Page 84 – Centre for Universal Design Australia

Last impressions might count more

First impressions might not be as critical as we first thought or were taught. This is especially the case with website start or landing pages. The Axess Lab has a good article on a flipped approach to web design. It seems the critical points for website visitors is their “peak experience” – best or worst- and the last experience. The last experience is the most important. This is based on Nobel Prize winning masterpiece, Thinking Fast and Slow. The article goes on to explain how to get the best impact for the last experience using the peak-end rule.

For an example of a good end experience, the article links to a UK Government thank you page. It was so well done that they encouraged more people to sign up as organ donors. There’s also some advice on footers.

As always, Axess Lab uses good techniques and design for its own web pages and this article. That makes it an interesting read for anyone, not just IT people. More good material in other articles as well.

Graphic courtesy of Axess Lab

Creating Safe Space for Everyone

How many urban planners think about accessibility and disability from the outset? Some, no doubt. Urban planners also have to think about personal safety – it’s a core concern. But what about safety for people with disability? Do community norms play a role in design decisions? An article in The Conversation discusses this issue and begins:

“Creating safe and secure urban spaces is a core concern for city managers, urban planners and policy workers. Safety is a slippery concept to pin down, not least because it is a subjective experience. It incorporates our perceptions of places and memories, but also norms in society about who is expected to use spaces in the city, and who is considered to be out of place.”

So it is much more than designing out crime. Different population groups experience safety in different ways – much more nuanced that matching with crime statistics. A study from the University College Cork has looking at this issue in more detail. An overview is in an article in The Conversation by Claire Edwards.

The study looked at three cities in Ireland and some obvious places where people with disability felt unsafe were transport hubs, bars and shopping centres. The Conversation article concludes:

“Urban safety is as much about changing social relations as it is about technical fixes. Disabled people’s experiences show us that it is only by challenging assumptions about who has a right to inhabit urban space that we can create more inclusive, just and safer societies.”

The title of the article is, The experiences of people with disabilities show we need a new understanding of urban safety.

Web accessibility made easy: the how and why

Everyone should know about web accessibility, not just IT people. That’s because so many of us contribute to the digital world one way or another – social media, personal blog sites and the places we work.

If you want to find out about web accessibility the easy way – and why you should do it, help is at hand. The Commons website has a guide that’s easy to read, understand and follow. While there are many different guides around, this one is comprehensive without being overwhelming. It brings the key points together and makes it easy to understand why web accessibility is so important – for everyone.

The nice part about the design (we should take note) is they don’t try to give you too much information in one go. You can get the general idea and principles first. Then when you need to know more, the links will provide it.

The topics start with the usual ones – text size, colour contrast, etc., and then some of the things most people don’t think about. It nicely concludes with a section on inclusive language and disability etiquette. Remember, 44% of Australian adults have difficulty reading and writing. One of the best guides around.

Note: The Commons Library website has a host of resources and information about advocacy.

Graphic courtesy The Commons website.

Towards user-centric transport in Europe

Transportation researchers in Europe are seeking the best solutions for innovative and inclusive mobility. The Mobility 4EU project is all about the user perspective in different types of transport. It covers technological, social, legal and economic aspects of mobility and transportation. The project ended in March 2019. It resulted in several conference papers published in a 2020 book by SpringerLink titled Towards User-Centric Transport in Europe 2. This follows the 2019 publication under the same title. Some of the chapters are freely available on ResearchGate – use a Google search to find them.

Three chapters from ResearchGate

Mainstreaming the Needs of People with Disabilities in Transport Research argues mainstreaming disability should not exclude conducting disability-related transport research. Using the method of mainstreaming disability does not exclude the necessity of conducting special disability-related transport research. Available on ResearchGate.

Universal Design as a Way of Thinking about Mobility looks at universal design as a policy objective for transport policy using the Norwegian experience as an example. Universal design is a useful vision, but a difficult policy objective. It’s also available on ResearchGate.

Older People’s Mobility, New Transport Technologies and User-Centred Innovation reports on findings from four focus groups examining mobility challenges and automated vehicles were also discussed. There were mixed feelings about automated vehicles, often dependent upon the individual’s willingness to accept technology taking over their own skills and abilities, trust in the technology and concerns over future built environments. It’s also available on ResearchGate.

There are other chapters on active mobility, car sharing, mobility as a service, and the door to door travel chain.

Universal design and talking human rights

Universal design isn’t just or only about disability. But it does have a major role to play in improving the lives of people with disability. The UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, cites universal design as the way to gain inclusion and equity. So does Australia’s National Disability Strategy. But discussions and actions on human rights often get diverted by politics and ideologies. The way we frame and word our responses can make a big difference in cutting through. But what words and what frame?

A Brilliant Way of Living our Lives: How to Talk about Human Rights by Anat Shenker-Osorio has some good answers and examples. The first part of the document looks at messaging pitfalls and fixes. The second part of the document looks at words that work, and the third part covers common critiques. Here is Shenker-Osorio’s introduction to the document:

“Using language data from advocacy, opposition, political speech and popular culture, I analyzed why certain messages resonate where others falter in the human rights sector in Australia, the UK and the US. Complementing this written discourse were 53 interviews with advocates in these three countries in order to draw out what we wish people believed – the vision for which we’d like to inspire increased activation from present supporters and persuade new ones. Recommendations
here also draw upon previous research and empirical testing across issues related to human rights.”

This article was featured in a longer piece on The Commons Social Change Library. It covers a long list of issues for advocates for all kinds of social change.

Editor’s note: It is worth noting the change in public attitude in the same sex marriage campaign. It gained momentum when it moved from the right to marry whoever you want to being about marrying the person you love. In that vein, universal design is about the people we love.

Liveable, accessible, sustainable and biophilic: which to choose?

Aspects of sustainability – social, economic, cultural and environmental – are all opportunities for designers. But what to consider and how to design? An article on ageing populations looks at design for all, universal design, inclusive design, human centred design, and biophilic design. The authors considered liveable, accessible, sustainable and biophilic designs. They conclude that universal design and biophilic design concepts create the best outcomes.

The article covers many of the well known facts in this field of research, and addresses the different design approaches and terminology. “Sustainable ageing” is discussed in terms of well-being, economic inclusion and the living environment.

The best approach is universal design

The authors conclude that in considering sustainability, the circular economy and social cohesion, the best approach is universal design. That’s because the universal design concept encourages diversity and social integration. It also creates favourable conditions for healthy ageing concepts.

Universal design is also applicable in the ageing at home concept. The design solutions of buildings and environment can be adapted for older people, avoiding the necessity of further reconstructions as the people age.

The article is titled, “Aging, Living Environment, and Sustainability: What Should be Taken into Account?“. A well-considered discussion that draws together the many approaches to designing for a diverse population.

From the abstract

Population ageing presents numerous challenges and the design and management of living environments are no exception. We bring together topics related to the living environment population ageing and the concept of sustainability.

We review of the existing design concepts currently applied to planning the environment for older people. These include (i) design for all, (ii) universal design, and (iii) inclusive design.

This review highlights the aspects of sustainability and population aging to consider in the design and management of living environments. We highlight the possibility of complementing the existing design concepts with biophilic design to strengthen social, psychological, and ecological aspects.

Images reproduced from the article.

Creating videos for learning

Many teachers and instructors are making their own videos for their learners. With today’s technology it’s becoming easier. But how to make the videos universally designed for online learning? A paper from Ireland gives really practical advice from preparing videos to editing for universal design. It lists step by step activities for planning and preparation, script writing, filming and a detailed section on equipment. The key concepts for editing are also included.

Captioning used to be very expensive when done by outside contractors, but YouTube and Google have improved their technology and made it possible for do-it-yourself captioning. This is a big step forward and really no excuse for not doing it. We know that captioning helps many people to better understand content regardless of their level of hearing. It’s also handy when you can’t have the sound on or if it’s not in your first language.

In summary, videos allow educators to engage with students and prepare learners for practical sessions. Inaccurate or poorly designed videos can confuse and cause disengagement. Educators often lack time as well as training, but with the practical advice in this article, they can improve and thereby save time in the long run.

The title of the article is, Practical Recommendations on the Production of Video Teaching Resources.

Hearing loss makes it harder to remember

Shari Eberts explains in her blog article how people with hearing loss use most of their brain capacity to interpret sounds. Consequently there’s not much left over for remembering. This is particularly the case where there is a lot of background noise. In information situations, such as fire training, this is an important factor. Everyone will need to remember what to do. In learning situations it’s also a significant consideration.

This finding supports the case for instant captioning of live events and closed captioning in pre-filmed situations. The title of the blog article is, Does Hearing Loss Make it Harder to Remember Things?

Strategic intelligence and inclusive design

The World Economic Forum has a website on Strategic Intelligence that includes a section on inclusive design. While unnecessarily describing a dividing line between inclusive and universal design, the website does join the dots between different lines of work: technology, education, urban areas, human dignity, sustainable communities, and accessibility. Within these topics are further topics such as climate change and pathways to equality.

It’s a bit of a rabbit warren in terms of clicking on related topics and drilling down into other related issues, but it does try to draw things together. To get access to the material you have to sign up (free) and then you get a chance to do a survey and put your point of view about the topics. There is also access to many other resources related to social justice. Here is a snippet from the Accessibility and Disability section:

“While accessibility – to spaces both physical and virtual – is fundamental, it is also often confined to certain users as defined by economics or education, and therefore undermines the potential for equal participation. Inclusion, on the other hand, builds upon accessibility and goes further by accounting for unequal resources and barriers to participation. A truly inclusive strategy takes action to support participation.”

Home for Good

What is a home? It’s so much more than a shelter from the elements. The concept of home gives us a place in the world. It underpins our identity, our relationships and our understanding of who we are and where we fit in the scheme of things. It is intrinsic to the human condition. Yet it is overlooked in the development of policies to support housing provision.

Home for Good is a policy brief “intended to restore the idea of home as both a psychological and social asset to our discourse on housing, rather than just a financial asset. It is specifically concerned with the role of the home as we age, positing that successful ageing is dependent on a person’s access to a home that provides security, community, safety and autonomy”. The policy brief poses a policy framework for a national approach to providing older Australians with homes that meet their social, emotional, environmental, and psychological needs.

The policy brief says nothing about the design of homes, but it does tap into the real meaning of home for many older people – the social equity. Hence the reticence to move to age segregated living. The article can be downloaded from the Analysis & Policy Observatory. It’s by Emma Dawson and Myfan Jordan of Per Capita. Easy to read.

Also see 2013 qualitative Australian research about housing design and older people, Chasing ‘The Great Australian Dream’: Definition of and “Ideal Home’ among Baby Boomers. It’s interesting to not that in less than ten years our terminology has changed from “the elderly” and “the aged” to “older Australians”.

Extract from Abstract: “The study reveals that ‘ageing in place’, is a preferred option for the aged. This raises questions as to how well the housing system and neighbourhood environments are able to support ageing in place, and what aging factors should be taken into consideration when designing Baby boomer’s home to facilitate health and wellbeing. Therefore, this research designed a qualitative approach to investigate Australian Baby Boomers homes around Queensland, predominantly in the Brisbane area, using semi-structured interviews and observations.”

Interior design for brain trauma

Dementia and autism have received a lot of attention in the design world, but what about people with brain injury? No doubt some of the design solutions are similar. Using a human centred approach an exploratory study looked at developing a prototype home that could address common symptoms of people traumatic brain injury.

The idea is to minimise negative feelings and behaviours in the design. For example, designing something difficult to use can cause frustration leading to aggression. The article goes through the common behaviours and how to design for them.

Artist view of an exercise room with a big picture of a forest. — Image from the article depicting an exercise room.

The article draws together relevant health information with interior design ideas using person-centred design principles. The researchers developed three residential spaces to address common symptoms. These were and exercise room, a re-regulation room, and a quiet meditative space. The strength of the designs is they do not call attention to differing ability. That’s what universal design is all about.

The title of the article is, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy and the Built Environment. It lists design measures for different symptoms. The article is technical in parts, but the background, findings and conclusions provide some interesting reading. Also good for those involved in Specialist Disability Accommodation.

From the abstract

This formative exploratory study looked at person-centred design techniques for a person with brain injury. The person-centred design method used for this study was based on a two-tiered reductionist approach. The first tier was to identify
common symptoms and concerns from the literature. This information provided specific symptoms that were addressed through brainstorming ideations.

This method of understanding a health condition through its symptoms, and then
designing for those symptoms can extend the practice of interior design by providing probable solutions to specific health symptoms, thereby including designers into the healthcare team.

The health condition symptoms became the variables of design, and each symptom was assessed through additional data obtained from the literature for environmental causality, mitigation, or accommodation. Once the outcomes were determined, each design implication was assessed for its relationship to specific design actions.

Last impressions might count more

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Creating Safe Space for Everyone

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Web accessibility made easy: the how and why

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