ABLEISM IS BIGOTRY (THAT’S BAD, IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING)
Two fit NYC cops chose the ramp, as did 98 of 100 people at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Universal Design works.
MORE THAN 2
MILLION UNIQUE READERS
HAVE VISITED MY BLOG OVER ITS LIFETIME
TENS OF THOUSANDS READ IT EACH DAY
My work creates a better built environment by
influencing architects, engineers, planners, landscape architects and
sustainability/resiliency professionals.
I also toss in a few cute cat pics and some global travel photos.
That’s why it’s a blog, not the New York
Times.
THIS WEEK, I GAVE THE GIFT OF ADVOCACY FOR
CREATING
MORE INCLUSIVE/ACCESSIBLE CITIES
I was honored Wednesday to moderate a Vision Zero Cities panel.
Four experts
came together to talk about sidewalks, transit and transportation that can
better serve the one in four people in America who have disability that impacts
their daily living.
Hosted by the Transportation Alternatives Organization and attended by hundreds, the panel was titled: Creating Inclusive Spaces: Towards Accessible Cities hosted by Transportation Alternatives.
I was joined by the brilliant:
Eman Rimawi
Doster, Executive Director of Diversity Includes Disability.
Anna Zivarts,
who runs the Disability Mobility Initiative for Disability Rights Washington.
Prashanth
Venkataram, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Davis.
I probably
talked to much for a moderator, but I’m passionate about Inclusive Spaces,
Accessible Cities and Disability Inclusion.
Planners, transportation
pros, architects and all civic designers need to make Universal Design a core
part of their approach.
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AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
We don’t design
healthy communities these days.
We design
for cars and the result is epidemic obesity, mental health and other issues.
Poor design
isolates people with disabilities, when they could be leading their communities
and being an essential part of the workforce from entry level to mid-level worker
to executive status.
I am not an architect, but I seek to inspire architects, planners, engineers and builders – to catch up with the 21st century and design for all, including those who uses wheelchairs for mobility.
ROAD SHOW
Happy to announce that I have finalized a deal to bring my unique and passionate presentation of design for all to a major event in the Great Lakes region.
I will be in
my native Midwest in June, presenting Universal Design ideas to architects,
planners, urban designers, transportation engineers, disability advocates and
more.
My interactive and highly visual program will be a revamped and super customized version of something I've had the privilege of presenting at national and global events.
Specific
details coming soon.
SITE DESIGN MUST ELIMINATE ANY ABUSES
THAT WILL BLOCK THE WHEELCHAIR-ACCESSIBLE PATHWAY
Planners,
Urban Designers, Architects, Landscape Architects plus city Zoning and Building
officials MUST be visionary when designing wheelchair/pedestrian access.
The
sidewalk/only accessible way into this Miami luxury high rise has been blocked by valet
parking.
This forces people
with disabilities to use the driveway, where they can easily be run over by
cars not expecting pedestrians in the roadway.
The site
actually has accessible walkways on both sides of the drive. But both are
blocked with dozens of valeted cars.
Planning has
to consider that once the building is occupied, lazy and thoughtless valets
will take up any paved space with the cars of VIPs.
Landscaping
a few feet tall, or a decorative border wall between the walkway and driveway
would prevent misuse of walkways as valet space.
Police will
NEVER in 100 lifetimes go onto private property to ticket or tow to resolve an
Americans with Disabilities Act violation.
Cities will
not in one million lifetimes pull a certificate of occupancy or otherwise hold
a development accountable for discriminating against the human rights of people
with disabilities – violated by safe pedestrian pathway blockage.
So designers
must anticipate these issues and design to prevent them from Day One.
TOO MANY ARCHITECTS, PLANNERS, TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERS AND URBAN DESIGNERS REDUCE THE ADA TO SOME KIND OF ONEROUS HURDLE THAT MUST BE LEAPED
I believe Universal Design and equity/inclusion for people with disabilities works the same way.
Ensure input from people with disabilities at workshops.
Better still: educate, recruit, hire, retain and promote people with disabilities who create and regulate the built environment.
Conscious efforts to boost the numbers of women and people of color in planning has reaped fabulous benefits.
The time has come to do the same with people with disabilities.
TOO MANY ARCHITECTS, PLANNERS, TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERS AND URBAN DESIGNERS REDUCE THE ADA TO SOME KIND OF ONEROUS HURDLE THAT MUST BE LEAPED
I look at design for dignity, design for all, design for people with disabilities—as a belief, a guidepost, a best practice—not so much a begrudging checklist.
It is like any other approach to diversity.
You rely not simply on code alone to make your city welcoming to people of all races, genders, incomes.
You listen to them and
value their opinions and incorporate their diverse cultural and other needs to
make a place where all can thrive.
TOO MANY ARCHITECTS, PLANNERS, TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERS AND URBAN DESIGNERS REDUCE THE ADA TO SOME KIND OF ONEROUS HURDLE THAT MUST BE LEAPED
Housing types accessible to all enable aging in place much better than those built only for able-bodied people.
Eleanor
Smith, who attended a few CNU national gatherings, created the concept of
visitability.
It’s simple.
One level
entrance, wide doorways, one bathroom on the ground floor and enough space to
get around in the kitchen and bath.
Most of
these features are 100 percent desirable for all people—especially more than
one bath and a roomier kitchen.
TOO MANY ARCHITECTS, PLANNERS, TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERS AND URBAN DESIGNERS REDUCE THE ADA TO SOME KIND OF ONEROUS HURDLE THAT MUST BE LEAPED
Expense is often cited as a reason to shun Universal Design.
This is odd.
The up-front
cost of building LEED sustainable is more than conventional/wasteful
building—but the value, both in operations and when large institutional
investors buy huge office or apartment buildings, is recouped and then some.
I would
argue that Universal Design is the most efficient, durable, sustainable and
flexible approach to town design.
Aging in
place is one of the biggest topics today, as America not only is aging but also
has tens of millions of well-heeled, newly-retired Baby Boomers trying to
figure out whether to age in place, downsize, or move to a senior community.
TOO MANY ARCHITECTS, PLANNERS, TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERS AND URBAN DESIGNERS REDUCE THE ADA TO SOME KIND OF ONEROUS HURDLE THAT MUST BE LEAPED
It amazes me when I visit a new urbanist beach town and find, almost always, a long ramp over protected nature and dunes—that ends in stairs down to the beach.
The ramp is
already there.
No one is
freaked out by it.
No
waterfront experiences are ruined.
So why not
ramp the beach part of the walkway?
I could fill
a room with people who have limited mobility but swim, surf, sun and otherwise
use the beach.
TOO MANY ARCHITECTS, PLANNERS, TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERS AND URBAN DESIGNERS REDUCE THE ADA TO SOME KIND OF ONEROUS HURDLE THAT MUST BE LEAPED
A classic example of a failure occurred because the designer obsessed on the pure numbers of complying with the ADA versus creating Universal Design.
A festival
marketplace style mall in Miami underwent a total renovation to reposition for
current restaurant-retail trends.
The main
open-air space is up a few steps from the sidewalk—perhaps for sea level rise
reasons.
The plaza
has plenty of space to use topography to make a gentle grade.
Sure enough,
there is ramp that makes the space compliant.
But half of
the frontage has a few small steps.
People trip
over the steps and crowd the ramp. There is no reason why the entire approach
could not have been gently sloped.
TOO MANY ARCHITECTS, PLANNERS, TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERS AND URBAN DESIGNERS REDUCE THE ADA TO SOME KIND OF ONEROUS HURDLE THAT MUST BE LEAPED
Ron Mace named his creation Universal Design because he knew that good design was useful and beautiful—for all.
Take a curb
ramp or a well-protected crosswalk.
Yes, it
makes mobility possible for my wife.
But it's
also great for infants in strollers, kids on bikes, elders using
walkers/crutches—not to mention Miami gals that love high heels to thousands of
delivery people rolling millions of goods that keep our economy functioning.
TOO MANY ARCHITECTS, PLANNERS, TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERS AND URBAN DESIGNERS REDUCE THE ADA TO SOME KIND OF ONEROUS HURDLE THAT MUST BE LEAPED
That is why I tell my clients and students to comply with the ADA, but think in term of Universal Design.
The term was coined by the late Ron Mace, a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, educator and planner.
He used a wheelchair
for mobility but was very deliberate in not naming his creation
"disability” or “wheelchair" design.
Mace did so because he knew that good design was useful and beautiful—for all.
Take a curb ramp or a well-protected crosswalk.
Yes, it makes mobility possible for my wife.
But it's also great for infants in strollers, kids on bikes, elders using
walkers/crutches—not to mention Miami gals that love high heels to thousands of
delivery people rolling millions of goods that keep our economy functioning.
TOO MANY ARCHITECTS, PLANNERS, TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERS AND URBAN DESIGNERS REDUCE THE ADA TO SOME KIND OF ONEROUS HURDLE THAT MUST BE LEAPED
More than one CNU leader has asked me how a person could go about getting an ADA variance—in the context of both building and town design.
I’ve explained what my brilliant wife (Heidi Johnson-Wright, a lifelong public servant in her third decade as an ADA coordinator) does:
While it impacts the built
environment, the ADA is not a building or zoning code.
It is
federal civil rights legislation
As such, it
can no more be waived than a firm could ask for a variance to discriminate in
hiring practices based on race, gender, etc.
TOO MANY ARCHITECTS, PLANNERS, TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERS AND URBAN DESIGNERS REDUCE THE ADA TO SOME KIND OF ONEROUS HURDLE THAT MUST BE LEAPED
While speaking at the International Making Cities Livable Conference in Paris, I thought about the CNU and my desire that it do more for people with disabilities.
I thought
about the frequent pushback from CNU members who have said the ADA is the enemy
of historic preservation, urban housing types, organic placemaking, and
aesthetic design.
I’m baffled
why the ADA’s design standards are an unmovable roadblock to so many
CNU-affiliated practitioners.
Is their
creativity crushed by flood plain, fire safety, windstorm, setback, height
limit, and myriad other building/zoning code requirements?
TOO MANY ARCHITECTS, PLANNERS, TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERS AND URBAN DESIGNERS REDUCE THE ADA TO SOME KIND OF ONEROUS HURDLE THAT MUST BE LEAPED
The merger
of what I work on and who I love should be perfect.
The CNU
advocates for so many things that make life better for people with
disabilities.
Transit, walkability
(same as rollability for the most part), mixed-use, connectivity, a range of
housing types are but a few of the core values of the CNU that create compact,
easily traversable urban centers.
TOO MANY ARCHITECTS, PLANNERS, TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERS AND URBAN DESIGNERS REDUCE THE ADA TO SOME KIND OF ONEROUS HURDLE THAT MUST BE LEAPED
As a reporter, marketer, and planner, I have been involved with the Congress for New Urbanism since its founding.
I started
writing about urban design, growth, development and how cities work and fail in
1988.
That is the same year I married a brilliant attorney and writer who has used a wheelchair for mobility since she started college in the early 1980s.
FROM HONEYBEAR, HEIDI AND YOURS TRULY
According to
HoneyBear, our beloved Siamese rescue cat, 2020 has already come to an end.
Note in the
picture that she has closed my laptop and commenced sun bathing flat on top of
it till Jan. 4, 2021.
While I envy
such dedication to respite and restoration in light of the incredibly
challenging year, I will not be out till then (but do hope to spend much time
with my amazing partner of 33 years – Heidi – most of the last week of 2020.)
I just
wanted to drop a warm note of thanks to everyone who has been a part of my life
in these tumultuous times.
I won the
lottery of life when I met my Heidi and I have grown to be the most-fortunate
man I know – working only with clients that are focused on making the world a
better place.
I earn my
daily bread providing editorial services and marketing writing for highly-respected
planners, urban designers, architects, engineers, mobility specialists, landscape
architects, sustainability experts, disability access advocates academics,
non-profits and urban infill developers.
Yours in an
inclusive, equitable and accessible built environment for all,
--Steve
