Assignment 4 – A universal design approach for design projects

First of all it’s important to make two things clear. The term universal design is hard to explain in a few sentences. In order to present a strategy document for a project leader, this term needs to be explained in a detailed way. Secondly the concept of a “design project” is also very broad. It could range from designing a type of furniture at IKEA to the development of a web site for a local car rental service. Hence, in order to come up with a strategy document one must account the fact that the term universal design is hard to understand for people without the expertise. It’s also important that such a document covers design in all kinds of projects. That being said, I would start the strategy document like this:

The concept of universal design

Universal design might be a hard concept to grasp at first. But once you get to know more about the concept you will realise that there is benefits as well. With universal design comes knowledge about various fields such as disabilities, usability, design and stigmatization. Design comes from our knowledge and experience in the form of ideas. But there is also a need to understand what we are designing and who we are designing it for. What is our target audience and is this audience going to change over time? Are we designing something that requires mobility? Could this design that we are creating be used by people that are blind or deaf? Is cognitive constraints going to be an issue for the user of this product? What is boils down to is the question; is this design usable for all users in our society? Is the design that we are working on considering physical, perceptual and cognitive impairments?

I think this is the key when it comes to the concept of universal design and this design approach. You get to question your idea and see it from a lot of different perspectives. Asking questions in the design process is a good thing. Sometimes the answer to these questions are not what we want them to be. Maybe some designs aren’t meant for all people but asking the questions in the design process will at least bring these issues up.

Universal design checklist

• Who is our target audience?
• Are this target audience going to change over time (for instance issues related to getting older)?
• Could this design be used by the elderly?
• Are we considering cognitive constraints?
• Does this design require mobility?
• Could people with a hard time seeing things or the blind use our design?
• Could people with a hard time hearing things or the deaf use our design?
• Could the user adjust our design for his/her needs? Is the product flexible?
• Could this design be used for people that are left handed?
• Or someone that have a problem with their hands?
• Is there a understandable documentation of our design included in the product?
• Is there someone that can’t use our design?

Conclusion

With time there will be a need to add more items to the checklist. Being a creative person within a design team one might come to think of more things that are important to think about. But just having a checklist and getting the team on the same page discussing these things would be an eye opener for many. Working in teams could be a huge advantage because it will give you the opportunity to test your thought and hear what others have to say. Interesting discussions about everything from disabilities to usability and universal design will lead to new questions and new ideas. Having a different perspective is something that should be valued. If there isn’t a large team to have these kinds of discussions, why not ask the user. Talk to your indented audience and find out what they want and what they think. Don’t be afraid to ask users from various kinds of backgrounds and be including and curious. Having an open mind isn’t a bad thing when it comes to new ideas and creativity. Let’s make designs that are for everybody in our society. Let’s be including. Let’s be open minded. Let’s design for everyone.

 

Assignment 3 – Designing for the elderly

With this assignment I believe that a key sentence could be found in the description; “Discuss how to design a flat in a home for elderly people, so that it can support an old person from an early stage to a late age (with possible impairments)”. The part of the sentence that I’m thinking about is the “with possible impairments” part. Designing for the elderly is such a big task of it’s own without knowing anything about the possible impairments. I think that it’s important to stress that you are designing something for an individual, a person. The needs of the individual could very much from the needs of the overall group. Should you therefore design a flat that takes care of every single need even though most features would be considered unnecessary for most? The needs could of course change over time which would be an argument for covering all needs.

Another key sentence is “so that it can support an old person” which tells me that the flat is a support tool and not a complete solution. A design can’t possibly cover all needs one might have. The most obvious one being the social interaction one might have with staff from the nursing home. So the flat should therefore support the elderly with the communication and the human contact as a part of the solution.

To get one thing straight, the task is to design a flat in a home for elderly people. Therefore I assume that their is a proper way to get to this flat. There should be elevators and other support systems for people that have a hard time walking, seeing or have other types of impairments. The start of this design process should also include user studies with real users doing interviews and observations.

The design of the “support” in the flat should be well integrated with the overall appartement. It should be like visiting anyone to avoid stigmatization. Let’s start with a room with a lot of potential for danger if you are getting older; the bathroom. Falling down is a serious problem and the main place for falls is in the shower, the bathtub or the wet floor. A bathtub isn’t probably the best solution with a high threshold that one needs to get over every time. A shower could therefore be a better alternative. Then there should be handles to hold on to and stickers on the floor so it won’t get slippery. The safety rail should not look like a safety rail rather be a well integrated part of the overall shower. There should also be a fold out seat in a nice design that could easily be folded in and cleaned. There should of course also be a shower head support in multiple positions. The design should be such that it could be used for all people without the need for adaptation.

When it comes to design to support, it could be the simplest changes that makes the biggest difference. If you take the laundry machine for instance. The design should be so that it’s easy to load and unload it. In most cases the hatch is on the top or on the side. This would force the user to bend their knees or their back in order to load and unload the laundry. If you put the hatch in between instead, bending the design of the machine. Then it would be easier to use for all.

As I said before, the details are very important. Thinking about peoples possible impairments one might forget about a simple thing such as a doorknob. These could actually be bad for your hands if you have arthritis or other similar conditions. Replacing the doorknobs with levers could therefore help to improve a home.

Not to focus too much on a specific room, all rooms should have non slippery floors. Eliminating trip points like thresholds or reduce their height is another step for making the floors less dangerous. With falls being a very serious problem I would recommend the design to be a one level solution without stairs. A connected issue is the size of the doorways. To adapt to all scenarios the design for the doorways should be so that they are big enough for a wheelchair to pass through. The space in the different rooms, especially in the bathroom should be so that a wheelchair could make a complete turn. Making sure the doors and the floors are proper are an important step to a safer home, but the lightning is also important to consider. All areas of the flat should be well lit in order to avoid falls. Talking about floors, carpets might be a bad idea because they could be potential fall triggers.

I think that it’s once again important to stress that the most important thing is to support resident’s need to maintain independent. Then you need to think about what their everyday lives consists of. I’ve already discussed the importance of the bathroom and that is of course a part of everyones everyday life. Another important everyday routine is eating and preparing lunch and dinner. Memory might be a issue with increasing age. Putting on a pot of water could be something that you forgot that you did. Then there is a need to support people’s memory to aid them in the kitchen. There should therefore be some kind of alarm to help the resident to remember that they are using the stove. Could the resident put on a pot of water? Is the height of the workspace appropriate, even for a seated resident? The important appliances such as a microwave should be easy to reach as well. Is the cooktop safe to use with controls at the front with lights to indicate if they are hot or not.

The dining area is also important to consider. The table should accommodate a wheelchair. The chairs should be both steady and easy to move with easy access for sitting. The table shouldn’t have to sharp edges either.

Another thing that everyone does no matter the age is to sleep. The bedroom is therefore a very important room to consider. Is the bed adjustable in height? Making a solution where the bed is adjustable in height would suit the needs of many. Using a bedstead with smooth corners instead of sharp ones could be a good idea. The sharp corners might look nice but could be a danger for people with limited vision or when the room is dark. Speaking of a dark room, there should be light controls within easy reach. The lights should also be able to control from the bed. A good idea might be to have a stationary phone close to the bed in case of emergency. A steady bedside table close to the bed could be a good support for getting in and out of the bed. Another good idea for the bedroom would be a automated system for closing the blinds on the windows.
The living room is another room that you spend a lot of time in. The placement of the furniture in this room should support moving around in a safe way. That includes residents in a wheelchair. Are there cords and wires that are in the way? The design should hide these in the best way possible to prevent falls. Controlling the lights and the blinds in this room is also important for the visuals and having a automated system for this could be a smart solution.

Cognitive impairments is also an important issue to consider. The flat should therefore be logically designed and support clear sight lines to destinations. If the livingroom is connected to the kitchen, the path to the destination is more clear.

When you start to think about it, there are many important aspects to consider. But I would like to stress the fact that user studies could help to find out more about the residents and their needs. An important part of the design should also be to avoid stigmatization. Making design decisions that affect details such as door handles and floor types avoid stigmatization and has a great impact for a safer home.

Stigmatization and normality for the deaf

How is it possible to use design in order to minimize stigmatization:
First of all, when we talk about disabilities we need to keep in mind that it’s very complex and that it varies from person to person. A disability might limit ones possibilities in life and how often one could participate in certain activities. The issue of acceptance is also important when we talk about disabilities and stigmatization. The type of disability is key in what ways it might limit the person and his/her possibilities. Whether or not the disability is physical, perceptual or cognitive one must focus on the individual and his/her needs. User centered design is an approach where the validity of the assumptions are tested with regard to the users behaviour in real world tests with actual users. Using this approach, one must think about the ethical aspects and to make sure that the tests are done in the right way. One must also find users that have disabilities and that are willing to participate in such a study. With visible impairments one must understand that there is stigmatizing and that people’s attitudes towards these people might be affected. I want to talk about stigmatization and normality for the deaf. This could be classified as a invisible impairment just as people with allergies or cognitive deficits. The fact that it’s an invisible impairment does not make it less of an impairment.

There are many situations in our society where sound is a key element for important information. Take the train station as an example. When a train is late or their is a change of tracks, the information office sends out an automated message in the speakers informing about the change. If people that are deaf wants to take part of this information, they constantly need to keep themselves updated using the information displayed on the boards. This is just one example of a situation where important information is given by sound. Another similar example could be when you are in a car and listening to the radio. Then when there’s an emergency message, the radio is stopped and the message is played telling the driver about a car accident nearby. Of course if you are deaf you’re not listening to the radio, but you will not have the possibility to get this important message either. This is just a few examples of situations where the deaf miss out when it comes to important information. But there could be a design solution to solve both of these examples. One might develop an application in the phone that is connected to the information board for the trains. This application could give notifications when there is changes to the trains regarding time as well as tracks. And for the second example, the radio in the car often has a display where the name of the radio station is shown. This display could be used to show these interrupted messages. A blinking lamp could indicate when a important message is being displayed so that the driver just gives his/her attention to the display when it’s necessary. But these are just my ideas. I believe that user centered design involving deaf users would be a great idea when it comes to solving problems like these ones. They are the ones that are the experts when it comes to their situation. They also know a lot about stigmatization and the involvement of these users might help to avoid future stigmatization when it comes to the design solutions. If we can create great supportive tools with a good design approach, we might avoid stigmatization.

How is it possible to use design in order to broaden the “normality” area:
Firstly we need to define the word normal. How do we know that is normal and what is not? And is there a clear border between the two? It’s important to know that the word normal is a defined attribute. Therefore the word normal is in a way a mindset of people. In order for the design to broaden the “normality” area one must change the way people think. Just because you have a disability does not make you abnormal. We must work to increase the acceptance and understanding of people. The design could of course be one tool to help shape this new way of thinking. We need to start to think inclusive when we design new products. We must come up with designs that minimize the stigmatization factors. People with disabilities are not unlike everybody else and they also want cool and interesting products. The products and tools designed to aid these people needs to be just as cool and inspired as “regular” products. Applications for your smartphone are well used and are less likely to have a high stigmatization factor. There should be more applications targeted to aid the deaf and disabled people in general.

I don’t think that a deaf person would consider using an application to help them in their everyday life as stigmatizing. But again, it’s hard for me to make that judgement. One must involve the users when designing and this should not be an assumption rather a question for these users. But since applications are so well used, it’s at least an idea on how to design to broaden the normality area. But once more I must emphasize the importance of the ethical aspect since research in disabilities are sensitive topics. You as a researcher have a very important role. The aim must be to treat people well and do better than just being on the right side of what is legal. Three key elements when designing for people with disabilities is that the study can provide privacy, integrity and trust for the participants.

We should use universal design to support the development of tools for the people with disabilities and to provide them with more possibilities in life. With that said, we still need to keep in mind “the saviour syndrome”: We constantly need to work with our attitude and how we treat people. We shouldn’t try to design for non-problems or to replace working solutions. The aim should be to delimit the delimitations. To work with the users in an ethical way in order to find solutions to real world problems.

“Our problem solving skills, and our ability to adapt to new things, you know, those skills are really high”

For this paper I’ve decided to write about the topic of common misconceptions of people with impairments and how to counter these misconceptions. The quote that I’ve selected as the heading of this paper comes from the clip “Disability, the Truth” found on Youtube. The clip is uploaded by an account called AttitudeTV and shows the truth about disabilities in a honest, open and caring way. The quote comes from a guy called Curtis Palmer. He’s actually quite famous, at least to people who watch and follow the paralympics. He won a gold medal in the 2004 Athens paralympics. He recently won a gold medal with the Australian team in the world championship at the 2014 World Wheelchair Rugby Championships in Odense, Denmark.

I picked this quote because I found it both inspiring and interesting. It’s really informative to listen to all of these people in this video. They are no different from you and me in the sense of what they want out of life. It’s just harder for them to achieve certain things, but seeing the willpower and stubbornness they have is truly inspiring. It’s all about adapting to new things and to learn how to achieve the same goal in a different way.

I believe that there are many misconceptions about people with impairments and watching a video like this could be one step for people to get a better understanding about the daily life of these individuals. The key here is to listen to what they have to say and really hear what they are trying to say. A thing that I reacted to when watching this video was the fact that they all in some way said that they did’nt want or need any help. Being independent was really important and when people were asking to help them, they felt that people didn’t realise that they could do it themselves. My first thought was that the people reaching out trying to help these individuals were actually the good guys. There are probably like 1 out of 10 that actually reach out and try to help. And then they are blamed for trying to help. But when I watched this video I realized that independence is incredibly important when you are disabled and then the questions of whether or not you need help becomes a problem. I still don’t think that the people trying to help are doing something wrong. But if they had a better understanding of the lives of people with impairments they might only ask in situations where it’s really necessary.

But how do we work to counter the misconceptions? I believe that videos like this is a good start. We need to listen and understand that everybody doesn’t have the same conditions in life and understand how we can all adapt to make everyone feel included in society. Another interesting quote from the clip comes from Tanya Black;

“I think it’s other people’s idea that life can’t be as much fun…”

And it’s an important quote because in the clip they show that people with impairments doing everything from riding a rollercoaster to kayaking and downhill biking. The common image that most people have when it comes to people with disabilities is a person sitting in a wheelchair not being able to do much. And a good way to counter peoples misconceptions would therefore be to change this image. And really show that these people are just like me and you and that with the right tools they could do just about as much as people without disabilities.

Another important quote comes from Curtis Palmer;

“…I’m not afraid to admit that I am vain”.

This is yet another quote that makes us understand that he’s no different from anyone else. Why shouldn’t he be allowed to be vain just like the rest of us? I think that quotes like this gives the viewer a deeper understanding and gives them a way to relate. And that is yet another key to defeat the misconceptions. If we could get people to relate and to see that people with disabilities are no different from you and me, we’d come a long way.

Hopefully more videos like this could help people to open their eyes and increase their knowledge about disabilities. But it takes brave and open people like the ones in the video that could help us understand just for a while how it’s like to have an impairment. Even if it’s only for a while.