HUMBLED TO WORK WITH PBS DIRECTOR

ON DISABILITY VISIBILITY STORYTELLING

Humbled to work with PBS director + film crew on documentary about the late disability inclusion leader Mark Bookman.

I was interviewed for an hour today about Universal Design and my thoughts on the Americans with Disabilities Act that turns 33 this year.

It was gratifying to work with Emmy winning Director Ron Small.

He produced and directed I Danced for the Angel of Death - The Dr. Edith Eva Eger Story.

My work with him is airing this year.

I discussed the groundbreaking Universal Design course I created for graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Miami School of Architecture during my PBS hour plus interview.

The CDC has documented that one in four adults has some kind of disability.

Design for all is mainstream.

PROUD TO ANNOUNCE I AM A GLOBAL CORRESPONDENT

FOR PEDESTRIAN SPACE

Pedestrian Space is a media and advocacy project established to document & explore walkability as a central aspect of sustainable urbanism.

My world and national travels have kept me busy, but I will soon be contributing blog posts, photo essays and other insights to the Pedestrian Space team.

My bio states:

Steve Wright has four decades of experience in urban design, planning, architecture, mobility, sustainability and universal design.

He co-created a groundbreaking universal design course at the University of Miami School of Architecture.

His award-winning reporting frequently appears in Planning magazine and he has presented nationally and internationally.

This link leads to the Pedestrian Space correspondents list.

As it is alphabetical, I'm at the bottom.

Check out the rest of the site, it's got great advocacy storytelling -- in an easy to read, not overly technical form:

https://pedestrianspace.org/global-walkability-correspondents/

IN OBSERVANCE OF THE 32ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

  WE PRESENT: FIVE EPIC ACCESSIBILITY FAILS IN MIAMI

When the city allows total blockage of sidewalks for years on end, a person using a wheelchair might have to cross three lanes of traffic to arrive at the store on the same side of the street. 

How do we solve these problems? 

By educating designers and bringing people with disabilities to the table. 

Why not require that every city hearing and advisory board have a person with a disability on it? 

Deliverables spelled out in government contracts must include techniques for getting the disability voice into master plans.

IN OBSERVANCE OF THE 32ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

  WE PRESENT: FIVE EPIC ACCESSIBILITY FAILS IN MIAMI

Greater Miami has hundreds of major development sites.

Virtually all of them fence off and block the sidewalk during the two to three years of construction. 

Developers rake in billions while pedestrians, wheelchair users, the elderly, and young children are exposed to Miami's reckless drivers.

There is no excuse for this. Visit New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, and you'll find scaffolding in place to maintain safe pedestrian passages. 

This is not a new thing. 

There are photos in the 1900s of scaffolding maintaining the sidewalk

IN OBSERVANCE OF THE 32ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

  WE PRESENT: FIVE EPIC ACCESSIBILITY FAILS IN MIAMI

The Rathskeller on campus has a large and lovely patio for outdoor dining overlooking Lake Osceola and the fine, leafy campus. 

Until recently, all outdoor dining was facilitated with the inaccessible, four-seat gliders. 

The image below shows the single, roll-up, wheelchair-accessible table. It would be nice to see more than one -- but we praise the management there for meeting with disabled students and making an effort. 

So far, the Rathskeller seems to be the only spot working toward inclusion.

We have counted several hundred of these gliders on every corner of campus that humiliate and isolate people with disabilities. 

IN OBSERVANCE OF THE 32ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

  WE PRESENT: FIVE EPIC ACCESSIBILITY FAILS IN MIAMI

I am proud to be half of the team that created and teaches universal design to graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Miami. 

I was equally proud that a mandatory new-employee video emphasizes diversity and inclusion for all. 

However, I am deeply saddened that virtually every corner of the Coral Gables main campus has shaded seating in the form of gliders, seating that is 100 percent impossible for a wheelchair user to get into or roll up to even on the outside edge.

IN OBSERVANCE OF THE 32ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

  WE PRESENT: FIVE EPIC ACCESSIBILITY FAILS IN MIAMI

Engineers almost never consider — even in Miami, where flooding and sea-level rise are a growing problem — that just a few inches of water pooled in a curb ramp can kill the battery and mechanicals on a wheelchair that costs $25,000 or more.

Dockless scooters are another hazard to people with disabilities. 

Miami has a Wild West attitude that results in scooters frequently blocking wheelchair access on sidewalks, crosswalks, curb ramps, and transit stops.

Dozens of other cities regulate micromobility and force companies to corral rental bikes and scooters where they do not obstruct mobility.

IN OBSERVANCE OF THE 32ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

  WE PRESENT: FIVE EPIC ACCESSIBILITY FAILS IN MIAMI

San Diego is like Miami — older roots but most of its rapid growth was in the highway era. 

Yet when I spoke about universal design at a national conference there this year, I found 10-, 12-, and 15-foot-wide sidewalks in the thriving Little Italy, Gas Lamp, Downtown, and Waterfront districts. 

There is only so much space between buildings on each side of the road and Miami gives almost all of it to cars instead of human beings.

There's also a single, narrow curb ramp at nearly every intersection.

It lines up with neither painted crosswalk. 

No matter what direction a wheelchair user is traveling, they are forced to veer partway into oncoming traffic to get to the crosswalk protected by the red light.

IN OBSERVANCE OF THE 32ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

  WE PRESENT: FIVE EPIC ACCESSIBILITY FAILS IN MIAMI

Miami is a newer city whose population exploded in the automobile era, so it is understandable that it doesn’t have wide, unobstructed sidewalks like northeastern and midwestern cities that came of age when people walked to work and to meet their daily needs. 

But when I show images of cramped sidewalks — too narrow for a wheelchair barely wider than two feet to use safely, located in historic and high-density areas such as Miami Beach and Little Havana — planners at an international conference in Paris gasped.

IN OBSERVANCE OF THE 32ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

  WE PRESENT: FIVE EPIC ACCESSIBILITY FAILS IN MIAMI

A national retailer that earns well over $1 billion per year certainly can invest in putting an elevator in the front so wheelchair users can enter with dignity (or at all). 

Far worse is that if there was a fire, active shooter, or any other emergency, those unable to use the escalator would be trapped in the middle of the chaos. 

It seems like this would violate basic building and safety code standards, but the City of Miami has allowed this situation to persist for decades.

IN OBSERVANCE OF THE 32ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

  WE PRESENT: FIVE EPIC ACCESSIBILITY FAILS IN MIAMI

We love shopping at discount department stores, and the Marshalls downtown store is close to my wife’s workplace and our home. 

The store, near the bayside on Flagler Street, has 99 percent of its access via an escalator.

An elevator is hidden within the aging retail complex, far from the escalator. 

It arrives on the second level of Marshalls, not near the checkout areas.

Because Marshalls does not want people to be able to sneak out of the elevator without paying, it has controlled access only.

There’s a button to ring, which doesn’t ring.

It lists a phone number to call, but the phone is never answered.

 

IN OBSERVANCE OF THE 32ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

  WE PRESENT: FIVE EPIC ACCESSIBILITY FAILS IN MIAMI

Limited Use Limited Access (LULA) lifts are allowed in the building code, but we find that they can break down in less than a year of use. 

There are several in Miami Beach. The late star architect Michael Graves — who used a power wheelchair for mobility in the last decade of his life — designed three outdoor LULA lifts into a development at Ocean Drive and 15th Street. 

But they got rusty in the salty air, keys required to operate them got lost, people used them as bathrooms, and eventually, they broke down. 

Now they've been ripped out and there is zero wheelchair access.

In Brickell, LULA lifts are often used as an alternative to ramps. 

So if a LULA lift is available, it's often blocked with giant planters or outdoor dining tables.

Once the lifts are broken or blocked, wheelchair users are shut out forever.

 

 

 

IN OBSERVANCE OF THE 32ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

  WE PRESENT: FIVE EPIC ACCESSIBILITY FAILS IN MIAMI

Regulations in a book do little for me.

People cut corners, get lazy, ignore the rules, and fall short of standards. 

When this happens, access and essential mobility for residents who use wheelchairs can become impossible. 

Mayors, commissioners, planning boards, department heads, community leaders, and developers need to make access for all a priority. 

That’s what it takes, and we’re far from being there.

In my opinion, the public and private sector in greater Miami gets a C-minus when it comes to accommodating people with disabilities.

I fully confess that while I care deeply about inclusion for those with visual, hearing, and cognitive impairments, my expertise is through the lens of mobility impairments.

IN OBSERVANCE OF THE 32ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

 WE PRESENT: FIVE EPIC ACCESSIBILITY FAILS IN MIAMI

During a 40-year career, I’ve had the privilege to advocate for people with disabilities as a reporter, advocate, marketer, educator, speaker, and consultant. 

I’ve been even more fortunate to be married to my soulmate for 34 years.

My brilliant bride, a dedicated lifelong public servant, has used a wheelchair for
mobility since she started college in the early 1980s.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that one in four people will experience some degree of disability in their lifetime.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which was passed 32 years ago this July, is landmark federal legislation that protects the civil rights of people with disabilities.

Because it affects the built environment, some people mistake it for a building or zoning code. But it is a law that passed Congress with bipartisan support in 1990.

PROFESSOR JOEL LAMERE TAKES THE REINS AT U-SOA

AS THE NEW GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN ARCHITECTURE DIRECTOR

Professor Joel Lamere, the U-SoA’s new Graduate Programs in Architecture, received his Master of Architecture degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Before joining the U-SoA, he was Assistant Professor of Architectural Design and Homer A. Burnell Chair at MIT.

“Our approach is very consistent with the roadmap vision of lifelong learning at the U-SoA,” he said. “With the ecological, economic, technological, and social disruptions that will characterize the coming century – we have to prepare students for this uncertainty, not mere competency. This requires fostering many kinds of literacy and an expanded view of the field – preparing our graduates to be lifelong learners.”

Lamere emphasized that technological progress is not, in itself, enough to tackle the world’s many problems. Lamere believes that technology can foster more collaboration, which in turn can help with diverse community building, but for architecture to truly address issues of equity and inclusion, it must reconsider who it serves beyond its clients. “A more just architecture will need to commit to a broader constituency, and codify what qualifies as a public good in such a way that those interests cannot be ignored.” He added that U-SoA Graduate Programs in Architecture “have the distinct mission to prepare architects to be good in two senses: to be good at being architects, which means navigating rapid changes in the profession, but also good as citizens, focused on how we can be agents for positive change in the world.”

https://mailchi.mp/mhttps://mailchi.mp/miami.edu/usoanow-january2022iami.edu/usoanow-january2022

PROFESSOR JOEL LAMERE TAKES THE REINS AT U-SOA

AS THE NEW GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN ARCHITECTURE DIRECTOR

Professor Joel Lamere, the U-SoA’s new Graduate Programs in Architecture Director, approaches his duties with a balance of education in core design knowledge blended with preparing students to be perpetually empowered to adapt to new tools and technology.

“The nature of architecture is flux; there’s a lot of stable core knowledge necessary to become an architect, of course, but the way we design and the way we build are both contingent on technologies that are evolving exponentially,” he said. “Even the outstanding technology and lab capabilities we have today – those will be rapidly advancing and changing during the graduate student’s career.”

Lamere praised Prof. Allan Shulman, the previous director, for solidifying essential elements of the programs and having long discussions with him to form curriculum adjustments and changes built on a solid core.

“One cannot, at this point, even imagine an architecture of the future that doesn’t engage computational design processes, augmented reality environments, and so forth,” Lamere said. “The disruptions will be more profound still: robotic fabrication, automated construction, outsourcing enabled by instantaneous communication and virtual collaboration, and A.I. replacing human labor throughout the creative disciplines.”

https://mailchi.mp/miami.edu/usoanow-january2022