Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Universal design waning -- already?

The same article as below has a short sidebar displayed at the end about one person's opinion that univeral design is not as top of the mind as it used to be. (scroll down to the bottom). "We're back to doing it because we have to," said Carol Hunter, long-time accessibility advocate who helped found a group called Partners for Access to the Woods. Hey, as long as it gets done. By the way, Carol has a book too Everyone's Nature.

2 Comments:

At 8:44 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

The claim that we "have to" do Universal Design betrays a misunderstanding. In the US what we "have to" do is comply with ADA, ADAAG, Air Carriers Act, state & local building codes, etc. These lists of design details and specifications are not at all the same thing as the seven principles of good design known as Universal Design. (http://tinyurl.com/9s4sj )

The list is the law. Universal Design is the spirit.

I would go so far as to suggest that those who casually use the term Universal Design incorrectly contribute to the waning of its application as a design process by confusng the public about its real nature.

 
At 11:45 AM, Blogger darrenh said...

RR makes a great point. But
building on rr's comment, when we get to the point that folks actually feel compelled to do universal design, then the spirit of the improvement will have really reached its zenith.
Actually I disagree with Ms. Hunter. I'm seeing more and more recognition of universal design in the spirit described by rr. Recent example, a house plan in a Menard's home improvement store newspaper advertising insert that touted its "universal design" attributes. That's pretty mainstream.

 

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