Why is it hard to wrap your brain around universal design?
Try to shift your perspective from one to many.
I’m working on a video series to create awareness for the variety of people in our communities to show that universal design is beneficial for everyone. When editing one of the upcoming interviews, I picked up on a great question from Chris Grandle:
You know, universal design that you guys are doing, it’s just, it’s so hard to think that way. Why is that? Have you all ever got a theory about that?
Granted, Chris is no stranger to the disability community. He was born with spina bifida 60+ years ago. (Side note: I can’t WAIT for you all to hear his story… he and his wife Becky share some great insight). He grew up prior to accessibility laws and has served on many boards to advocate for all types of people with disabilities for functional homes, communities, and work.
Scott shared his theory…
Because people have different biases and different experiences. They see things through their lens, their experiences, and being able to think about design in a context that is functional for somebody else is just abstract.
So the things that you deal with vs the things that I deal with… even our little conversation we had about whether I could get into the bathroom or not, without understanding all the little details of how I take care of stuff vs how you take care of stuff, it’s just hard to wrap your brain around… and then if you have somebody that’s not connected it the disability community at all, and then there’s such a huge diversity of functional needs out there, it’s just not going to click.
We can design a space that’s wide enough for wheelchairs and there won’t be a step, but that just barely scratches the surface of really understanding how all sorts of people do everyday things. Without designers having some sort of understanding of the disability community on a deeper level, then design outcomes might not work for people they don’t understand.
People typically think that universal design is about accommodating disabilities and assume it has to be specialized to a specific person. Instead of thinking about access for just one type of disability, the goal needs to be to access and functional features for everyone. However, you have to understand who “all people” are, and what they need to function well.
If a person needs speciality equipment that’s beyond the scope of universal design, that’s totally fine. But think about specialization or adaptation as something that can be added onto something that’s universally designed. The whole point of universal design is to design things that are usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible.
Is the concept of universal design difficult to wrap your brain around?
