DESIGN FOR EVERYBODY

SIMPLE APPROACHES — AND THINKING HOLISTICALLY — 
CAN MAKE FOR A MORE ACCESSIBLE BUILT ENVIRONMENT.

By Steve Wright and Heidi Johnson-Wright

Planning Magazine published our 8-page, center piece feature on Universal Design. The highly-illustrated piece begins:

Whether it’s a corridor plan for two blocks in small-town USA or a blockbuster master plan worthy of a national award, planners have to design for all users of the public realm. Yet planning for people with disabilities seems to flummox even the best of urban designers.

Add in the challenges of planning in harmony with historic buildings, difficult topography, waterfront access, or the severe geometry of modernist architecture, and some planners think the answer is to seek a waiver to release them from what they view as the constraints of serving wheelchair users and folks with other disabilities.

The Americans with Disabilities Act, which celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, is federal civil rights legislation. As such, there is no “grandfathering” of inaccessible public buildings, plazas, or streetscapes. The ADA is not a building or zoning code, so it cannot be waived.

Despite good intentions, planners and architects tend to design for the mythical five-foot-10, 175-pound, nondisabled male. Accessibility features — seen as a necessary evil — are tacked on at the end to meet ADA requirements.

Rather than obsessing on door widths and ramp slopes in a vacuum, designing projects for everyone from the start simply makes more sense. Universal design is not about designing separate but equal spaces but about design equality. Projects that comply with the letter rather than the spirit of the law mean missed opportunities to design for everyone.

Experts in the field — planners, architects, disability consultants, and educators around the nation —  agree that the best approach to serving people with mobility, visual, hearing, and other disabilities is to apply universal design principles to redevelopment districts, complete streets, plazas, parks, buildings, and more.

The full story is at: 

https://www.planning.org/planning/2016/mar/designforeverybody


Thanks to our editors, mentors, colleagues and wonderful sources for this successful collaboration.  

We hope to share the message of Universal Design with cities, non profits, universities, planning organizations and others who shape our built environment.