Universal Design and the ERC
"Why aren't people with disabilities a source of reassurance to the general public that although life is unpredictable and circumstances may be unfavorable, versatility and adaptation are possible; they're built into the coding of human beings?" – John Hockenberry 30
The disability rights movement ushered in new thoughts about the built environment and the many ways people navigate within these spaces. The name for this new concept, Universal Design, was coined by Ronald Mace, who founded and directed the Center for Universal Design at the University of North Carolina. 31 This definition has evolved and morphed within the different organizations that have popped up to embrace this concept. The Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access developed the most prominent iteration of Mace's original idea: "Universal design is a process that enables and empowers a diverse population by improving human performance, health, wellness and social participation." 32 Along with this working definition IDeA Center developed eight goals that correspond to measurable outcomes:
1. Body fit—accommodating a wide range of body sizes and abilities;
2. Comfort—keeping demands within desirable limits of body function and perception;
3. Awareness—insuring that critical information for use is easily perceived;
4. Understanding—making methods of operation and use intuitive, clear, and unambiguous;
5. Wellness—contributing to health promotion, avoidance of disease, and prevention of injury;
6. Social integration—treating all groups with dignity and respect;
7. Personalization—incorporating opportunities for choice and the expression of individual preferences; and,
8. Appropriateness—respecting and reinforcing cultural values and the social and environmental context of any design project. 33
The notion of designing something that is inclusive to as many people as possible is a far cry from the medical model that dominates the architectural world. One of the best examples of this radical design is Berkeley's Ed Roberts Campus.
The Ed Roberts Campus is located directly above the Ashby BART station in Berkeley, California. This is significant because of the hard fought battles disability rights advocates went through to gain access to transportation in the Bay Area, specifically on the BART train. Housed within the Campus are seven disability service providers including two Roberts started: the Center for Independent Living and the World Institute on Disability. 34
Upon exiting the elevator from the train you are faced with an impressive two story glass façade that is as symbolic as it is eye-catching. Throughout history people with disabilities have been hidden away and forced to use alterative entrances, appending a shameful connotation to their differences. Institutions designed to assist and benefit people with disabilities have often been built in a windowless and sterile way so as to hide their clients from the unnavigable world and the world from having to interact with their clients. This forced invisibility is confronted at the ERC when people who come up from the BART station and see people of all abilities navigating this built environment with pride and shamelessness. Commenting on the façade Bill Leddy, architect and owner of the architecture firm that built the ERC feels a sense of pride knowing that "this building serves folks who spent much of their lives going in the back doors of buildings and feeling like second-class citizens." 35 This type of open design seeks to integrate the building and its wide variety of users to the community in which it is placed.
Upon walking through the automatic doors, the next visually dynamic piece of architecture cannot be missed. A huge, red helical ramp that winds its way to the second floor is the centerpiece of the ERC. This is another symbolic choice, as this particular category of gateway to accessibility is often hidden away and thought of as an eyesore. The ramp is 56 feet in diameter and suspended from cables. The sides are made of bright red resin paneling derived from milk cartons, so it is impossible to miss. 36 A huge skylight sits above the ramp. This natural spotlight assures that if the giant red ramp doesn't bring the public's attention to the users of the ERC, it will. The massive light source also cuts down on costs, making the design environmentally friendly and with the help of the moon, causes the red resin paneling to glow at night drawing the eye of any passersby.
The ramp is not only an impressive sight, it also solves a problem that many ambulatory people rarely think about. The seven foot wide ramp allows two wheelchair users to traverse it side by side. In most situations pairs of people, be they two wheelchair users or a single wheelchair user and an ambulatory person are forced to suspend their conversation when confronted with the average ramp, and in the case of two wheelchair users, ascend or descend to their destination single file. Pairs consisting of a wheelchair user and an ambulatory person are forced to choose to continue single file or separate, one taking the stairs, the other the ramp, highlighting their status within society and stigmatizing the person responsible for the separation and suspension of conversation. 37
The floor of the ERC both inside and out front is composed of multicolored concrete. The subtle differences in color help to assist people who have low vision in navigating the space. This concept is taken even further when one examines the inconspicuous texture of the different colored concrete slabs. Dmitri Belser, the President of the ERC and Executive Director of the Center for Accessible Technologies, which is housed in the center explains that when designing the ERC a variety of disabilities had to be taken into account, especially when designing the forecourt to the Campus. People with visual impairments, who, like Belser use a white cane to navigate, have difficulty with wide open spaces and curvature, preferring instead walls and angles that can be easily followed. Belser explained that it would have been best for people with visual impairment to have rows of planters or some other barrier-like structure to lead them to the entrance of the center. Barriers and sharp angles of this kind however, pose problems for wheelchair users who prefer the wide open spaces and arcing curvature through which they can most efficiently get to their destination. The solution was to texturize portions of the concrete to create a path that leads from the Bart and from the crosswalks to the entrance of the center. The subtle texture was easily detectable by people who use a white cane, though doesn't feel bumpy or uncomfortable for wheel chair users who ride over it. 38
The design of the ERC often needed to strike a balance of this kind. Carpet has been installed that is hard enough for wheelchair users to roll on but absorbs sound, which is beneficial to those with hearing impairments. Not only that but the patterns and colors are deliberately subtle so as not to induce seizures for people with epilepsy. 39 The ceilings are covered in stretched cloth to catch some of the sound and the paneling along the walls is made from the same polymer that is used on scientific work-benches which does not ding, scratch or mark when slammed into by wheelchairs or canes. 40
Another unique element of the ERC geared towards people with visual impairments is a fountain on one end of the center's atrium. This atrium is a unique trapezoidal shape that is also difficult for the visually impaired to navigate, as they often rely on the bouncing around of sound to orient themselves. The fountain in this case does just that, this sonic landmark is just one seemingly invisible component of a universally designed building. 41
If a person chooses to skip the ramp en route to the second floor the elevator is available for use by just about anyone. Buttons to call for the elevator are both on the wall panel in the usual place as well as about three inches off the ground. The exciting thing about these lower buttons is that they are about five inches in diameter and made of metal so that people who are unable to press the button on the wall panel only have to give the metal buttons a kick, or simply bump into them with their wheelchair to call for the lift. This thoughtful piece of design doesn't just aid people with disabilities. Anyone who has tried to press the button for the elevator with their arms full of groceries can attest to that. Inside the elevator the buttons for each floor are again foot height and located on the side of the elevator, which opens from the opposite end on the second floor than it does on the first floor so that wheel chair users do not have to back out or spin themselves around inside the elevator. 42
The bathrooms in the ERC far exceed the demands set forth by the ADA. 43 Things like stalls that are large enough to accommodate a person in a wheelchair as well as their attendant are rare in the world of architecture. These elements of design are helpful not only to people with disabilities but to everyone as they get further into their old age.
In 1990 the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law which mandated that all public and commercial places of business be accessible to people with disabilities. This decision was met with much outcry from many of the "normal" members of the citizenry, and was alternatively quite exciting for those that had previously been excluded from engaging with and in these environments. The problem that arose after the ruling was that though compliance came, it was often in the separate but equal fashion of the pre-Civil Rights era. Compliance often made use of a side door or a freight elevator that only served to reinforce the second class status of people with disabilities, and keep them invisible to the rest of the population. This was often done to cut costs or avoid changes in aesthetic to public entrances.
The Ed Roberts Campus is the perfect illustration of how aesthetics and good design do not have to be sacrificed to create a structure that can be accessed by all. As proof of this notion of excelling both in form and function, since opening in 2010, the ERC has won multiple awards for its architectural design and application of Universal Design. 44
Much of this separate but equal accessibility continues to exist today and it will take things like government incentives to bring about thoughtful and equitable accessibility, as well as the continued spread of the concept and implementation of Universal Design. My hope is that because Universal Design in the physical realm will benefit so many people, the world of education will begin to look at what Universal design could look like in the classroom. Not only design for physical access, but for educational, and most importantly social access for all. If the move towards complete integration of special education continues, classrooms and the people who manage them will need to design them in a way that all students have a fair shot at getting social, emotional and educational stimulation from a wide variety of people if they are to be successful. A group of people that mirror the culture and community into which they will eventually matriculate.
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