has a great quote from Lezlie Lowe that indicates the importance of public toilets in everyday life, “Have we ever granted toilets – and especially public toilets – their due? Have we given them credit for how they’ve helped grow our world? As gross or goofy or quotidian as they may seem, public toilets represent higher notions and beliefs. Fundamentally: who is in and who is out. Whom we see as part of the city. Whom we see as human.” From, No Place to Go: How Public Toilets Fail Our Private Needs.
Public toilets are essential for encouraging people to walk and cycle and generally enjoy urban environments.
The introduction to a special issue of Design Issues focuses on the way design can reproduce inequality in society. It asks questions such as: In what ways do designers or design processes emerge in relation to social inequalities? How can the discussion of inequality be broadened within design practices? This introduction discusses the rise of design and refers to different concepts and debates relating to design and designing. An academic journal asking important questions about the role of design in exercising power, creating accessibility, capitalism and consumption, cultural reproduction, oppression and neglect. An important contribution to the discourse on design.
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What does washroom and change room design have to do with social justice? Darryl Condon answers this question in a Pools and Leisure Magazine article. He has a good grasp of all the relevant design issues across the diversity and inclusion spectrum for universally designed leisure facilities.
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