Universal Design Grows Up
Alex Mawhinney sends this link along.
Good stuff
Builders are doing an admirable job of incorporating universal design features in new homes, but baby boomers continue to be slow in accepting the need for them.
Perhaps you know the type – people who do not want to accept the fact that they will eventually get old.
“I think universal design features can be likened to the first cell phones,” said John Migliaccio, director of research at MetLife’s Mature Market Institute. “At first, very few people used them. Now they are ubiquitous. In fact, every kid has one. Consumers haven’t really gotten the message on universal design, but we feel they will.”
The slow acceptance is not unlike the responses to environmentally friendly homes. For example, only 12 percent of respondents to a Metlife survey said they would pay more for a “green” home. The same folks are willing to pay an average one-time amount of $6,732 if it would save $1,000 annually in utility costs. While 23 percent of respondents said they are concerned about the environment, it does not drive their decision to buy.
The educational push by builders, architects and designers is to remove the “old” association from universal design, or UD. The universal design approach advocates that all built environments be accessible to people regardless of age, size or physical ability, and the features of these environments be compelling and appear seamless to the design of the home. These amenities and alternations can serve all ages, hence the name “universal design.”
In a recently published book titled “A Long Bright Future”, Laura Carstensen offers a very insightful perspective on universal design. She points out that our society takes age-related disability for granted in that we don’t challenge it.
We are quick to justify taking the car keys away from grandpa because, let’s face it, grandpa’s diminished vision, arthritic neck and hands, sensitivity to glare, etc. make him unable to navigate as well as a young adult. The solution, although undoubtedly difficult and painful, is a reasonable one.
Yet, it does not even occur to us, that maybe it is the car design that needs an intervention. Maybe if the windshield was appropriately tinted, if the steering wheel was adjusted, some extra mirrors were added, grandpa would be able to drive for an additional three to four years – a very long time in terms of maintaining quality of life.
Carstensen points out that women are often overlooked for certain professions such as a firefighter because they are not big enough in size to deal with the large, heavy hoses and other equipment that is often used in these jobs. Yet, she maintains, women and their smaller bodies are not the problem – the equipment is the problem. Imagine that all men on Earth were 5 feet tall and 130 pounds. Surely we would find a way to design firefighting equipment to accommodate smaller people!
The same logic applies to universal design and aging – we have to begin by changing our mental framework and considering that it may be the environment causing disability, not the aging process itself. When we look at this problem from such a bizzaro stance, we begin to see the solutions that will be available to us in the future.