What It Means to Design for All People
Transcript:
Definition of UD and Ron Mace
Universal Design isn't a new concept. In 1985, architect Ron Mace coined the term. He defined universal design as design that's usable by all people to the greatest extent possible without the need for adaptation or specialized design. So what does that mean? Some pretty important pieces to this statement can be more easily understood if broken down.
Design that's usable by all people. The biggest challenge of designing for all people is making sure that it's functional for people with any type of impairment of the body, or mind, while ensuring that the design is usable for everyone else.
To the greatest extent possible. Something that's universally designed will work for as many people as possible, regardless of struggles with any impairments.
This image on the screen lists 24 different areas that people may have going on with themselves, mentally, physically, and/ or emotionally from difficulty interpreting or processing information to loss of upper or lower body abilities in addition to limited stamina and needing caregiver assistance. In the notes section below the video, I'll write them all out for you, but as you scan this visual here, or read the information below, that's a lot of people to consider when using any part of the home.
difficulty interpreting or processing information,
susceptibility to fainting, dizziness, seizures,
difficulty reaching, lifting, and carrying with arms,
difficulty in bending, kneeling, etc. using legs,
limitation of speech,
limitation of sight,
limitation of sensation,
limitation of balance,
complete loss of sight,
limitation of hearing,
loss of lower extremity skills,
loss of upper extremity skills,
complete loss of hearing,
incoordination,
reliance on walking aids or mobility devices,
difficulty manipulating items with hands,
difficulty moving the head,
limitation of stamina,
chemical sensitivity,
caregiver assistance,
difficulty sitting,
difficulty processing sensory input,
extremes in height and weight, and
mental health
What can make this even more complex is that one person may have multiple of these situations going on at the same time, as well as multiple people in the home can be impacted with several as well. In addition, everyone that visits a home or stays there temporarily need to be considered too. One area I think is important to note is making sure there's a consideration for caregivers, whether they're paid or people in the family that need the features of the home to be as usable for them to help out as well.
And lastly, without the need for adaptation or specialized design. Adaptation is a process in which an individual changes how he or she typically interacts with something. So in this video, this person has to sit back away from the sink at an angle to reach the items she needs to wash dishes. She also has to twist herself to face the direction of the sink and wash the bowl over her lap.
This is different than how someone would usually do the task by standing forward at the sink and washing the dishes over the sink. In this setup, adaptation wouldn't be needed because the person who needed to do the task seated could roll right underneath the sink to efficiently complete the task without twisting to the side or washing the bowl over their lap and this also works well for those who want to stand too. I do want to note that adaptation isn't typically a bad thing, and adapting tasks in a home that already have universal design implemented into the bones of the structure is going to be easier than if UD wasn't already in place. With the wide variety of needs out there, we can't design homes perfectly for everyone, but with UD we can definitely get a little closer.
So as you can see, everyone deals with something, fatigue, balance, pain, and it isn't necessarily just beneficial for the people who have very obvious disabilities. The changes we see in our bodies can be major or minor, short or long-term, and it relates to how we do things in our home. In fact, when you do universal design well, it's actually invisible unless you know what to look for.
Designing for All People - An Example
Let me give you some context. Take a look at this glass ketchup bottle with the metal top. It is iconic. Yet, what do you have to do to get the goodness out of this thing? You have to be able to unscrew the cap, tip it over, hit it on the bottom, maybe use a knife to scrape it out, and some people say that they have luck hitting that number on the side.
Not super functional right? This guy is still waiting on the ketchup to come out of the bottle so he can eat his fries, but now we have this option in stores for many of our dips and condiments. It's the squeeze bottle. Now, people didn't go out to make this bottle because they had the mindset that people with disabilities needed a better ketchup bottle.
They were going for convenience here. The flip top is easy to open. Now that it sits downward, that ketchup sits lower and closer to the opening, and you can squeeze the ketchup without a lot of fuss. This isn't seen as the disability ketchup, the design is universal. It has features that work for a lot of people, no matter their needs.
If you were at a cookout, which one would you automatically gravitate towards? Yep, I bet it's that squeeze bottle.
Designing for All People - Housing
That's how we like to look at the features in a home in relation to all the different people that use them, considering if there's an imperfect ability now, or there could be one in the future. Anyone finds usefulness in the features and the entire home would work well for everyone. Our guidelines aren't disability specific and they don't align with designing for one type of user group. If we did that, then homes would just be usable for one specific group of needs, and others would have to do renovations , if they happen to purchase the home later.
When we design just for someone that uses a wheelchair, everyone else might not see the configuration of the space usable to them. If we designed just for someone with a visual impairment, then we would potentially leave out some design solutions for those who use mobility equipment. If we designed just for someone that is a little person, those that are an average height and those who are tall would find issues with the configuration.
And so on and so on. We aren't saying specialized homes aren't useful because they are needed, but if we want to change the housing market to include more functional features for the widest amount of users, even those that need specialized modifications, they will be able to make those changes easier in a universally designed or universally accessible home than a traditionally built one.
But the brilliant thing about UD is that there is crossover between people's needs, whether visible or invisible, and some of the same features work well for multiple types of people. In addition, we know that people have multiple things going on with them and that many different people with different needs live and visit homes.
So we have to think universally about the features that are implemented. Universal design isn't just about the features, but the outcome those features have for the people living or visiting a home. When the environment is a good fit for someone's needs, they have more time for essential things like go to work and visiting with family.
When a home is a poor fit, it takes away from someone's time to participate in something that they want to do. This could be things like getting themselves ready or caring for their home, kids or pets. And worse, even a poor fit may stop someone from being able to do the things they need to do together, requiring additional assistance for even basic household tasks.
A universally accessible home increases someone's independence, confidence, quality of life and dignity as they can choose what they can do in the home instead of the environment dictating what they can and cannot do. I'm hoping you're picking up on the philosophy behind universal design - that is considering all types of people to increase overall usability in homes.
Up Next
Next, I'm gonna talk about the benefits of UD throughout the home versus just implementing a few features here or there. I'll see you in the next lesson.