People are living longer and expecting a higher quality of life. Over a typical lifespan people can develop a range of physical disabilities which are no longer perceived as a barrier to having a good quality of life.
The americans with disabilities act (ADA) aren’t just a set of rules used to satisfy code requirements. The ADA, since enacted has changed millions of lives, empowering people with disabilities and giving them a shot at the American dream. The act, signed into law by President George H.W. Bush on July 26, 1990, changed the way we build buildings, plan parking lots and lay out intersections, slowly morphing urban infrastructure into more friendly terrain.
In 1989, it was legal under federal law for a movie theater to deny admission to a paralyzed person or for a laundry to deny service to someone deaf or blind and for disabled people to have to use a back door to get into a restaurant, or to be cloistered together at sporting events.
Can you see this happening to people around you today?? Think about yourself in a wheelchair unable to do just about anything without a helping hand, how much easier would your life be if things were made to fit you, and not you to trying to fit the things around you.
People with disabilities need to be catered to, as a designer I feel the need to please all the different kinds of people that will be utilizing the space I design, including people who are differently-abled.
So how are designers able to help this community??? In a lot of ways
- Designers are able to provide an interior structure that helps people in wheelchairs maneuver their way around without difficulty - This includes having doorways and openings wide enough to accommodate the width of a wheelchair
- Having Ramps where needed so the space is fully accessible to those on wheelchairs – utilizing ADA guidelines for Ramp specifications to elevated spaces within the environment.
- Including brail and audio materials in allocated spaces allowing deaf and blind people to easily find their way around the space – Having Brail signage at elevators and important nodes within the path of travel labeling the spaces for people who are unable to see.
- spec’ing out flooring materials that allow for a wheelchair to glide through the space with no resistance – If the material of choice is carpet then carpet Pile should be considered.
- Including different textures and materiality in relation to the different domains within the area – having a different material in the path of travel allowing the change in the material to dictate the transition made in the space.
The List can go on and on proving that not only are designers helping change the accessibility barriers for people with disabilities, we are changing their lives, changing the way they feel in the environment they choose to surround themselves with, and changing the way they maneuver themselves in a given space. In my opinion this should become the Norm of design, we as humans have defects, lets embrace this fact as a community, as a whole, as a world.
I thought your blog was very interesting. ADA has been mentioned in many of the design classes I've taken but I've never learned about the ways people with disabilities have been treated in the past. It's disappointing but I'm glad we are finally seeing the light design-wise.
ReplyDeleteThank you, I agree, the differently-abled community needs to be respected and catered to ignoring their disabilities.
ReplyDelete