CITIES SPARE NO EXPENSE…EXCEPT WHEN IT COMES TO TREATING PEOPLE WITH DISABIITIES LIKE HUMAN BEINGS THAT DESERVE EQUITY AND INCLUSION
Our new
library is state-of-the-art.
We spared no
expense on the billion dollar stadium.
The city
hall annex is the best of the best.
Improving
the community pool lift to bare minimum ADA compliance is in the (unfunded)
10-year plan.
AN INTERVIEW WITH STEVE WRIGHT BY HAWA ALLARAKHIA, M.ED.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Hawa Allarakhia has a Master in Education from the University of South Florida and is currently a doctoral candidate at USF.
She is studying Program Development with a research interest in Disability Services with a graduate certificate in Academic Advising.
She holds the positions of Graduate Assistant in the Office of Research, on the Sarasota-Manatee campus of USF.
For questions, please contact her by email at
hawa1@usf.edu
AN INTERVIEW WITH STEVE WRIGHT BY HAWA ALLARAKHIA, M.ED.
Q How did you incorporate the experiences and challenges faced by individuals with invisible disabilities?
A
This was spoken about in class, and it was featured in some of the assigned
materials for reading/video viewing/social media following outside of class
(and graded via required journal entries on these subjects).
AN INTERVIEW WITH STEVE WRIGHT BY HAWA ALLARAKHIA, M.ED.
 |
A In each of our 15 course sessions, we explained that disability is not some remote, outlier issue … that it is not just a person with a spinal cord injury.
We explained how universal design supports aging in place.
We also underscored, frequently, the truth that barrier-free design is NOT simply for people with disabilities.
That it makes the public realm and interior of spaces easier to live in for children, elderly, and all people.
And that it can be beautiful and
sustainable design.
AN INTERVIEW WITH STEVE WRIGHT BY HAWA ALLARAKHIA, M.ED.
Q How did you incorporate the experiences and challenges faced by individuals with physical disabilities?
A One of the team teachers uses a wheelchair for mobility.
Also, we had guest lectures from nationally prominent architect Karen
Braitmayer and designer Ileana Rodriguez — each of whom use wheelchairs for
mobility.
AN INTERVIEW WITH STEVE WRIGHT BY HAWA ALLARAKHIA, M.ED.
Q How did you incorporate the experiences and challenges faced by individuals with social and psychological disabilities?
A
We had an expert presenter from the Center for Autism & Related
Disabilities (CARD).
AN INTERVIEW WITH STEVE WRIGHT BY HAWA ALLARAKHIA, M.ED.
Q How did you incorporate the experiences and challenges faced by individuals with visual disabilities into the course?
A
We had a guest lecture, via Zoom, from renowned expert Peter Slatin and had a
live in-class presentation by a trainer from Lighthouse for the Blind.
AN INTERVIEW WITH STEVE WRIGHT BY HAWA ALLARAKHIA, M.ED.
Q How did you incorporate the experiences and challenges faced by individuals with hearing-related disabilities into the course?
A
We had a guest lecture, via Zoom, from renowned expert Jeffrey Mansfield (via
interpreter) of Deaf Space.
AN INTERVIEW WITH STEVE WRIGHT BY HAWA ALLARAKHIA, M.ED.
Q Did you design the course with a disability model in mind, i.e., medical, social, or moral?
A The model was certainly not medical or moral.
So I suppose it was social.
Basically, a lot of architects (not just students in the field) think the ADA is some kind of building code that can be waived or reduced by variance.
I taught that it is basic civil rights protection under federal law. I also opened eyes by sharing that the UN has identified more than 1 billion people with disabilities on earth, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) numbers say one in four of us will experience a disability in our lifetimes.
Those numbers speak to a market for design that accommodates all.
AN INTERVIEW WITH STEVE WRIGHT BY HAWA ALLARAKHIA, M.ED.
Q What impact do you believe a course about universal design will have on students with disabilities across higher education?
A A few of the students said they would dedicate/refocus their careers on design for all.
A few, in all candor, seemed to reject the ADA and universal design as something constricting or even “woke” — their words.
Overall, I think it opened minds.
AN INTERVIEW WITH STEVE WRIGHT BY HAWA ALLARAKHIA, M.ED.
Q How did you approach the University of Miami-School of Architecture about offering a course on universal design?
A approached the Dean of the School of Architecture and cultivated a friendship with him.
I performed editorial content services for the SoA and kept pitching
ideas for a course.
AN INTERVIEW WITH STEVE WRIGHT BY HAWA ALLARAKHIA, M.ED.
Q Can you provide some background on the inspiration to develop a Universal Design course that focuses on architecture and cultivating a built environment that is accessible to all?
A
I have been a journalist for nearly 40 years, and all of that time I have
covered both the built environment and the rights/needs of marginalized people.
Combing those into a survey course that educated future architects/urban designers on universal design was a natural progression.
I have worked with town planners and as an urban designer.
I frequently lecture on access for all at the
American Planning Association.
AN INTERVIEW WITH STEVE WRIGHT BY HAWA ALLARAKHIA, M.ED.
At the University of Miami, students studying architecture now have the opportunity to learn about incorporating accessibility by taking a first-of-its-kind class about universal design.
Steve Wright, the instructor of
the course, discusses how he integrated the experiences and needs of a wide
variety of individuals with disabilities into the course.
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MAKE IT WORK FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
What produces better metrics than city infrastructure that allows an unemployed person to become a productive earner who pays back into the system, so there are funds to keep the safety net in place?
What policy
can produce more widespread results than building more inclusive cities so the
next generation of people with disabilities can enjoy equitable access to education,
jobs, and civic life?
MAKE IT WORK FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
What could possibly be a better investment than converting a person on assistance into a proud, productive taxpayer?
How could
municipal spending deliver more bang for the buck than giving a person with a
disability the tools to live independently?
MAKE IT WORK FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
People with disabilities are resourceful, brilliant, and starving for that first job and better work.
Sending a monthly check to a disabled person—which does not cover the cost of monthly rent for a one-bedroom unit in the vast majority of American cities—is patronizing.
Spending on wider sidewalks, safer crosswalks,
and inclusive transit modes will not only make a better city for all, but it
also will put people with disabilities to work.
MAKE IT WORK FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
Want to make your town stronger still?
Stop looking at ADA compliance with contempt and at barrier-removal as some loss-leader, special interest spending.
Inclusive and
equitable cities are places where innovation is supported, brilliant things are
invented, jobs are created, and creative people thrive on urban amenities.
MAKE IT WORK FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
Best of all, these kinds of investments bring in a huge bang for the buck.
If you design,
after consulting people with a wide range of disabilities, a barrier-free
public realm, then you have just ensured your civic assets are 100% accessible
by all your residents regardless of age, income, color, or ability.
Increasing access—for
example, via common sense removal of sign posts, junction boxes and obstacles
that block sidewalks—makes your town stronger.
MAKE IT WORK FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
People with disabilities are not served by the suburban development pattern, by roads to nowhere, by endless annexation and horizontal growth.
They are served by
compact, mixed-use, transit-rich, old growth areas with main libraries, central
parks, downtown universities, medical centers in the center of town, and main
street services.
