Global Universal Design Educators
Monthly Online News
Produced and distributed monthly by Elaine Ostroff
Volume
3 Number 5,
May 2001
Contents
- Editor’s
Note
- News
from the Global Network
- Global
Universal Design Educator’s Network e-mail list
- Calendar
- Adding
your information, questions to the Online News
EDITOR’S NOTE
This
issue was delayed for family health reasons, my apologies. Watch the nest
issue in the near future.
Here
you’ll see the results of two real world design competitions, one for
students in Canada and one to select designs for two new schools in the US.
You’ll learn about beginning efforts in Singapore to move toward universal
design; the development of a new universal design education project in
Sweden; and continuing work among students and practitioners in the United
Kingdom. You’ll find extensive technical assistance materials available
online from the US Access Board. Details are available for two US
conferences on universal design this fall: one on the east coast and one on
the west coast. If you teach or provide services at a school of design, you
will want to review the questionnaire related to design students with
disabilities. Finally, check out the new entries in the Calendar section.
Information
from the Monthly Online News may be freely copied and quoted as long as the
individual author, and/or web site and this source is cited. Previous issues
of the Online News are available online at the Global Universal Design
Education Network website at:
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NEWS FROM THE GLOBAL NETWORK
CANADA
Design
Exchange, Designing for the Real World Design Competitions
The
Design Exchange, Toronto, Canada announces the results of five nation-wide
design competitions dedicated to universally designed products and
environments.
Winning
designs were exhibited first in Toronto and then at the Inclusion by Design
conference in Montreal. The
exhibition featured the highlights from over 200 submissions in the form of
illustrations, prototypes and computer renderings.
To
develop the competitions, the Design Exchange partnered with four Canadian
companies who understand the value of design: The Mibro Group, Tilley
Endurables, Inc., DuPont Canada and OBUS FORME Ltd. Five competitions were organized to cover the following design
disciplines: architecture, industrial, graphic, interior, urban, landscape,
textile and fashion design.
Over
200 entries were submitted and a two-stage process with five independent
juries selected 34 finalists and asked them to develop their projects
further. Finalists produced prototypes, computer renderings, illustrations,
and additional information in response to the judges’ comments. The five
competition winners and runners-up were then selected. A publication
documents the first prize winners, and is available from the Design Exchange
at http://www.designexchange.org
(note that their website is under re-construction at this time).
The
five sponsored competitions and the first prize winners are:
- CREATE
THE PERFECT BOX, Sponsored by the Mibro Group The MIBRO Group is a
supplier of power tool accessories to most major home improvement
retailers in North America.
“Big Hopper/Small Hopper”
- UNIVERSAL
NOMADS TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE, Sponsored by Tilley Endurables, Inc.
- LIFE
BY DESIGN, Sponsored by DuPont Canada.
DuPont is a world-wide science company, delivering science-based
- ReCOVERING
& DisCOVERING DESIGN, Sponsored by OBUS FORME Ltd.
OBUS FORME Ltd. is a Canadian company with a worldwide reputation as
Nathalie Blanchard - “Cube Obus Forme”, Graduate in Fashion Design, George Brown College, Toronto, ON
- UNIVERSAL
DESIGN SPACE, Sponsored by Design Exchange.
DX is the only design promotion centre of its kind in North America.
Joel Casselman, Chris Daly, Heidi Eastman, Nicole Grossman, Jason Jakubowski, Kristin Koenker, Laney Laurendau - “Ashern Redevelopment” SCHOOL - University of Manitoba and Universal Design Institute.
For further information, please contact: Fanny Tait, Manager of Marketing and Development (416) 216-2145 or <pr@dx.org>
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SINGAPORE
Mass
Rapid Transit System to Become More Universally Designed
Judy
Wee provides a brief update from Singapore. Wee was part of the Developing
Economies Workshop held in conjunction with the Designing for the 21st
Century II conference, June 2000. She says, “ I’ve been very busy the
past months and making progress in the area of
Contact Judy Wee at: weejudy@singnet.com.sg.
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SWEDEN
Universal
Design Education Project (UDEP) Under Development
Jan
Paulsson sends some information about UDEP-Sweden. He explains, “The
project has been an idea for about three years. In the end of last year we
got support for it for one year with promises for another two years. The
project will be launched in a seminar in Stockholm June 12-13. Following is
the background and a small description of the project.”
The
European Network EIDD (European Institute for Design and Disability) was
launched in 1993. In 1996 an EIDD-Sweden organization started in small scale
hanging on the NHR in Stockholm (the Swedish Association of Neurologically
Disabled) for temporary space and office facilities.
EIDD-Sweden
has grown to be a unique platform for architects and designers to meet
disabled people and user organizations in discussions about
accessibility/usability of environments/products and participation in
communitiy activities as well as the development of knowledge and the
creation
of public opinion. Today the EIDD-Sweden includes around 80 individuals and
organizations in the list of membership.
Early,
four working groups were established within the EIDD-Sweden focusing on:
Communication, Education, Environmental Design and Industrial Design. The
discussions in the Education Group engaged teachers/designers from different
universities, design companies and
organizations.
There was a consensus that something had to be done to enhance design
knowledge and skills related to individuals and groups with disabilities in
a wide sense. The most effective way would be through the architecture and
design schools. ‘Universal Design’ was the guiding
concept.
STUD, “Strategies for Teaching Universal Design” (Adaptive Environments
Center 1995), reporting the ‘Universal Design Education Project 1992-94 in
the US, was a source of inspriration.
In
1998 the first outline was written of a programme for a ‘Universal Design
Education Project- Sweden’. Revisions in detail and discussions with
different authorities went on for two years. In December 2000 the Swedish
Government, by the Ministry of Health & Social Affaires,
assigned
economic support from the ‘Allmänna Arvsfonden’. This spring 2001 is
the start up period. The project will be carried out in a three-year period,
the school terms ½, 02/03 and ¾. A final half year autumn 2004 will be
devoted to evaluations and reports.
The
original ‘Education Group’ of the EIDD-Sweden and the specific
‘Initiative Group’ are continuing to be basic parts of the UDEP-Sweden.
The intention is to involve ten university education programmes in Sweden:
- Industrial/Product
Design and Interior Design at HDK-GU (The School of Design and Crafts at Göteborg
University), Konstfack in Stockholm and Design at Umeå University,
- ‘Technical’
Design connected to universities of technology at Chalmers in Göteborg and
at Lund University,
- Garden
Design/Landscape Architecture programmes of SLU (The Swedish University of
Agricultural Sciences) at Alnarp and Ultuna and
- the
Architecture Schools of Chalmers, Lund and Stockholm.
The
UDEP-Sweden. will promote the development of UD issues in the different
education programmes. There will be teacher education opportunities (local
and ‘all-Swedish’), student competitions, different cooperation projects
between the schools and with user organizations and individual resource
persons/experts. Several other innovations are expected in education
methodology
and in architectural and product design. Each school will get some economic
support by a ‘stimulation grant’ and there will be peer reviews and
evaluations. The main point is that UD approaches, perspectives and
competences shall be comprehensive, natural and sustainable in the
Further
information about the UDEP-Sweden project will be worked out on the NHR web
site: http://www.nhr.se. For more
information, contact the Project coordinator: Jan Paulsson. Chalmers Univ.
of Technology Göteborg: <janpaul@arch.chalmers.se>.
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UNITED
KINGDOM
Helen
Hamlyn Research Centre Updates
The
Helen Hamlyn Research Centre has new resources online for international
readers. The following items are excerpted from their website at <http://www.hhrc.rca.ac.uk/>.
COMPETITION
WINNERS TO BE ANNOUNCED
The
winning projects in the Design for our Future Selves competition 2001 will
be announced at 12 noon on 2 July. The competition has attracted 55 entries
from MA students in nine departments of the RCA. All the entries, based on a
socially inclusive approach to design, can be viewed during The Show: Two,
which runs at the College from 29 June to 8 July. Pick up a competition
catalogue from the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre stand, or download a copy
from our publications page.
LIVING
LONGER
The
Design Council launched a major new report entitled ‘Living Longer’ on
14 June. Written by Roger Coleman, Co-director of the Centre, it sets out
why inclusive design holds the key to creating a more age-friendly world,
and provides a framework for how the UK can make this happen. The report is
available from the Design Council.
NEW
JOURNAL
Innovate
is the new research and development journal for small firms in the care and
disability sector, to be published three times a year by the Small Business
Programme. It aims to demonstrate to small businesses how innovative design
can unlock new markets and be a catalyst for growth. The first issue reports
on the DBA Design Challenge 2000. For order details or to download a copy,
see our publications page.
INCLUDE
Organised
by the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre (HHRC) at the Royal College of Art (RCA)
in collaboration with the Contemporary Trends Institute (CTI), Include 2001
was a remarkable gathering of people actively developing the theory and
practice of inclusive universal) design and communications. It is expected
to have a lasting influence on mainstream product and service development
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UNITED
STATES
Access
Board Resources for Play, Movie Captioning, and Acoustics
This
update on the US Access Board features new technical assistance materials on
children’s play guidelines and movie captioning as well as resources on
classroom acoustics. All materials are available online at <http://www.access-board.gov/>.
The next update will highlight the new guidance material on the Section 508
requirements for accessibility for electronic and information technology.
The following has been excerpted from the Access Board website and their
bi-monthly newsletter, Access Currents, Dave Yanchulis, editor.
Play
Guide Online
A
new on-line guide on the Board’s accessibility guidelines for play areas
is now available at: < http://www.access-board.gov/news/playguide.htm>.
This guide is designed to clarify and interpret various requirements of
guidelines, which the Board issued last October under the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA). The guidelines specify the minimum level of
accessibility required in the construction and alteration of play areas
covered by the law. The Board issued these requirements as a supplement to
its existing ADA Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG) which originally did not
provide any provisions specific to play areas.
Since the guidelines are one of the first of their kind in providing
a comprehensive set of criteria for accessible play areas, the Board
developed this guide to help users understand and follow the guidelines.
The guide covers all parts of the play area requirements, including
the number of play components required to be accessible, accessible
surfacing in play areas, ramp and transfer system access to elevated
structures, and access to soft contained play structures.
Guidance
on Movie Captioning
The
Board has issued a technical bulletin on closed captioning technologies for
movie theaters to provide access for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
This bulletin describes several new systems that present movie
captions in a discreet manner that does not interfere with the typical
- “Rear
Window” and “Bounce Back Mirror Image”
systems that reflect captions from a reverse-text display at the back
of the theater onto adjustable reflective panels attached to seats that
individually serve users;
- A
captioning system which projects captions below the movie screen in a manner
which is noticeable only through the use of polarized glasses;
- Personal
captioning glasses equipped with a small monitor for displaying captions;
and
- Caption
displays that are mounted on the backs of seats.
The
Board is making this guidance, which is advisory only, available for use by
the operators and designers of movie theaters and specialty film theaters
who wish to explore captioning solutions.
Captioning presents a means of access for people with significant
hearing loss who may not benefit from other technologies, such as assistive
listening devices. These
devices, which are required by the Board’s ADA Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG)
in certain assembly areas, work by amplifying the volume of an audio system
through a special receiver. However,
they are not sufficient for people who have a severe hearing loss or are
deaf. The bulletin is available
on the
Board’s
website at www.access-board.gov/news/captioning.htm
or can be ordered free by calling the Board at (800) 872-2253 (voice) or
(800) 993-2822 (TTY).
Classroom
Acoustic Standard Advances
Since
1999, the Board has collaborated with the Acoustical Society of America (ASA)
and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) on developing new
standards for classroom acoustics that take into account children who are
hard of hearing. This effort
was inspired by a petition the Board received to develop guidelines in this
area. Instead, the Board
sought
to partner with an existing ASA/ANSI working group, which it helped fund, to
develop appropriate standards. At
the Board’s request, ASA agreed to commit to a 2-year standards
development process and to broaden the working group’s membership to
include representatives of school systems, school designers, disability
organizations, the Department of Education, and
In
January, the working group completed a final draft of proposed standards
which were submitted to the ASA/ANSI
Committee on Noise (S-12) for review and ratification.
It is anticipated that the review and approval process will be
completed by May. Once the
standard has been ratified, the Board will pursue its enforceability. It is
likely that the new standard will be submitted to the International Codes
Council during its fall revision cycle for reference in the new
International Building Code. This course of action is consistent with the
Board’s goal to take a leadership role in the development of codes and
standards for accessibility.
In
addition, the Board is partnering with other groups on the development of a
video on classroom acoustics that will be made available to the public
without charge. The video is
due to be completed this fall. A Fact Sheet on acoustics with a number of
linked resources can be found at <http://www.access-board.gov/publications/acoustic-factsheet.htm>.
For information on the acoustic standards development, contact Lois Thibault,
Director of Research at <thibault@access-board.gov>.
Access
Currents is a free newsletter issued by the Access Board every other month
by mail and e-mail. Send
questions or comments to news@access-board.gov>.
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Access
to Design Professions - Survey of Design Schools
Access
to Design Professions is a project directed by Adaptive Environments, funded
in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and NEC Foundation of
America. Dedicated to the late Ron Mace, FAIA, the long-range goals of the
project include recruitment and retention of students with disabilities in
design programs. By “design
programs” we refer both to physical design, such as architecture,
engineering, industrial design, interior design, urban planning, and
landscape architecture and to information design, such as graphic design
including web design. You can learn more about the project by clicking on
the project home page at <http://www.adaptenv.org/accessdesign/>.
Access
to Design Professions Project is about to begin a pilot mentoring program
and conducting a survey in cooperation with AHEAD (You can learn about AHEAD
at http://www.ahead.org). We need
information from design schools to help provide a baseline about disabled
students currently in design programs, as we begin planning the mentorship
programs. The survey was sent to a selected group of schools, both to staff
in offices that provide services to students with disabilities and to design
faculty with whom we have worked in the past, in hope that they may be a
source of information.
We
invite your participation in this baseline survey. The questionnaire can be
found on the Access to Design
Professions page at http://www/adaptenv.org.
If you have any questions, please contact Daniel Hunter at dghunter22@earthlink.net>.
[ Back to Top ]
Chicago
Public Schools Design Competition Winners
KoningEizenberg
Architecture of Santa Monica, California and Marble • Fairbanks Architects
of New York City were announced as the winning architects in the Chicago
Public Schools’ (CPS) Design Competition at a public ceremony on
Wednesday, April 11, 2001 at the Chicago Cultural Center.
The
KoningEizenberg Architecture firm designed a school for the competition’s
North side site, located in the Irving Park neighborhood at Elston and
Sacramento Avenues. The schools
slated for occupancy of the new school are Inter-American Magnet School and
the Frederick Stock School. “We
imagined a relaxed school environment, supportive of small school philosophy
- a place where teachers, parents, and students could teach and learn most
effectively,” said Julie Eizenberg, President of KoningEizenberg
Architecture. KoningEizenberg Architecture’s design is a single-level
building housing clusters of classrooms, each creating a neighborhood
environment for the students and staff.
A separate early childhood center provides younger students with a
building designed to their own scale. The
design also incorporates an indoor play space as well as an outdoor
discovery area for students to gain a nature experience in a safe
environment.
Marble
• Fairbanks Architects won the competition to build a school at the South
side site, located at 103rd and Princeton in the Roseland
neighborhood. The school will
be built on the site of the current Langston Hughes Elementary School and
will also house students from both Langston Hughes and the Davis
Developmental Center. Marble
• Fairbanks Architects designed a two-story structure utilizing a system
of ramps that allows easy movement throughout the school, fosters the
sharing of programs, and creates easy access to a communal courtyard.
The building is designed to give students access to all programs and
facilities while maintaining a clear distinction between the separate
schools-within-a-school. “The
generative space of each small school acts as a bootstrap for the school to
generate its own identity and link to the larger community,” said Scott
Marble.
The
two-stage competition was both an invited and an open competition.
After selecting four invited architects to participate, the sponsors
announced an open call for designs. First
Stage submissions for the competition were due in January.
The jury, including representatives of the architecture, educational
and Chicago communities, convened the weekend of January 19-21 to select
four designs from among 115 open competition submissions for the north and
south side schools.
The
eight competition finalists, who moved on to Stage Two of the competition,
were asked to complete further design development as well as to engage in
conversations with educational, architecture and civic communities in
Chicago for feedback. The
finalists for the north side site were invited architects KoningEizenberg
Architecture (Santa Monica) and Ross Barney & Jankowski (Chicago) and
open competition architects Lubrano Ciavarra Design (New York) and Jack L.
Gordon Architects (New York). The
finalists for the south side site were invited architects Smith-Miller +
Hawkinson (New York) and Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects (Atlanta) and
open competition architects Marble • Fairbanks Architects (New York) and
GROUND DESIGN Studio (Ann Arbor). Sponsors
were delighted that, through the jurying process, designs from both an
invited architect, KoningEizenberg, and an open finalist, Marble •
Fairbanks, were selected as winners.
The
schools will be accessible for all students without being disability
centered. CPS plans to begin
construction on the two winning designs no later than 2004 as a part of its
Capital Improvement Program. In
addition to featuring universal design, competing architects were asked to
address issues of innovation, feasibility, contextuality and small schools
in their designs. These
criteria guided the Jury’s decisions and framed the community discussions
on the finalists’ designs. The architects on the jury include Ralph
Johnson, of Perkins & Will in Chicago; M. David Lee, of Stull & Lee
in Boston; Brigitte Shim, of Shim-Sutcliffe in Toronto; and Lance Jay Brown,
Chair/Director of the School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and
Urban Design at the City College of the City University of New York.
Community jurors include Dr. William Ayers, of the University of
Illinois at Chicago; and Dr. Giacomo Mancuso, Director of Programming and
Demographics for CPS. In
addition, staff members Dennis Vail of Langston Hughes and Linda Owens of
the Davis Developmental Center participated on the jury for selection of the
south side site winner, while Marissa Hopkins, an Inter-American parent, and
Richard Smith, principal of Stock, sat on the north side site jury.
Funding
for the Competition has been provided by the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation,
the National Endowment for the Arts, the Graham Foundation for Advanced
Studies in the Fine Arts, The Oppenheimer Family Foundation, the Chicago
Association of Realtors Education Foundation, Nuveen Investments, United
Airlines, and the Polk Bros. Foundation. In addition to the Chicago Public
Schools, sponsors of the competition include the Mayor’s Office for People
with Disabilities, Business and Professional People for the Public Interest
and Leadership for Quality Education. For more information about the Chicago
Public Schools Design Competition, visit the competition website at www.schooldesigncomp.org.
[ Back to Top ]
Fashion Institute of Technology Conference: Integrating Differences
Integrating
Differences: Theories and Applications of Universal Design is an
international symposium that will be held at the Fashion Institute of
Technology, October 18-20, 2001 in New York City. It brings together experts
from around the world in the fields of architecture, education, fashion,
interior design, product design, philosophy, and technology to present
topics and share ideas on the range of issues associated with universal
design. The conference program and registration information is now online
at: <http://www.fitnyc.suny.edu/universaldesign/>.
Program
questions: contact Celia Baez, baezceli@fitsuny.edu
or (212)
217-3241 phone, (212) 217-7910 fax.
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Second
Western Conference
on
Universal Design and Home Modifications
BUILDING
FOR TOMORROW, TODAY is the theme of the Second Western Conference
See
program details at: http://www.interwork.sdsu.edu/sdudc
Contact:
sdudc@accessandiego.org
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Global
Universal Design Educator’s Network
e-mail list
The
Trace Research and Development Center is the host of educator’s email
list.
To
subscribe send an email message to <listproc@trace.wisc.edu>,
and include the following in the body of the message: subscribe
UNIVERSALDESIGN-ED yourfirstname yourlastname.
The
purpose of the list is explained more fully at this link:
<http://trace.wisc.edu:8080/guest/info/UNIVERSALDESIGN-ED>
[ Back to Top ]
CALENDAR
July
1-6,2001: International Association of Gerontology: 17th Congress
in Vancouver.
See: <http://www.harbour.sfu.ca/iag/>
August
5-12, 2001: 1st International Conference on “Universal Access
in Human-
August
12-14, 2001: Industrial Design Society of America, National Education
Conference, Mass College of Art, Boston, MA. See <http://www.idsa.org/>
or contact <idsa@idsa.org>.
August
15-18, 2001: Designing Your Life, Industrial Design Society of America,
National Conference and Gallery, Park Plaza Hotel, other locations, Boston,
MA.
August
23-24, 2001: Accessible Practices Workshop: Exhibitions
Carnegie
Science Center, Pittsburgh. Contact: Jessica Stricker, 412/237-1806, e-mail
<strickerj@csc.clpgh.org>;
web site:
September
12-14, 2001: International Conference on Technology and Aging in
September
14, 2001: Accessible Practices Workshop: Facilities/Visitor Services St.
Louis Science Center, St. Louis. Contact: Elana Yellen, 314/289-4426; e-mail
September
14-15, 2001: Audio Description International (ADI) Conference at The John F.
Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts in Washington DC. Contact Joel Snyder
-- 202 682-5591 (day), (301) 270-0288 (evening) or via e-mail at jsnyder@artswire.org
or the Kennedy Center Accessibility Program --(202) 416-8727 (voice), (202)
416-8728 (TTY) or access@kennedy-center.org
September
24-28, 2001: Retrofitting for Accessibility, Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
October
19-20, 2001: Integrating Differences: Theories and Applications
November 1-2, 2001: Building for Tomorrow Today - Second Western Conference on Universal Design and Home Modifications, Braille Institute, San Diego. See http://www.interwork.sdsu.edu/sdudc/or contact 619 293 3500 ext. 383 (v) or 619 293 7757 (tty).
[ Back to Top ]
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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