Produced monthly by the Adaptive Environments Center, Boston, MA, USA under a contract with the Center for Universal Design, School of Design, North Carolina State University, NC, USA.

Volume I, Number 2  -   February 1999

EDITOR’S NOTE:

Thanks for the positive comments on the first issue. One new reader wondered if he should be on the list as he wasn’t a "real educator". Please be aware we are very open to anyone who is involved in some form of education/communication on universal design. This is not limited to college faculty. Welcome to all.

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From Singapore:

• Women's Health - The Nation's Gain : An International Conference with a Special Focus on Older Women in Asia 5-7 July 1999, Singapore.
  Information. - www.asiawomen.org.sg

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From Spain:

• CRID announces a May 21-22, 1999 meeting, in Barcelona, the DAIEE Conference : "Design for All Commitment Label". The meeting will be an opportunity to learn the experience of a new pilot project involving more than 50 companies in Spain. The companies are from different sectors: transport; telecommunications; urban furniture; banks; leisure and they are all working on developing their products, environments and services to meet diverse user needs. The project uses the "Design for All Commitment" label not as a quality stamp, but proof that the company worries about the needs of its consumers and users.

The meeting will discuss the possibility of expanding the project to a European level. For more information, contact Francesc Aragall at crid@cinet.fcr.es

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From the United Kingdom:

• Royal Society of Arts, London:

  Sue Hewer reports:
  Patricia Moore, eminent gerontologist and designer will be giving a lecture 'Ageing - a Lifespan Challenge'. April 7, 1999. If anyone is going to be in London and they would like a ticket, please contact the RSA Lecture Programme Office at 00 44 (0) 171 930 9286 or E-mail: sue@rsa-design.demon.co.uk. Richard Wilson, an actor most famous for his role in the television programme 'One foot in the Grave', will be chairing the lecture.

RSA Student Design Awards:
The 1998/99 scheme is now well under way and we have received 27 entries in the 'New Design for Old'. This includes entries from 16 centres. Initial judging and shortlisting starts on 9 February 1999 and interview sessions will be held on 8 March 1999. Alan Tye RDI chairs the judging panel and judges include Roger Coleman, Director of Design Age at the Royal College of Art and Dr. Jan Rietsenna, Eindhoven Technical University. More on this in further bulletins but the results will be on show 10 May 1999, at the Oxo Tower Gallery, South Bank, London SE1.

Susan Hewer and Cheryl Kingsland from the RSA, London will be teaching a new gerontechnology module at Arcada Polytechnic in Helsinki in early February. Design for All will be underpinning their module and they will be drawing material from many international sources including the Design for Ageing Network Publications. A further report on this will follow.

• United Kingdom Institute for Inclusive Design (UKIID):

The Institute is now in its third year of operation since it was established at the Architectural Association on 3rd February 1995 (the name change from the British Institute for Design and Disability was reported in the January 1999 issue). The Board has now twelve members and a third of these are disabled people. The membership now is fifty strong and the membership is diverse. Half are people whose business is access and who are disabled people. This gives the organisation a strong base of expertise upon which to draw for its working groups on Education, Ergonomics, Graphics, Housing and Urban Planning, Product Design, Telecomms and Transport.

At the first meeting of the new Board on June 4th Board Members unanimously agreed that it would welcome the presence of ordinary members and observers from outside the organisation at its meetings. It was also agreed that it must hold meetings in different parts of the United Kingdom so that membership and activities would be encouraged there. The next regional meeting is to be in the UK City of Architecture and Design, Glasgow in 1999.

• Inclusive Design - "The taxi as a fashion accessory":
  The bad thing about the UK is the lack of accessible transport and whilst all new public transport produced after 1999 has to be accessible it will be a long time before it is possible to wait at a bus stop and expect to get on the bus if you are a wheelchair user. The good thing is that this lack of accessible public transport has helped force this issues on cabs and all black cabs have to be accessible by 2000. The latest cab, the LTI, by London Taxis International, was recently described as a fashion accessory in a glossy men’s magazine. It is about the best example the UK can muster of inclusive design - design for all. Its manufacture was helped by the fact that the father of the Managing Director is a wheelchair user. It is higher and lower than the old models and has not only access for power chairs but has a swing out seat with strategically placed handles, an integral child seat with is built into the central armrest, an induction loop for communication with the driver, a pull out underfloor ramp, a make-up mirror adjacent the reading light and even a recharging point for mobile phones. The easily graspable door handles light up when the taxi is for hire and the seat edges, grab bars and sills are all highlighted for ease of recognition.

Research is now taking place to translate customer requirements in the LTIs plans for the future evolution of accessible transport. Those people who cannot sit or stand for long and need two seats in a cab should one day be able to drive themselves lying in a recumbent posture - like a racing driver. There was a demand from people with various disabilities to observe the manufacture of the product so the factory in Coventry has also been made accessible for visitors. There is also a spin of as a sister company is now turning its attention to developing a similar approach to housing which in the UK from 1999 has to be accessible. UKIID can be contacted at andrew@cottage.sonnet.co.uk.

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From the United Nations:

• An Online Seminar on Internet information policies, structures and technologies was piloted in December 1998. It is organized by the Disabled Persons Program of the Division of Social Policy and Development of the United Nations Secretariat in New York which is the focal point within the United Nations system on matters relating to disability. It is also the focal point for activities related to global social development, to youth, older persons and the family. The seminar can be found at: http://www.intlmgt.com/internetseminar.html

The online introduction notes: The Internet has become, within five years, a dominant element in international communications. Its technologies change rapidly, new applications are constantly being developed, new opportunities created and new possibilities for global understanding opened up. To be able to keep up with these changes and to take advantage of the opportunities, professionals need to understand the basic technologies, underlying policies and structures and main techniques for accessibility. This understanding will enable participants to adapt to changes over the next few years and to use the Internet more effectively in their work.

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From the USA:

• Center for Universal Design:

"A Call for Universal Design Exemplars" Universal Design Exemplars is a project jointly sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), NEC Foundation of America, and The Center for Universal Design in the School of Design at North Carolina State University.  Universal Design Exemplars is intended to advance the concept of universal design by recognizing designers from around the world who have completed outstanding universal design projects. We invite professionals in Industrial Design, Interior Design, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Communication Systems, and Graphic Design to submit images that show excellent examples of universal design. Up to 50 projects that demonstrate universal design excellence from across the design disciplines will be included in a CD ROM of Universal Design Exemplars.

The full application package is online at: http://www.design.ncsu.edu/cud/center/projects/ud_exemplars.htm
Submissions are due March 1, 1999.

The revised edition of the Universal Design File: Designing for People of All Ages and Abilities has been printed and the Center is accepting orders. It sells for $24.00. Contact the Center at cud@ncsu.edu. The publication is also available online at: http://www.design.ncsu.edu/cud/pubs/ud_file/toc3b14.htm

• State University of New York at Buffalo:

Ed Steinfield, Professor of Architecture reports, "Starting last year, we began to offer a Concentration in Inclusive Design as part of our Master's degree programs in Architecture. This concentration is broader than gerontology and has the flexibility for further specialization based on the resources of the Dept. and the University. Students take lecture courses in Inclusive Design, Architecture and Society, and Ergonomics in Building Design. They take one studio in this area (the last two semesters I have offered a studio on design of Senior Centers) and an internship which could be in the Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access Center (our IDEA center). We identify other related courses at the University in areas of specific interest, e.g. Psychology of Aging (Psychology Dept.) or Adaptive Environments (Occupational Therapy Dept.). All students do their Master's thesis in an area of Inclusive Design as well. The Department has three different master’s programs and the concentration could be elected within each. One program is for holders of a 4-year non-professional degree in architecture. The second is for a student with an undergraduate major in a different field. The third is for holders of a first professional B. Arch. Degree who wish to advance their studies".
Information on the Concentration is available at the School's web site: http://www.ap.buffalo.edu.

Abir Mullick, Professor of Environmental Design reports, "I was in India for four weeks on a personal/professional visit. It was both enjoyable and productive. Besides seeing family and friends, I made four lectures on universal design. India is going through a tremendous social/technological/informational transition. As a result, pre-industrial, industrial and information cultures coexist and with a great deal of harmony and chaos. The public environment is very inhospitable to people with disabilities. There is legislation about disability rights, but the laws related are simply not enforced. Like designers here, there are two types of designers in India: One group is interested in production of things/buildings and the other focused on social issues such as poverty reduction, economic development for craftsmen living in rural areas, raising the level of education among poor people, etc. Most design professionals have little understanding of the social issues surrounding disability. They are unaware and uninformed about the social ideals. Like most European designers, they relate universal design to design for disability or design for aging.

I made presentations on universal design and on universal design research at following places: 1. Indian Institute of technology (IIT) Bombay; 2. National Institute of Design (NID) Ahmedabad; 3. IIT New Delhi; 4. Designers, New Delhi.

IITs are premier technological institutions set up by the Government of India. They are like the MIT in Cambridge. NID is a premier design institution, my alma mater. NID leads design thinking in India. Designers are a group of very successful design professionals. The lectures went very well. People were either excited about universal design or unsure about how it fits within India's changing condition. I  presented universal design as we know it here and asked them to Indianize it to suite their needs. IITs, which have a technological emphasis in their design program, noticed research potentials in universal design. NID, which is guided by social perspectives, valued the inclusive principles of universal design. NID is starting a new program called, Design for the Less Abled (another idea of the same) and asked me to get involved. I have made clear that I will get involved in universal design not in design for disabled. They have promised to look at "less abled" as the lowest common denominator and not the population for whom they will be designing. I think that it will be good to observe the form universal design takes in India.

This is because design in India which came from USA is very different from what we see here or in the western European countries. Design service in India resonates the way industries are set up. Indian industries, based of the production technologies, are set up as large scale, medium scale, small scale and cottage industries. Designers specialize and offer service based on if it is a large scale, medium scale, small scale and cottage industry. While the Principles of Universal Design will readily apply to the designs of large and medium scale industries, it will be interesting to see how universal design gets folded in the works of designers servicing the small scale or cottage industries. I felt like a missionary, when I was talking about universal design to the Indian audience. I think that I converted some to the ideals of universal design, while others left thinking, so what's new? Anyway, that's my Indian experience".

• Adaptive Environments Center has organized a Special Focus Session for the 87th Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Annual Meeting to be held March 20-23, 1999 in Minneapolis. The theme of the conference is: Legacy And Aspirations: Considering the Future of Architectural Education. The session title is: Ethics, Architecture and the Making of Place: Teaching Design with All People in Mind.

Elaine Ostroff, Adaptive Environments is the Moderator and the panelists are: Geraldine Forbes, Architecture, Woodbury College; Stan Jones, Landscape Architecture, U of Oregon; Marvin Malecha, School of Design, North Carolina State University; Bob Shibley, Architecture and Urban Planning, SUNY at Buffalo; Leslie Kanes Weisman, Architecture, New Jersey Institute of Technology; Polly Welch, Architecture, U of Oregon.

The description: Designing for all people, sometimes called universal design or inclusive design, is usually misunderstood by architectural educators and practitioners as a euphemism for the Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility requirements that are identified with the needs of people with disabilities. Not surprisingly, if addressed within the architectural curriculum at all, the subject is frequently and mistakenly limited to the study of code compliance. In some instances it is relegated to one of those technical subjects that can be addressed with other details of practice once students have graduated and are working in the field.

Rarely is it taught as a holistic, ethical approach to design that fits with global sustainability and the other cultural and technological issues within our diverse and democratic society that are currently under discussion by architectural educators and practitioners.

For information on the meeting: http://www.acsa-arch.org/activities/annualmtg.html

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UPDATE ON THE NEXT EDUCATOR’S FORUM:

Several educators from Asia, Europe and the US are forming the planning committee for the 5th Educator’s Forum. We’ll announce the committee in the March Online News. NOW, in the interim, we need your input on the following decision, the date for the meeting. Note your preference for either Weds June 14, during the pre-conference sessions, or Sunday June 18, following the general conference. Sunday June 18 will also be the date for numerous tours in the nearby Rhode Island and Massachusetts area. Please send your comments to Elaine Ostroff at elaine@ostroff.org. I will forward to the committee. You’ll hear directly from them in the March Online News.

The overall dates are: June 14-18, 2000 in Providence, Rhode Island. Conference sponsors are Adaptive Environments, Center for Universal Design and the Universal Design News. By mid February the Call for Proposals will be on the conference website: http://www.adaptenv.org/21century/

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GLOBAL INTERACTIVE E-MAIL, LIST SERVE:

Extension to March 1, 1999 for you to confirm that you want to be on the list. After March 1, people will have to subscribe themselves. We can make an easy subscription/sign-up on the website so that OTHER interested people can join.

NEWS FROM YOUR SCHOOL/ORGANIZATION/COMPANY IS WELCOME!

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.

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Acknowledgments: The Global Universal Design Educator’s Network and the Global Universal Design Educators Online News is produced with support from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, of the US Department of Education.

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

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