Produced monthly by Elaine Ostroff in cooperation with
the Adaptive Environments Center, Boston, MA., USA

Volume 1, Number 12, DECEMBER 1999

Contents

• Editor's Note
• News from the Global Network
• Korea
• Netherlands
• United Nations
• United Kingdom
• United States
• Designing for the 21^st Century Conference
• Student Design Competition applications STILL available
• Global Universal Design Educator's Network e-mail list
• Calendar
• Adding your information, questions to the Online News

EDITOR'S NOTE

Happy and healthy 2000, dear colleagues. This is the 12th issue of the Online News - completing a full year of this international exchange. I've enjoyed finding and putting together this news. Please send me your stories, notes of work in progress; questions to include; ideas for topics. One of my New Year's Resolutions is to bring you the Online News earlier in the month.

In this issue we note 3 more international conferences to be held in 2000; United Kingdom Institute on Inclusive Design in England; the World Congress on Environmental Design in the New Millennium in Korea and the United Nations, "Towards a Community for All" in New York City. We highlight the continuing efforts of US Federal agencies to increase more universal environments and information; the National Endowment for the Arts, the Federal Communications Commission and the US Access Board. We introduce what may be the first online course in universal design, a distance learning course at North Carolina State University. Please advise if you know of other courses - we'd like to promote them here. We present more about Designing for the 21st Century II Conference, listing the new pre-conference intensive courses and topical themes.

Information from the Monthly Online News may be freely copied and quoted as long as the individual author and this source is cited. Previous issues as well as this issue of the Online News are available online atthe Adaptive Environments website at http://www.adaptenv.org in the Universal Design section.

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NEWS FROM THE GLOBAL NETWORK

KOREA

The World Congress on Environmental Design for the New Millennium will be held in Seoul, Korea from November 8 to 22, 2000. Organized by Yonsei University, the Congress aims to collect world wisdom and creativity to shape our environment for the next millennium. It involves three distinctive but related conferences: the World Conference on Universal Design; the World Conference on Green Design and the World Conference on Cultural Design. A Students Conference will be held in conjunction with the Congress. Yeunsook Lee, Ph.D., is the Chair of the Planning Committee. There is a call for proposals now available, proposals are due February 15, 2000 and more information is on the website at: www.millenniumEd.org. We will include more information in future issues. Contact: Yeun Sook Lee at jaeyeunlee@yahoo.com

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NETHERLANDS

'Obstacles' is an initiative of the Netherlands Design Institute; they have revamped their website with a number of new interactive, access related features that I have not seen anywhere else. There is a text version (rather subtly marked in a box in the upper right corner of the opening page. The new site was developed by James Boekbinder, and ICAAT. You can find and enjoy it at: http://www.obstacle.nl/. The opening page comments on the bad design of the built environment, and asks:

"Can DESIGNERS do anything about that? Yes, and they do. But these problems are not simple, and won't be solved by simple hypes like 'design for all', or the market alone.

'Obstacles' is a new place where problems can be offered for discussion and in-depth analysis - across the board, from all who have something valuable to contribute. 'Obstacles' is open to designers and everyone else - contribute a problem, insight, idea, experience... Get in touch!"

It includes a section on Projects that addresses user friendly (and not) packaging; a section on Action maps developed with information gathered by attentive tourists trying to find their way in the Netherlands. Following are very brief excerpts from both projects:

• Projects - Packaging, Userfriendly Package
  Who hasn't run across them? The jam jar that can only be opened with brute force or a special pair of pliers, the plastic bubble package you need a knife to open, the meat you extract from its package with scissors, etc. etc. etc. Everyone knows and shares these aggravations. Do producers ever use their own products? If they did, wouldn't all these aggressively unfriendly tops, caps, pressure strips, tear-away edges have been exchanged for better designs? Or are the consumers responsible? They keep on buying the products without complaint.
• Projects - Action Access Map
  We've asked people in the big cities of the Netherlands to contribute favorite accessible routes and spots, with all the info they find important. Where are the accessible cafes? Shopping areas? Playgrounds? Tips for getting there? Best times of the day or night? What kind of special needs do you have? What kind of problems do you encounter in the built environment? And what would your ideal route look like, through your own locality, to go to a social event? Business? Entertainment? Shopping? Schooling? There may be others like you who can use this information! Your contributions will make the map grow - it is always open to new information and input.

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UNITED KINGDOM

United Kingdom Institute for Inclusive Design is planning UKIID 2000, a conference to be held June 2-4, 2000. The European Institute for Design and Disability will hold its Annual General Meeting in conjunction with UKIID 2000. Watch for more information or contact Andrew Walker at: andrew@cottage.sonnet.co.uk

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UNITED NATIONS

United Nations Conference: Towards a Community for All

Caring Communities for the 21st Century: Imagining the Possible, "Towards a Community for All" will be held on Thursday, February 10, 2000, 9 AM to 6 PM, at United Nations Headquarters, New York. This is the third in a successful series, which builds bridges between private business and professional firms, the United Nations, government agencies, and non-government organizations (NGO's) to develop projects, services, and products that support the needs of people of all ages.

Urban planners, architects, financiers, media executives, manufacturers, developers, educators, health professionals and investors will have a rare opportunity to discuss together this compelling phenomenon. During this program you will have an opportunity to talk with decision-makers interested in successful models and ideas that can be adapted to their diverse communities and cultures. This event is being held during the United Nations Commission for Social Development.

For the full preliminary program and registration form see the Conference Up-date on the UN Web-site: www.un.org/events/agingcf.htm. Registration is free but the registration must be submitted by January 18th at the latest so they arrange for security clearance. No walk in registration is possible. The conference is coordinated by International Council for Caring Communities (ICCC), an international organization affiliated with the United Nations.

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UNITED STATES

The Center for Universal Design: 1. First Distance Learning Course and 2. Seeking Households

1. The Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University announces an upcoming online course on Universal Design. It begins on January 10, 2000 and Molly Story is the instructor. It is a general introductory course on universal design and you must register through NC State to take it. This is a pilot, the intended audience is undergraduate and graduate students at NC State. This notice is to make you aware that the course has been developed, and will probably be offered in the future. You can contact the university to find out if the course is open at this time, or to get more information on how non-matriculating people can enroll in the future, and/or to indicate your interest in taking the course when it is offered again. For more information, go to: www2.ncsu.edu:8010/oit/i-id492c.htm.

2. The Center for Universal Design is searching for 60 consumer households from across the country to volunteer to participate in a field-initiated project, Promoting the Practice of Universal Design. In the first year of the project, researchers developed a set of universal design performance measures based on the Principles of Universal Design. In this, the second year, they are pilot testing the document to evaluate its usefulness and reliability.

   Households with and without people with disabilities are needed to accurately assess the usability of the universal design performance measures. Of the 60 households participating in the project, 36 will include at least one individual with an identifiable disability; the other 24 will contain no one with a disability. The Center is looking for diversity in the ages, abilities, geographic location, and socioeconomic status of participants. Researchers are especially interested in recruiting households containing children with disabilities.

   Molly Story, the project's principal investigator, hopes to have all project participants recruited and in place by the end of the year. Although this request is coming to you at the very end of the year, there may be need for more participants. Anyone interested in participating in the Promoting the Practice of Universal Design project should contact Story, at molly_story@ncsu.edu e-mail); (800) 933-3308 (voice/TTY); (303) 699-4703 (fax).

IDSA 2000 Industrial Design Excellence Awards

Submissions to this annual international awards program of the Industrial Design Society of America are due Monday, February 14, 2000. Patricia Moore, IDSA is Chair of the 2000 program that will recognize design innovation, benefits to the user, benefits to the client, ecologically responsible use of materials and appropriate aesthetics. The IDSA Awards Program is dedicated to foster business and public understanding of the importance of industrial design excellence to the quality of life and the economy. Business Week is the sponsor of the competition and they annually feature the winners in a June editorial report, distributed worldwide.

This is a remarkable and exemplary competition - you may want to request the announcement brochure from IDSA at idsa@erols.com or call 703 759 0100 to appreciate the person centered, holistic criteria. The categories include business and industrial products; consumer products; furniture; medical and scientific products; transportation; environments; packaging and graphics; digital media interface design; design explorations; and student designs. The Entry Kit must be ordered, there is a fee. The rules for eligibility emphasize that:

All entries must have been placed into distribution between February 14, 1998 and February 14, 2000; Designs from around the world are eligible if they fit ONE of the following descriptions: Any design whose primary responsibility lay with a US citizen or permanent resident - regardless of where the design is manufactured or distributed; Any design by any non-US designer and/or manufacturer/client, so long as it has been placed into distribution in North America in the stated timeframe; Student work must have been done while attending a school in North America; Design explorations should have been conceived to include the North American market.

Patricia Moore, Principal at bresslergroup and Bruce Nussbaum, Design Editor of Business Week, will be plenary speakers at Designing for the 21st Century II conference, June 14-187, 2000 (more information below).

Federal Communications Commission Asks for Comments on Proposed Rule

On November 18, the Federal Communications Commission proposed that commercial television broadcasters in the top 25 television markets, and the largest national video programming distributors, introduce video descriptions in their transmissions to allow Americans with visual disabilities to better follow the visual action in television programs.

Video description involves the insertion into a TV program of narrated descriptions of settings and actions that are not otherwise reflected in the dialogue, such as the movement of a person in the scene. Video description is typically provided through the use of the Secondary Audio Programming (SAP) channel so that it is audible only when that channel is activated through a TV set or a VCR with SAP capability.

In the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the FCC asked for comment on a proposal that the initial video description rules should require that broadcasters affiliated with the ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC networks in the top 25 television markets (as determined by the Nielsen Designated Market Areas, DMA, rankings) provide a minimum of 50 hours per calendar quarter (roughly four hours per week) of described prime time and/or children's programming no later than 18 months from the effective date of its video description rules. It also asked for comment on requiring the larger video programming distributors to carry the described programming of the broadcasters affiliated with the top 4 networks, and of non broadcast networks that reach 50% or more of MVPD households.

The Commission said video description would make television programming more accessible to the more than eight to twelve million persons with visual disabilities that cannot be corrected with ordinary glasses or contact lenses. It said that since television programming is the principal source of news and information and provides hours of entertainment every week to American homes, visual description would eliminate the difficulties that persons with visual disabilities have with following the visual action in this programming.

The Commission said that video description could also benefit the one and a half million children between the ages of 6 and 14 with learning disabilities by capturing their attention and enhancing their information processing skills. It also said there could be a secondary audience for persons without disabilities who are doing several things at once, who need to attend to something during a program, or who leave the room during a program.

This rulemaking proposal follows two earlier FCC studies of video description: a July1996 report following a Notice of Inquiry on closed captioning and video description; and a January 1998 report that was included in the FCC's annual report to Congress on competition in the market for video programming. This is an excerpt from the press release that can be found on the FCC at: www.fcc.gov/dtf/.

National Endowment for the Arts Planning Meeting on Universal Design

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has been a major catalyst for universal design activity in the US. On June 7-8, 1999, the NEA under the leadership of Paula Terry, Director of the AccessAbility Office, convened a meeting of experts from the design profession, academia, consumer groups, and government to assess the current state of universal design and identify future opportunities for encouraging and assisting the practice of universal design. A starting point was the seminal NEA meeting held a decade ago to outline a blueprint for action to advance universal design practice, inform design education, and expand awareness among decision makers, government officials, and the public.

The June 1999 meeting began its consideration of the current state of universal design with a discussion of accomplishments, challenges, and recommendations emerging over the course of the past decade. Among accomplishments, participants agreed that universal design has gained a significant foot-hold in professional organizations and among cultural institutions. At several universities, centers and curricula that incorporate universal design have made substantial contributions to the field, a primary stimulus being Adaptive Environments' Universal Design Education Project. Major publications, international conferences, and exhibitions have raised public and professional awareness of universal design principles. The influential American Association of Retired Persons has seized upon it as a leading issue to support healthy aging-in-place.

Government activities in the area of universal design exist in a variety of federal programs and legislation. As the nation's largest consumer, the government has newly recognized its capacity to influence the marketplace, which has, over the last decade, awakened to the popularity of universally designed products. This phenomenon will only increase as the baby-boomer generation reaches retirement age. As a result of congressional legislation and advocacy by disability rights groups, leaders in the technology sector are beginning to embrace universal design principles in its software and hardware.

In spite of these accomplishments, universal design faces challenges in the areas of public and professional misperceptions about what universal design is, not duly realizing that it extends to every aspect of society and, as its name implies, seeks to imbue all design with values of full inclusion regardless of a person's age or abilities. Participants noted a lack of professional expertise that restricts the capacity of the field to create new generations of practitioners. Nor have a sizable number of young people with disabilities entered design professions. Research needs include evaluation criteria to determine the dynamics of the marketplace and the impact of universal design. A lack of exemplars inhibits universal design advocates demonstrating the virtues of the movement to decision makers in industry, who need to be better educated on the importance of including designers in their planning process.

The group agreed that strategies need to be developed to broaden the appeal of universal design, to take it out of the disability community into the broad mainstream of society. Public relations efforts in the press, radio, and television could accomplish this goal. Design competitions can reveal exemplars to take to consumers, showing how objects and environments that feature universal design principles add both to the quality of life and to a business's bottom line. At the same time that the broader society discovers the value of universal design, educators and practitioners need constant reminders of the movement's activities and philosophy.

NEA Chairman Bill Ivey addressed the group on Endowment activities in this area and asked for their suggestions how the NEA might further contribute toward the goal of inspiring the adoption of universal design principles in the nation's commercial and governmental sectors. Recommendations ranged from the Endowment advocating for universal design among other federal agencies to conducting competitions, partnering with other organizations, working with university design departments, publishing books, and acting as a knowledge center with a strong Internet presence. Participants heard about the Endowment's Leadership Initiatives, a potential source of funding for universal design projects, and the Presidential Design Awards program, recognizing good design in the buildings and products using federal funds. Mark Robbins, the Endowment's Design Director, outlined a number of goals he has to promote universal design at the federal level.

Participants divided into three working groups to consider ways in which universal design advocates can influence: 1) design education, 2) professional practice, and 3) decision makers in government and commerce. The first group stressed the need to expand the number of experts and mentors, encourage interdisciplinary approaches, foster communication between students and practitioners, and develop new educational products in the form of curricula to spread universal design teaching into other academic fields such as medicine and information science.

To advance the cause of universal design within the design profession, the second group concluded that competitions, awards, and publications might accomplish wider recognition of good design. And, to influence decision makers, the third group emphasized that once consumers demand products and environments informed with universal design principles, leaders in industry and government will heed the call. Ways to spur interest in universal design ranged from identifying a celebrity spokesperson to finding legislative means to stimulate the adoption of universal design, similar to the tax incentives that sparked the historic preservation movement in the 1970s. The full report is available on line at: http://www.arts.endow.gov/explore/ud/contents.html.

US Access Board Publishes New ADA Accessibility Guidelines for Comment; Proposal Includes Updated Guidelines for Federal Facilities, Housing

On November 16, 1999, the Board published a proposal to thoroughly update its guidelines for private and public sector facilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Architectural Barriers Act (ABA). This marks the first comprehensive update of the ADA Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG) since their publication in July 1991. The proposal, which is available for public comment for 120 days, revises both the substance and format of the existing guidelines and includes new figures and advisory material. The guidelines cover new construction and alterations and generally do not address existing facilities outside of planned alterations.

The Board develops and maintains guidelines for the built environment under both the ADA and the ABA that serve as the basis for standards issued by other Federal agencies. ADAAG covers places of public accommodation, commercial facilities, and state and local government facilities. The guidelines issued under the ABA primarily address facilities in the Federal sector and others designed, built, or altered with Federal funds. Through this update, the Board is reconciling differences between the ADA and ABA guidelines so that a more uniform level of access is specified. The guidelines provide scoping requirements, which specify what has to be accessible, and technical provisions, which indicate how access is achieved. The text of the proposed rule is comprised of three parts: a scoping document for ADA facilities, a scoping document for ABA facilities, and a common set of technical requirements. An accompanying discussion explains the changes and poses a number of questions to the public on a variety of issues. The proposal also includes new scoping and technical requirements for accessible residential facilities.

The changes are based on recommendations from an advisory committee the Board had established to review ADAAG. The ADAAG Review Advisory Committee consisted of 22 members representing the design and construction industry, the building code community, and people with disabilities, among others. The committee, which met extensively over a two year period, issued a report, "Recommendations for a New ADAAG," that addresses the content as well as the style and format of ADAAG. The recommendations seek to improve access requirements while reconciling differences between ADAAG and national consensus standards, including model codes and industry standards.

An Overview of the Proposed ADA and ABA Accessibility Guidelines The key goal of this rulemaking is to substantively update the requirements to reflect technological developments so that they continue to meet the needs of persons with disabilities. Also, this update is designed to make the guidelines more consistent with model building codes and industry standards in order to facilitate compliance. The proposed guidelines feature:

• a new numbering system consistent with model codes
• a more streamlined structure and organization of chapters
• updated scoping and technical provisions, with a greater structural delineation between them
• new figures and commentary (advisory information)
• provision of all figure-based information in written text

The Board has coordinated its update of the ADA and ABA guidelines into a single rule. The proposed rule contains updated scoping provisions, which specify what has to be accessible, and technical requirements, which spell out how access is achieved. An accompanying discussion explains the changes from the current guidelines and poses questions to the public on a variety of issues.

The deadline for public comment is March 15, 2000. The proposed rule includes information on submitting comments electronically or by mail. The Board has scheduled public hearings on the proposal that will provide an additional forum for submitting comment. After the comment period closes, the Board will revise the rule as necessary according to the comments received and republish the guidelines in final form. Other Federal departments responsible for the standards used to enforce the ADA and ABA must then similarly modify their standards so that they are consistent with the updated guidelines.

The proposed rule is available on the Board's web site at www.access-board.gov or by calling (800) 872-2253 (voice) or (800) 993-2822 (TTY) and requesting publication S36 (the above material is an excerpt from Access Currents, Volume 5, No.6, November/December 1999, published by the Access Board.

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DESIGNING FOR THE 21^st CENTURY II
An International Conference on Universal Design

The full announcement will be mailed and online in mid January. The conference includes 13 esteemed plenary speakers that have been noted earlier. In future issues we will highlight these international leaders and their work in universal design. There are 18 pre-conference sessions that will be held on June 14 and the morning of June 15. In addition to the sessions noted in the November Online News, 7 more invited pre-conference sessions have been added. They are: An Introduction to Universal Design (Japanese interpreted); Universal Design in Renovating the Historic Harvard University Campus; Lending an Ear to Universal Design: Acoustics and Soundscapes; Mentoring Workshop: Building Community with Disabled Designers; Universal Design in Historic Religious Buildings; Universal Design for Learning (tm): Applying UD Concepts in Media, Methods and Materials; and Universal Meets Green Design on Providence's Green Map.

There are about 90 concurrent sessions: projects, forums, and invited panels. All sessions have been identified on a chart that displays topical categories to make it easier for you to organize your time. We've tried to group and schedule them in clusters so that if you are following a particular group of sessions, they will not compete with each other. The topics include: Arts/Culture; Business/Marketing; Learning Environments; Recreation/Nature; Design Education; Public Places/Urban Design; Residential; Products; Information; Codes/Guidelines; Policy/Planning; Ageing; Children; Developing Economies; Employment; Sustainability; User/Advocacy; and General. Many sessions fall into more than one category - the system isn't perfect but it will help you in finding and choosing sessions.

Another new feature in the conference are working groups - more about them next month.

This is the theme of the Student Design Competition held in conjunction with the Designing for the 21st Century conference. Application forms are still available online at http://www.adaptenv.org/21century/ or e-mail Mike at mdilorenzo@adaptenv.org. Submission deadline is February 1, 2000.

Student teams learn by April 1, 2000 if their projects will be included among finalists and exhibited at the Designing for the 21st Century, An International Conference on Universal Design. The exhibit of finalists, final jury process and awards will be at the conference, June 14-18, 2000.

Currently enrolled students from any college or university worldwide are welcome. The application requires a team submission, with a minimum of two design disciplines. In addition, the participation of other related disciplines is recommended. If you are a design advocate, we encourage your promotion of this design opportunity; bring it to the attention of faculty in design schools. The application suggests the involvement of users in the early stages as well as in review of the proposed solutions.

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GLOBAL UNIVERSAL DESIGN EDUCATOR'S E-MAIL LIST

This is distinct from the newsletter that you are now receiving. This is an automated electronic list. We invite you to subscribe if you want additional, more frequent dialogue with other educators, designers, students and advocates. To subscribe, send a message to: guden-l@adaptenv.org

Leave the subject blank. In the body of the message, write 'subscribe. This must be from the computer that you use for your e-mail.

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CALENDAR

There are no listings this month. The Calendar will resume in January.

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Adding your information, questions to the Online News: 

Send e-mail to elaine@ostroff.org by the 20th of each month for the next month's mailing. Articles should be limited to 600 words. If the issue is too full to include, and the timeliness of the article allows it, we may hold the item until the following month.

Elaine Ostroff, Founding Director, Adaptive Environments Center, Editor.

374 Congress Street, Suite 301
Boston, MA 02210
Tel 617 695 1225 x30
Fax 617 482 8099

elaine@ostroff.org
http://www.adaptenv.org/21century/

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