FOR MORE INCLUSIVE
DESIGNERS
Tomorrow, I turn
54.
I don't want a cake, candles or surprise well-wishers to mark my five-plus decades on earth.
I want designers to be
more inclusive.
Designers includes, but
is not limited to: architects, landscape architects, interior designers,
engineers, planners, urban designers and all the government officials that
oversee them.
I have been with my wife
for a third of a century and for those 33.3 years, I have (as a journalist,
policy advisor and marketer) heard designers whine like little children about
the "constraints" of universal design, inclusive mobility and the
Americans with Disabilities Act.
Mind you, when most of
them know my wife has used a wheelchair for mobility for more than four
decades, the designer I know makes some halfhearted mention of the time they
built a ramp, or widened a door way or, at the last second just before
occupancy permit and grand opening, added in some such thing meant to meet the
needs of people with disabilities.
But in their day-to-day
practice, they could give a rat's ass.
Some, and maybe they think
they're being cool and revolutionary for "telling me like it is" have
no problem saying they think buildings build before the ADA should not have to
be made accessible, even if they are being gutted and rebuilt.
Many say it is
impossible to design for accessibility. Or it is only on large scale projects.
Others, especially many
of those who run in the New Urbanism circles love to rant about how the ADA is
the end of town design and how it destroys their ability to create walkable,
compact, sustainable communities.
The irony is that
virtually everything that serves a person with limited mobility fits hand and
glove with the New Urbanism. Just don't tell that to some of its narcissistic,
self-centered founders who refuse to give an inch to universal design.
I say if you are not up
to designing for all, turn in your license. Go put in sod, or plant trees, or
be a bricklayer. Those are all honorable professions -- but they do not risk
access for all because the lead designer is 100 percent bigoted toward people
with disabilities. If having a natural aversion to non-whites is racism,
then this hatred of building for disabled people should be called ableism. Both
are despicable and bordering on fascist, Nazi beliefs.
But rather than just
rant and call out foolishness for what it is (and I'm being kind calling these
folks fools), I'll present examples.
To the town planner, the
urban designer who says they cannot make something accessible to all, that the
"rules" of ADA are too restrictive.
Let's see. They have a
piece of land to design. Right off the bat, it has zoning and land use
restrictions.
More likely than not,
there will be draconian rules on the height, unit density, massing and other
aspects of the property.
There will be dozens of
restrictions on whether it can have a house, a double, a small apartment, a
store, a restaurant, a skyscraper, a hospital, a park, a factory, etc.
And whatever it is
that's being built must stay within the measurements of the property -- i.e.,
they can't built out into the road or onto a neighbor's property. Beyond that,
there are required setbacks and stepbacks.
So land me get this
straight. You call yourself an urban designer, a land use planner, a town
planner. And you know whether the piece of land you're studying is the size of
grandma's bungalow or big enough to create a new town on -- there will easily
be 100 zoning, height, footprint, form and other rules that you must work
within before you can be creative.
But one little issue of
making sure your mini park, park, mall, civic center, complete street,
transit-oriented development, commercial corridor, historic district -- can be
used by all, that stumps you and defeats you?
If that is the case, Sir
or Madame, you are incompetent. Turn in your license, your AICP certification,
your watercolors and SketchUp software and find something else to make rent
doing.
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