tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58950850514369079202024-03-05T11:27:08.097-05:00The Right to DesignA blog about universal and accessible designBesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691600265011800746noreply@blogger.comBlogger64125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5895085051436907920.post-79190277464592433422012-06-28T14:19:00.002-04:002012-06-28T14:24:31.828-04:00The People's Sidewalks: Curb Cuts in Berkeley, CA<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.boomcalifornia.com/2012/06/the-peoples-sidewalks/">Here</a> is a short article I wrote for the (newish) magazine BOOM: A Journal of California on the curb cuts built along Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, CA in the 1970s. Berkeley was not the first place to have curb cuts for wheelchairs - there are documented cuts in Kalamazoo, MI, and probably the first generally accessible city was Champaign, IL, near the University of Illinois. But as far as I can tell, Berkeley was the first place to have a planned "Wheelchair Route" - a contiguous set of cuts that carved out wheelchair access in a pedestrian district (shopping area near UC Berkeley) and then through a set of well-traveled routes (Telegraph from UC Berkeley to Ashby Ave; Downtown Berkeley along Shattuck Ave). These were planned by an Urban Planning student at UC Berkeley in collaboration with activists/staff at the Center for Independent Living.Besshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691600265011800746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5895085051436907920.post-86600580824694956032011-09-08T11:48:00.002-04:002011-09-08T12:34:45.538-04:00Disability History collection at Brandeisvia <a href="http://www.planet-of-the-blind.com/2011/09/theres-a-good-press-release-from-brandeis-university-highlighting-their-special-collection-of-materials-devoted-to-the-histor.html">Stephen Kuusisto</a>:<br /><br />Brandeis University has a <a href="http://brandeisspecialcollections.blogspot.com/2011/08/howe-library-collection.html">current spotlight on their disability collections</a>:<br /><blockquote><p></p>Brandeis University’s Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections Department houses a wide array of material from the Walter E. Fernald Developmental Center’s Samuel Gridley Howe Library. This collection includes several hundred books from scholars and experts in the fields of science, medicine, and disabilities; the papers of Irving Kenneth Zola and of Rosemary and Gunnar Dybwad; and thousands of pamphlets, case studies, and journals on topics ranging from what were then called feeble-mindedness and cretinism to eugenics and crime.<br /><br />The material, which dates from the 1810s to the 1950s and is related primarily to North America and the United Kingdom, was compiled by the Howe Library from the school superintendent’s library as well as international libraries. It includes works from world-renowned doctors such as psychologists Alfred Binet and Edgar A. Doll, polymaths Francis Galton and his protégé Karl Pearson, Walter E. Fernald, Dorothea Dix (who championed for the rights of the indigent insane), Ellis Island medical officer Howard Knox, and eugenicists Charles B. Davenport and Henry H. Goddard, among hundreds of others. The Samuel G. Howe Library Collection’s academic scope is vast and will be of interest to historians of science and medicine, anthropologists, sociologists, and people with disabilities and their families.</blockquote><blockquote></blockquote>What follows is a lengthy article that details the evolution of the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feebleminded Youth (later called the Walter E. Fernald State School), reflecting changing social and medical attitudes about mental illness and intellectual disability. Looks like an impressive collection.<br /><br />See also: <a href="http://righttodesign.blogspot.com/2010/12/online-disability-history.html">Online Disability History</a><br /><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">_uacct = "UA-4648623-1";urchinTracker();</script>Besshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691600265011800746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5895085051436907920.post-24463805237716288742011-05-09T16:53:00.004-04:002011-05-09T17:19:27.673-04:00Smithsonian Podcast on Universal DesignI'm excited to say that the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center interviewed me recently about my work on universal design. The podcast followed up on a special symposium on "Food for Tomorrow" in which I presented some of my research about how new awareness of the needs of people with disabilities has changed design of kitchens and kitchen tools, including such examples as the Cuisinart food processor and (of course) OXO GoodGrips.<br /><br />There is a great <a href="http://blog.americanhistory.si.edu/osaycanyousee/2011/05/podcast-whats-universal-about-universal-design.html">blog post</a> by National Museum of American History curator Katherine Ott to accompany the podcast. Here is an excerpt explaining the origins of the term "universal design":<br /><br /><blockquote>Universal design rejects traditional "separate but equal" facilities for people with disabilities. The original principles of universal design grew out of a 1974-77 Department of Education grant to architect Ron Mace that involved extensive product and architectural analysis. That lead to a working group to develop core principles for universally-designed facilities, which would provide for equitable and flexible use; be simple and intuitive; present perceptible and sensory information; tolerate error; entail minimal physical effort; and be of an accessible size and orientation. Mace used a wheelchair as a result of contracting polio when he was a boy. His early engineering and design talent resulted in numerous gadgets and adaptations and eventually a career in dismantling architectural barriers.</blockquote><br />Listen to the podcast <a href="http://invention.smithsonian.org/video/">here</a>. Thanks to the Lemelson Center for interviewing me and asking such great (easy ) questions.<br /><br />In addition to discussing mass-market products like the Cuisinart and OXO, I also mention how people with disabilities themselves altered kitchens and other parts of their houses to make pre-existing spaces work for them. Here are some images from <span style="font-style: italic;">The </span><span style="font-style: italic;">Toomey J Gazette</span>, the magazine "by and for respiratory polios" that ran from 1958-1969 (and then became the <span style="font-style: italic;">Rehabilitation Gazette</span>). The images show (1) a kitchen sink with the cabinet below cut out to make space for a wheelchair, and a decorative curtain added to maintain a tidy look; and (2) a variety of storage approaches for pots and pans and pantry items, such as lazy susans, pegboards, and wall-mounted racks - all of which were common sights in 1950s/60s households, but here were selected for their particular advantages to people with disabilities. Images are from "Homemaking," <span style="font-style: italic;">The Toomey J Gazette,</span> 1968.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRK2UGYAe7IYU6grqSM0NJassrKXkK_PWWS8wp-_RPa1c18SvdidfeGUrRVx26OEcGfiMQgkQq7FbHsNmY7w89ZK7EhHCLVrRhjPTNdDV9H9T61R8qTwhG3SwuTgPw82hvsm64X6k1ESLD/s1600/washing+dishes.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 244px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRK2UGYAe7IYU6grqSM0NJassrKXkK_PWWS8wp-_RPa1c18SvdidfeGUrRVx26OEcGfiMQgkQq7FbHsNmY7w89ZK7EhHCLVrRhjPTNdDV9H9T61R8qTwhG3SwuTgPw82hvsm64X6k1ESLD/s400/washing+dishes.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604825067454739074" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOg0yZtrnlbna54nZnVam38Gz8rit7GkueeNOPnk83rpA7YIvvINqlwus64d-qNV1JyfBymQI1zj5p9ewvyBSq1F7V6oXhvHwwiO_VISfFsBSCTmlU80qnLJq9dcVX7OTRYAj6m2teHpkz/s1600/homemaking+pots.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 203px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOg0yZtrnlbna54nZnVam38Gz8rit7GkueeNOPnk83rpA7YIvvINqlwus64d-qNV1JyfBymQI1zj5p9ewvyBSq1F7V6oXhvHwwiO_VISfFsBSCTmlU80qnLJq9dcVX7OTRYAj6m2teHpkz/s400/homemaking+pots.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604825072144970402" border="0" /></a><br /><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">_uacct = "UA-4648623-1";urchinTracker();</script>Besshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691600265011800746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5895085051436907920.post-31222888826024256582011-03-24T15:24:00.004-04:002011-03-24T15:39:39.604-04:00Ed Roberts campus opens in Berkeley<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://static.worldarchitecturenews.com/project/uploaded_files/16188_ed5.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 385px; height: 546px;" src="http://static.worldarchitecturenews.com/project/uploaded_files/16188_ed5.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>East Bay folks, take note - the new Ed Roberts campus, a community service center located at the Ashby Ave BART station in south Berkeley, <a href="http://edrobertscampus.org/index.php">is opening April 9</a>. I am a bit fuzzy on the details, but I believe this gorgeous, universally-designed building with a large central spiraling ramp (reminiscent of the Guggenheim) will house several of the major disability organizations in Berkeley (but correct me if that is wrong). This image of the center (which I believe is a computer projection) is from <a href="http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=16188">worldarchitecturenews.com</a>.<br /><br />The campus is named for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Roberts_%28activist%29">Ed Roberts</a>, dubbed by some "the father of the disability rights movement," a MacArthur genius award-winning activist who lived in Berkeley for most of his adult life, starting in 1962 when he became the first student with physical disabilities to live on campus at UC Berkeley. Roberts was also a founder of the Center for Independent Living and the World Institute on Disability. Here's a picture of him and Herb Willsmore, a fellow student at Berkeley, at the University's stadium, from the <a href="http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt2c60199h">Disabled Students Program Photograph Collection</a> at UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMZnAUceRc1aOQY8otuSJzW1CY8NuWH0u0cwBe8R-HMQg2Z4nbaKlqNTKwdCE81snXLKgpFs__ikjWyPHlb-BB_Z5-sP4ERhIBbNWMhGnBzfVEzfxYLC8NVBpqsZIKLky2zhJyLKKPxMoM/s1600/roberts+willsmore+Berk+stadium.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 358px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMZnAUceRc1aOQY8otuSJzW1CY8NuWH0u0cwBe8R-HMQg2Z4nbaKlqNTKwdCE81snXLKgpFs__ikjWyPHlb-BB_Z5-sP4ERhIBbNWMhGnBzfVEzfxYLC8NVBpqsZIKLky2zhJyLKKPxMoM/s400/roberts+willsmore+Berk+stadium.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5587733101634035394" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">_uacct = "UA-4648623-1";urchinTracker();</script>Besshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691600265011800746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5895085051436907920.post-8332070707770336102011-02-23T09:47:00.015-05:002011-02-23T10:50:28.830-05:00The Best Arms? Prosthetic limb improvements - or not<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxwth92y70Hd_iYEPEwAGokulHAcpvIMTyX8wP_wWElrdpeGOZU9lYIXLeQpyvTR5GY6ht_xXA2vcZm3dcn1DA_x3W-FAbgnI3u8Da8Jzu0SdBQBTL6xNLCOIfY63APom0riAXYf4WhvQc/s1600/3304269005_b23429aff3.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 336px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxwth92y70Hd_iYEPEwAGokulHAcpvIMTyX8wP_wWElrdpeGOZU9lYIXLeQpyvTR5GY6ht_xXA2vcZm3dcn1DA_x3W-FAbgnI3u8Da8Jzu0SdBQBTL6xNLCOIfY63APom0riAXYf4WhvQc/s400/3304269005_b23429aff3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5576911042304226770" border="0" /></a><br />In the image above, veterans from a post-World War I workshop at Walter Reade Army Medical Center demonstrate new attachments for their prosthetic limbs - such as a welding tool. Though these tools did not catch on as much in the US as in Germany (according to research by Heather Perry published in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Parts-Practical-Lives-Prosthetics/dp/0814761984/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298476192&sr=8-1">this book</a>), the idea of a worker restored to function through such a tool was of interest to American medical and military authorities too. Image via the amazing National Museum of Medicine <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/medicalmuseum/">flickr set</a>.<br /><br />In another image, below, from the Science Service photograph collection at the <a href="http://americanhistory.si.edu/">National Museum of American History</a>, a veteran of World War II demonstrates his new prosthetic arm to a group of ladies visiting a Washington exhibition in 1948. The exhibition showcased the results of a multi-million dollar (a lot back then!) project to improve the design of artificial limbs, including (in the foreground) using new plastics and hydraulic joints. (note: portions of the <a href="http://scienceservice.si.edu/">Science Service collection</a> are online, but not those related to disability/medicine).<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2SkmRz0LdiXSYJHXHa5Sos9eqME71SsxvHRiSyrQOvQq9vYlwi7FeoFrb6KrDi3mhODyKOg0plYSKfGLOu0S1omPU8GNc6cClv6c0y7ngO7Q7Us3cFapQWM_XvbypmlgHyCs7LknNBZFs/s1600/artificial+limbs+exhibit+smaller.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 325px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2SkmRz0LdiXSYJHXHa5Sos9eqME71SsxvHRiSyrQOvQq9vYlwi7FeoFrb6KrDi3mhODyKOg0plYSKfGLOu0S1omPU8GNc6cClv6c0y7ngO7Q7Us3cFapQWM_XvbypmlgHyCs7LknNBZFs/s400/artificial+limbs+exhibit+smaller.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5576910695835939714" border="0" /></a><br />I thought of these images after reading<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/feb/21/tv-presenter-cerrie-burnell"> this story</a> on the Guardian on British TV Presenter Cerrie Burnell. Burnell, who was born without the lower part of her right arm, chooses not to wear a prosthetic limb. Since childhood, she resisted wearing "this heavy, uncomfortable, ugly, pointless . . . thing," finding a prosthesis more cumbersome than useful.<br /><br />Burnell is not alone. Despite the improvements made after WWII, in a 1950 study rehabilitation doctors reported that as few as 12% of single-arm amputees wore prosthetic limbs - and of those, only half wore them for daily work and hobbies! The rest simply found it easier to operate using one hand. Limbs have improved (though not as much as you might think!) but I have heard anecdotally that the number is still only about 50%. Sometimes there really is no design solution for everyone - no product/technology at all might be the best.<br /><br />The point that Burnell raises - that people would rather see an obvious prosthetic limb than the stump of her arm - brings up interesting issues about the kinds of disability prejudice or discomfort that exist our modern visual/technological society. Is it that people are more comfortable with plastic and metal - even though they clearly indicate a lost limb - than the actual flesh of an impaired body? Or that they want to see that the person is at least trying to repair/replace their disability - to make themselves more "normal"? Does the strangeness of a prosthetic limb somehow trump the taboos around physical difference or disability?<br /><br />Given its frequent appearance in both sci-fi and cultural studies, there is clearly some fascination in our modern society with this technology that can extend or replace human function - or even, as in the case of recent carbon-fiber sprinting legs (note: legs, not arms), surpass it. After wars, the press scurries to investigate the state of prosthetic limbs, and the government funds massive new projects to improve them. As the images above show, the ideas of what constitutes an "improved" arm change over time - sometimes focusing on utility for particular jobs, sometimes pushing to include whiz-bang new technologies and materials. Despite all of this attention, however, sometimes the fascination about prosthetic limbs has little to do with the material reality that an individual person with an amputation or missing limb has to use this object, and they may just choose to go without.<br /><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">_uacct = "UA-4648623-1";urchinTracker();</script>Besshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691600265011800746noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5895085051436907920.post-10603088001023046842011-02-15T10:33:00.004-05:002011-02-15T10:48:59.301-05:003 quick links to 3 smart things1. Steven Kuusisto on the "<a href="http://www.planet-of-the-blind.com/2011/02/disability-in-the-post-physical-world.html">post-physical</a>" fantasy of many technophiles -<br /><blockquote>We are, it seems, living in the age of the promissory “improved” body—yet that body is still stuck between the territories of production (politics), reproduction (material expense) and imagination (compulsory normativity).</blockquote>Kuusisto writes that this ideal of a mechanized world that alleviates or "eliminates" disability is not a neutral product of technological innovation - it is the result of particular processes of imagination, wrapped in political concerns (i.e. who plans, who pays, who decides who and what gets to be post-physical?). In other words,<br /><blockquote>[the post-physical ideal] evokes <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E4D91039F937A15750C0A9649C8B63&pagewanted=all">Bill Clinton’s remark</a>: “If you see a turtle on a fence post you can bet he didn’t get there by accident.” </blockquote>2. Wheelchair Dancer on <a href="http://cripwheels.blogspot.com/2011/02/living-on-island.html">emergency plans</a> - personal and administrative - for people with disabilities.<br /><blockquote>Katrina seems to have been a turning point in disaster planning for people with disabilities... Since then, I have seen numerous conference announcements, notices for research reports and lists of paper abstracts talking about disaster planning for people with disabilities. (An unfortunate side effect of all this good work is the now popular phrase "vulnerable populations.")</blockquote>(note: this is an issue that also came to mind for me at the time of the <a href="http://righttodesign.blogspot.com/2009/01/inaugural-inaccessibility.html">inauguration</a>, when officials suggested people with disabilities stay at home)<br /><br />3. An <a href="http://www.smartplanet.com/people/blog/pure-genius/early-oxo-designer-why-our-design-still-excludes-many/5533/">interview with Pattie Moore</a>, an industrial design consultant whose 1979 experiment of disguising herself as an elderly woman brought light to accessible design issues (via <a href="http://www.core77.com/blog/education/interview_with_pattie_moore_proponent_of_universal_design_18559.asp">Core77</a>).<br /><blockquote>In the 70s, we were told we design for a Caucasian, 40 years old, living on Long Island, with 2.3 kids. We didn’t even really design for women. And if you brought up the idea of designing for people with arthritis, for example, they would say, “We don’t design for those people!”</blockquote>Also related: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/business/06aging.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2&sq=MIT%20agelab&st=cse&scp=1">giant NY Times magazine article</a> about the aging "market."<br /><br /><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">_uacct = "UA-4648623-1";urchinTracker();</script>Besshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691600265011800746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5895085051436907920.post-11393295905077313112011-02-01T16:58:00.002-05:002011-02-01T17:11:16.654-05:00BricolageI was just (re)reading Bernard Herman's material culture essay "The Bricoleur Revisited," from Ritchie Garrison and Ann Smart Martin's <span style="font-style: italic;">American Material Culture: The Shape of the Field </span>(1997) - the bricoleur, Herman writes, is a "putterer with a message" - basically us, scholars and lovers of stuff, picking through the detritus of history for little messages and meanings.<br /><br />I thought of that figure of the bricoleur in this world of not just objects, but bodies. Disability studies helps us think of not all bodies as the same, and I kind of waffle about whether I consider that to be a material culture statement or not. (bodies are not objects, but they are part of the material world. I am not crazy about a lot of scholarship on "the body" however, because it tends to be singular).<br /><br />Something I read today made me think of it again.. Steven Kuusisto (fantastic poet, blogger, joker, and activist, who is blind) writes about becoming an honorary member of the "Wretches and Jabbers," a group of non-speaking writers (apparently there is a new documentary out about the group), and visiting them for a meeting. He describes sitting among them, everyone typing out words on talking computers, jumping and lurching as they needed to or wanted to:<br /><blockquote><br />Suddenly I was in "a happening"--a cognitive, inter-active jam session with four men and one woman, each with an electronic keyboard. Stories emerged about loneliness and about being misunderstood. (People with Autism can tell you things about childhood that will curl your hair.) But there were also many joys for this was a kind of autistic rock and roll session. (from <a href="http://www.planet-of-the-blind.com/2011/02/from-the-journal-of-an-honorary-wretch.html">Planet of the Blind</a>)<br /></blockquote>The bricoleur looks into a box of things - stones, shells, an earring, a shard of a ceramic pot - and constructs stories. I liked thinking of how that applies to modern life, our funny tools and sounds and the stories and connections they help us make. I don't want to say bodies are objects but they are part of the picture.<br /><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">_uacct = "UA-4648623-1";urchinTracker();</script>Besshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691600265011800746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5895085051436907920.post-8421986888621946412011-01-31T19:39:00.012-05:002011-02-17T10:47:38.285-05:00Worlds with and without stairs II<iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2lXh2n0aPyw" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" width="640"></iframe><br /><br />Above is a video that has been circulating in my facebook feed and various blogs, showing an experiment to see if altering the experience of walking up stairs would change people's likelihood of taking the stairs rather than the escalator. It's pretty cute and simple, and it's nice to see people having a fun time in the mundane setting of a subway station. This is not a strictly "accessible" form of design, though it does play off of choice between ways of moving through a place, which does have to do with physical access. And it makes me wonder - how much do designers think about stairs? Are they inviting, discouraging, or just plain functional? In a world when we often have the choice of elevator, escalator, stairs or ramps, could designers make these experiences more distinct?<br /><br /><br />When I first started this blog, I posted about the idea of a "<a href="http://righttodesign.blogspot.com/2008/06/world-without-stairs.html">world without stairs</a>" - wondering whether an accessible world could actually mean the disappearance of such a standard architectural feature as the stairs.<br /><br />I've learned a few things since then... one is, of course, that stairs are just one kind of physical barrier, for one kind of access issue. In fact, many people with disabilities prefer stairs to ramps - for example, if they use a prosthetic leg or a cane, that straight platform can be easier to use. The first ever Architectural Standard in the U.S. included not only measurements for ramps, but design guidelines for stair heights and angles that would not interfere with those who needed to drag their feet up the front of stairs:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqd1AqFBcB5A4QahyphenhyphenEogUMcfi5FcpbB2gwdcdbUYfd2quhgf1mvdJpJYkdpgsdFiU3H46VR2KkdN-PQ9yBBSy83O4J5Nv5YvezCjoJlZfyaM4sipNn9GRpz1YrZAHnOKjsCbd73iPrwjOA/s1600/steps.png"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 257px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqd1AqFBcB5A4QahyphenhyphenEogUMcfi5FcpbB2gwdcdbUYfd2quhgf1mvdJpJYkdpgsdFiU3H46VR2KkdN-PQ9yBBSy83O4J5Nv5YvezCjoJlZfyaM4sipNn9GRpz1YrZAHnOKjsCbd73iPrwjOA/s400/steps.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568515769714718562" border="0" /></a><br />(image: figure showing unacceptable and acceptable stair designs, from the 1961 American National Standards Institute's <span style="font-style: italic;">Specifications for Making Buildings and Facilities Accessible to, and Usable by, the Physically Handicapped</span>, which became the guidelines for state and federal accessibility laws in the 1960s and 70s).<br /><br />In my earlier post on stairs, I noted some architectural examples (such as the Guggenheim) that used alternatives to stepped surfaces as a design feature. These were not spaces explicitly designed for wheelchair use (in fact some of them might belong in the Facebook "<a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wheelchair-ramps-and-access-from-hell/136330343072965?v=info">Wheelchair Ramps and Access from Hell</a>" photo collection), but might suggest ways of making access an explicit part of design, rather than an afterthought.<br /><br />I was also thinking about ways that stairs themselves can be accessible or inaccessible. For those who walk up and down stairs, they can have a pronounced effect on how we experience a place. Think of the difference between ascending a grand staircase, feeling that you are rising up to an important and elegant place - perhaps like the Metropolitan Opera's lush red stairways - and scrambling up the narrow spiral stairs of a cathedral bell tower or a lighthouse.<br /><br />In some cases architects consciously use stairways to dramatize walking through the space - in other cases, I wonder what thought went into a stair design.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvXoegzYE359Cxu7aZDCYFv26NRjRps2kmEqTFYMCssrkEJnQ2xhnzwTvW7LH9jaUGuPxyjZ4EySrxWG09puETu2jHMk87Ear6Aik1UTZmO0BQEBaeLNQ_OZAeQ0Nk4pm-Uyc-q85M-I9F/s1600/IMG_0288.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 175px; height: 234px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvXoegzYE359Cxu7aZDCYFv26NRjRps2kmEqTFYMCssrkEJnQ2xhnzwTvW7LH9jaUGuPxyjZ4EySrxWG09puETu2jHMk87Ear6Aik1UTZmO0BQEBaeLNQ_OZAeQ0Nk4pm-Uyc-q85M-I9F/s400/IMG_0288.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568576693582482866" border="0" /></a><br />At the Frank Furness-designed Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, the central stair to the galleries has no handrail. The effect is subtle, but nonetheless jarring - your hand might reach out for something to hold, but instead you feel a bit out of sorts, pitched downward with no assurance. In the context of this historic building, we get a sense of a different time and a different set of expectations about bodily composure walking down the stairs. (Image shows a woman from the back, descending a set of stone stairs without a handrail in sight).<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggAcMNIIMX6akOkgguCUJTqUgWvewLdWJKisgOV7HIPbq9m0aIU5Z-DKzYsJ9ieDXnTmisMLVWvBiLV_fUZ1dFV5Wa0aYMPT5XS9WOhiocoXqYTnymJXtbWam9U7P3f3fVGMl3az8ecaWE/s1600/IMG_0953.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggAcMNIIMX6akOkgguCUJTqUgWvewLdWJKisgOV7HIPbq9m0aIU5Z-DKzYsJ9ieDXnTmisMLVWvBiLV_fUZ1dFV5Wa0aYMPT5XS9WOhiocoXqYTnymJXtbWam9U7P3f3fVGMl3az8ecaWE/s400/IMG_0953.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568579055439770354" border="0" /></a> In 2011, the museum has been designed to provide an alternate route to the stairs, but in its original design, Furness certainly made a distinct statement for those coming and going into this temple for art.<br /><br />On a recent trip I discovered another set of museum steps that literally stopped me in my tracks. The newish Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati is the only American building by Zaha Hadid, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect best known for prototype or drawn work, so I was excited to visit while I was in town for a wedding. The sleek lines and geometry of the museum building are appealing, but the stairs immediately stood out to me - and not in a particularly good way. Criss-crossing the void in the main entry lobby, these stairs have a much shorter rise, and longer step, than we expect in standard staircases. They are so awkward to walk up that I almost wondered if this was an installation of the museum collection itself. As a long-ish strider I was constantly tripping up these stairs, and almost fell on the way up. I asked the guards if they had gotten used to them over time, and they chuckled, no, and confirmed that I was far from the only visitor to ask about the stair heights.<br /><br />It's interesting to me to wonder how Hadid came to these stairs. Did she deliberately design something that would halt your walk, maybe prepare you to pay attention as you see the artworks? Is this an explicit message that we should not relax too much or feel too comfortable in a museum? Or are the stairs, like many functional elements of contemporary architecture, just the product of some low-level drafts-person who designs based on general instructions of the architect? In any case, I wondered if Hadid had ever walked up these stairs. They are certainly dramatic, but the ultimate result for me was to feel frustrated and a bit indignant - how dare this architect tell me how to walk! And of course, I thought of how these steps would feel for someone with a physical impairment - for whom that break in routine might be more than an annoyance.<br /><br />Leaving the CCA, I decided to take the elevator down. In a world with stairs, we might choose to avoid them too.Besshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691600265011800746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5895085051436907920.post-68839037933549949422010-12-13T10:19:00.006-05:002010-12-13T12:01:03.844-05:00online disability history<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.ryerson.ca/ofu/exhibits/images/ex_dressing_thmb_image2.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 274px; height: 274px;" src="http://www.ryerson.ca/ofu/exhibits/images/ex_dressing_thmb_image2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><blockquote>Image: Grey Sweatsuit, hanging in exhibition case with shelves of folded, identical suits next to it. From "<a href="http://www.ryerson.ca/ofu/index.html">Out from Under: Disability, History and Things to Remember</a>," at Ryerson University.<br /><br />From the quote accompanying this piece in the exhibition:<br /><br /><i>[T]he memory that has stayed with me so powerfully is that of the singlemost prevalent institutional “outfit”—the ill-fitting, nondescript, grey sweat suit. In choosing this “object” I was struck by how the sweat suit—devoid of any labels, markers or designer logos— represented the monotony and routines of institutional life. </i></blockquote><br /><br />Preparing a talk on the history of assistive technology and innovation recently, I drew on some great online resources for some of my older images and stories. It made me realize I had some across some of these sites entirely by accident, via links to links to links.. and maybe it would be helpful to compile a couple of them here.<br /><br />I would love more links, suggestions, etc in the comments!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >Top 5 Disability History Websites</span><br />Note: all of the sites below include image captions and are (I believe) screen reader accessible.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">National Museum of American History</span>: <a href="http://americanhistory.si.edu/disabilityrights/">Disability Rights</a> and <a href="http://americanhistory.si.edu/polio/index.htm">Polio</a> exhibitions. These sites provide ongoing access to two wonderful exhibitions curated by Katherine Ott at NMAH. I also recommend the volume Ott edited (along with David Serlin and Stephen Mihm), <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Parts-Practical-Lives-Prosthetics/dp/0814761984/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1292259477&sr=8-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">Artificial Parts, Practical Lives: Modern Histories of Prosthetics</span></a> as one of the best (only?) history books on technology and disability.<br /><a href="http://www.disabilitymuseum.org/lib/"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Disability History Museum</span></a>: an ongoing, ever growing online database of images and text related to a long history of disability (mainly US oriented). Strengths in ephemera (photos, clippings, brochures) on everyday life. Use the sidebar to search by keywords, time periods, etc.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bancroft Library (UC Berkeley) </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/collections/drilm/">Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement Collection</a>: Excellent, cross-reference-able source for primary source documents, (some) photographs, and an unbelievable oral history collection related to the Disability Rights Movement (mainly American and Californian). Easiest to get to are names and organizations, many of which have short audio/text clips from oral histories. To go deeper, the full texts of the oral histories are also available - providing hours (or months/years) of reading material. A highlight for Disability History scholars: the late <a href="http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/collections/drilm/collection/items/longmore.html">Paul Longmore's oral history</a> - providing a very rich, deep discussion of his and others' origins in disability studies scholarship.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ryerson University's </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.ryerson.ca/ofu/index.html">Out from Under: Disability, History and Things to Remember</a>: This is really more of an experiential site than one with hard facts and famous names - looking at specific objects and short texts that evoke Canadian disability history (such as the sweat suit above). Great images and everyday object interpretations - particularly covering the history of institutionalization and intellectual disability.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Missouri History Museum's </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.actionforaccess.mohistory.org/index.php">Action for Access: Changing Perceptions of Disability in American Life</a>: a friend recently pointed me to this site, a multimedia presentation on current and recent past perspectives on disability. The "disability rights movement" tab includes a recap of disability history in the US in general, with a special focus on Missouri. A great example of how deeply local disability history is. Includes historical images, videos of people with disabilities telling their personal stories, and reference links.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Honorable Mention</span></span><br />these sources are more limited in focus - but still good sites to hit for disability history.<br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.museumofdisability.org/">Museum of disAbility</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>- a virtual museum with artifacts and documents on disability history. I find their interface a little overwhelming, but there are good materials to be found (similar scope/content to the Disability History Museum, above).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Disability History Timelines</span> - someday I would love to see (or make) a compilation of all the disability history timelines I have seen. In the meantime, here are two:<br /><a href="http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/collections/drilm/resources/timeline.html">Timeline</a> from the <span style="font-style: italic;">ABC-CLIO Companion to the Disability Rights Movement</span> by Fred Pelka<br /><a href="http://www.disabilityhistory.org/timeline_new.html">Timeline</a> from the Disability Social History Project<br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://warrenshawhistorian.com/uploads/disability_snippet_mixdown_edited__L2__dithered.mp3.mp3">The New York City Origins of the Disability Rights Movement</a> (link goes to audio mp3 - for the main site click <a href="http://warrenshawhistorian.com/Home_Page.html">here</a>; no transcript online) - a talk from Warren Shaw, historian of New York City whose father, Julius Shaw, was an early disability rights activist. Very interesting story that has not really been told in standard disability history books/timelines.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Temple University's </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://disstud.blogspot.com/">Disability Studies Blog</a> - posts and links about disability studies and disability history<br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.h-net.org/%7Edisabil/">H-Disability</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>- email listserv for disability history discussion/posts<br /><br /><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">_uacct = "UA-4648623-1";urchinTracker();</script>Besshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691600265011800746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5895085051436907920.post-64914342214630554072010-10-11T21:31:00.006-04:002010-10-11T21:47:54.299-04:00ooh / ah.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://cdn-ugc.cafemom.com/gen/resize/262/410/85/2010/10/06/15/5z/wv/poj9lya9c81azzo.jpg?imageId=19852780"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 262px; height: 410px;" src="http://cdn-ugc.cafemom.com/gen/resize/262/410/85/2010/10/06/15/5z/wv/poj9lya9c81azzo.jpg?imageId=19852780" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />- ooh! Tennis champ Esther Vergeer poses nude, embracing her tennis racquet, in her wheelchair on the cover of ESPN magazine. Commentary <a href="http://thestir.cafemom.com/healthy_living/110597/esther_vergeer_poses_naked_in">here</a>:<br /><p style="font-style: italic;">While we're hard-pressed to celebrate the reveal of a bunch of hard-bodied women like it's a major coup for femininity,<span class="standardtextnolink"> a spokesperson for the magazine said: "<em>ESPN The Magazine</em>'s Body Issue is a celebration and exploration of the athletic form, honoring athletes of diverse shapes, sizes, colors, genders, and race."</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">...</span><br /></p><span style="font-style: italic;" class="standardtextnolink"><br />the paraplegic has made kicking ass her business since childhood. She recently won her <a href="http://tennis.fanhouse.com/2010/09/12/esther-vergeers-dominance-transcends-her-wheelchair/" target="_blank">396th straight U.S. Open match</a> in her chair. </span><br /><br />- ah. Last week on This American Life, there was a segment on people with disabilities suing businesses for being out of compliance. It was on a show titled "Crybabies," but I would say that, on balance, it approached the issue pretty well. It edged into questioning whether suing small businesses for seemingly small instances of noncompliance (coat hangers or mirrors too high for wheelchair users, e.g.) is fair or even effective, but ultimately pointed out that this is basically the only way that the ADA can get enforced after the building permit phase is over. One business owner complains that he would have changed the height of the coat hook had someone just asked him, rather than suing, but the counterargument is implied as a woman tells the story of repeatedly asking her hair salon to provide wheelchair parking (they do initially, then repaint the lines to make two standard spots) to no avail.<br />Click <a href="http://www.thisamericanlife.org/sites/all/play_music/play_full.php?play=415">here</a> for full episode (story starts at about 33 min).<br /><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">_uacct = "UA-4648623-1";urchinTracker();</script>Besshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691600265011800746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5895085051436907920.post-79118133093152907932010-10-08T09:27:00.005-04:002010-10-08T09:36:51.977-04:00links - art/design editionCool artist-in-residence project with inside views of Smithsonian collections: <a href="http://www.tracyhicks.com/">Tracy Hicks</a><br /><br />D-Crit conference keynote: <a href="http://dcrit.sva.edu/view/events/d-crit-conference-keynote-peter-hall-the-uses-of-failure/">Peter Hall, "The Uses of Failure</a>":<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">a failed design is often one in which all the wrangling, hidden agendas and vested interests that preceded it are laid open for inspection</span><br /><br />Customize Almost Anything You Can Buy to Fit Your Tastes, <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5620139/customize-almost-anything-you-can-buy-to-fit-your-tastes">Lifehacker</a><br /><br />On the Metropolis magazine blog, Emily Leiben on <a href="http://www.metropolismag.com/pov/20100823/two-decades-of-living-with-ada">Two Decades of Living with the ADA</a><br /><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">_uacct = "UA-4648623-1";urchinTracker();</script>Besshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691600265011800746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5895085051436907920.post-2929076579699995312010-09-09T15:47:00.005-04:002010-09-09T16:01:51.258-04:00quick and should-be-easyMemo to journalists, bloggers, and other writers everywhere: language like this is soooo yesterday (or several decades ago):<br /><a href="http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/sep/09/polio-stricken-architect-worked-on-raising/">Polio-stricken architect worked on raising accessibility awareness</a>, from the San Diego Union-Tribune.<br />"When Berenice Bernard was stricken with polio in 1951...<br />"Confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life..."<br />I mean, really? Thanks <a href="http://www.signonsandiego.com/staff/blanca-gonzalez/">Blanca Gonzales</a> for covering this woman's obituary, but you couldn't have updated your language?<br /><br />Here's an easy guide to appropriate language, from the <a href="http://www.si.edu/opa/accessibility/exdesign/sectione.htm#lu">Smithsonian's Guidelines for Accessible Exhibition Design</a>:<br /><br />Yes / No<br />People with disabilities / The handicapped, The disabled<br />People who are deaf or hard of hearing / The hearing impaired, deaf mute<br />People who are blind or have low vision / The blind, The sightless <br />Wheelchair users / Confined to wheelchairs, Wheelchair bound<br />People with mobility impairments / The crippled, The lame<br />People with intellectual disabilities / The retarded, The mentally deficient<br />People with mental illness / schizophrenic (as a generic), the insane<br />People with learning disabilities / dyslexic (as a generic), the retarded<br /><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">_uacct = "UA-4648623-1";urchinTracker();</script>Besshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691600265011800746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5895085051436907920.post-27543150756457758382010-08-16T09:02:00.004-04:002010-08-16T09:29:07.684-04:00what is good architecture?A couple of interesting links...<br /><br />First, Paul Goldberger and Richard Cook discuss sustainable architecture for <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/currents/">The New Yorker</a>. Cook is a principal in Cook & Fox, designers of the new Bank of America Tower, the largest building ever to receive LEED Platinum certification (the highest energy performance standard).<br /><br /><embed src="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/1827871374" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashvars="videoId=424673320001&playerId=1827871374&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://console.brightcove.com/services/amfgateway&servicesURL=http://services.brightcove.com/services&cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&domain=embed&autoStart=false&" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swliveconnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" width="466" height="395"></embed><br /><br />they discuss a lot of things - but I find the beginning, when they discuss the "next levels" of green building, particularly notable. Cook talks about how better energy performance, materials use, etc will cease being "green" and start being the "normative standard." But the bigger challenge, he says, is for buildings to be regenerative, to improve quality of life. This part might represent a trade-off - e.g. that creating the best possible air quality requires energy-expending filtration systems. Of course, he doesn't (can't) touch on the really big conundrum - that these supposedly most-humanistic-possible buildings are giant office towers, but this is true for a long history of making spaces more comfortable - ergonomics creates safer workplaces, better productivity, and so on.<br /><br />Another issue Goldberger and Cook raise is about the LEED standard itself - many have criticized it because it does not necessarily reward innovative design, but rather to-the-letter technical performance. There are so many comparisons to ADA standards there - likewise, some architects have argued that the ADA is not necessarily equipped to evaluate a broader definition of Universal Design, vs. a rigid conception of access (though frankly, I would like to see a building or feature that really offers excellent accessibility and is not ADA compliant). It would be great to see a discussion of sustainability - as a design approach, not a technical standard - that incorporates accessibility as well - as a part of the human health considerations that go into these extremely high-design, high-cost sites like the Bank of America building. As Cook describes, he sees a sustainable approach as leading to ways of making an office building "feel fundamentally different" - for me, this point certainly raises a host of issues about what we expect of design, in terms of environment, experience, comfort, health, and otherwise.<br /><br />Another quick link - <a href="http://www.metropolismag.com/pov/20100813/crowdsourcing-architecture-criticism">Metropolis</a> points us to <a href="http://www.openbuildings.com/">OpenBuildings</a>, a "crowdsourced" architecture info/criticism site. On this "mega-resource," Metropolis reports, "readers can submit buildings to the site and upload images, additional information, or even their own opinions." So far it looks like most buildings just have excerpts from either Wikipedia or a more official architecture review source. But - what possibilities for a user-level impression of these sites! It would be so great to see this forum used for accessibility reviews, and other insights that only members of the "crowd" can point out. I think I'll download the app to see what there is around my city..<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">_uacct = "UA-4648623-1";urchinTracker();</script>Besshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691600265011800746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5895085051436907920.post-24423508017712368042010-08-10T16:50:00.008-04:002010-08-11T10:35:17.839-04:00Remembering Paul LongmoreI was sad to hear yesterday of the passing of Paul Longmore, a leader in the field of Disability History. I have gotten to know Paul over the past three years as I work on my dissertation about disability rights and design. Reading others' remembrances of him online, and talking to fellow young scholars, I know I was just one of many who consider him a great teacher and mentor. Berkeley lawyer Lainey Fairgold wrote on <a href="http://lflegal.com/2010/08/paul-longmore/">her website</a> that, reading and speaking with him, "I could actually feel my mind opening up to new ideas, new ways of perceiving the world." I have felt that many times as well.<br /><br />Paul was one of the most generous scholars I have ever met, always willing to chat with me - sometimes for hours, as we sat in the sun outside of his San Francisco State office or in his apartment. As a non-disabled person with little experience in the disability community before I started my dissertation, I felt tentative about my project when we first spoke. He was immediately supportive, and over time was very forthcoming about his own life history and the ways it overlapped with the work I am doing on the everyday lives of people with disabilities in postwar America. I came to think of him as a friend as much as I did a professor - until I would return to his written work, and, like Lainey says, I could feel my mind expanding. His insights on practices of history writing - for example, in his essays on the League of the Physically Handicapped and on the reformer Randolph Bourne, both in the collection <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.amazon.com/Burned-Essays-Disability-American-Subjects/dp/1592130240/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1281531147&sr=8-1">Why I Burned My Book and Other Essays on Disability</a> - are seminal works for any historian of 20th century America.<br /><br />Paul was an accomplished scholar in two fields: Early American History and Disability History. After he completed his MA and PhD at Occidental College and Claremont Graduate School, Paul taught at Stanford and USC before coming to San Francisco State University in 1992. He received tenure in SF State's History Department in 1998 and directed the Institute on Disability starting in 1996. He published <span style="font-style: italic;">The Invention of George Washington,</span><span> based on his dissertation,</span> and a collection of essays, <span style="font-style: italic;">Why I Burned My Book</span>; at the time of his death he was nearing completion of a new work on telethons. He edited <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.amazon.com/New-Disability-History-American-Perspectives/dp/0814785646/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1281532389&sr=1-1">The New Disability History</a> with Lauri Umansky, and has been the organizer of countless conferences, panels, journal issues, and professional groups (including H-Disability, as <a href="http://disstud.blogspot.com/2010/08/rip-paul-longmore-1946-2010.html">Penny Richards</a> notes). A more complete bio is <a href="http://bss.sfsu.edu/disability/longmore/biography.html">here</a>.<br /><br />I was often bowled over by how openly Paul discussed the difficulties he had faced in his career path. As he details in the title essay of <span style="font-style: italic;">Why I Burned My Book</span>, throughout graduate school and his early career people told him frankly that he would never be hired as a person with a severe disability (though one professor did concede that he was "not bitter like many cripples"). The title of the essay comes from a protest Paul staged in 1988 after he was warned his book royalties would render him ineligible for the Social Security Income (SSI) payments that supported his medical and attendant care (at the time, totaling more than $20,000/year - history book royalties do not come close). He burned copies of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Invention of George Washington</span> on a barbecue grill in front of the federal building in downtown Los Angeles, an action that was part of a years-long battle to change SSI policies that effectively discouraged people with disabilities from pursuing professional career paths. Despite his own battles, he never dismissed or belittled others' problems. He often asked me how I was doing, offering supportive words when the dissertation process got me down. We academics rarely discuss our feelings - Paul did, reminding me to seek support and see the long view of my project. I believe his mentoring and teaching were a part of his activism, changing the profession that had not always treated him fairly. Up until his death he was still planning more projects to encourage disability studies and disability history.<br /><br />Paul sardonically wrote in <span style="font-style: italic;">Why I Burned My Book</span>, "when I published [<span style="font-style: italic;">The Invention of George Washington</span>], one reviewer remarked that it drew on a 'truly astounding amount of research.' Of course it did . Would a postpolio supercrip do anything less? How characteristically disabled of me to undertake so grandiose a project." Still, as he continues, "I don't want to reduce my work to 'overcoming.'" Neither do I. Paul's work is not only remarkable because he "overcame" odds in a society that did not - does not - imagine that people with disabilities can make a contribution. He will have a long legacy because he investigated topics that few historians had considered critically, if at all, and because he did it while maintaining a personal practice of support and generosity. One has only to skim a few of the personal remembrances popping up online (for example, on <a href="http://notdeadyetnewscommentary.blogspot.com/2010/08/tremendous-loss-paul-longmore-has-died.html">Not Dead Yet</a> and <a href="http://media-dis-n-dat.blogspot.com/2010/08/in-memoriam-famed-disability-studies.html">Media Dis-n-Dat</a>, as well as Paul's <a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=693073084&ref=sgm#%21/profile.php?id=693073084&v=wall&ref=sgm">facebook page</a>) to see how many scholars, writers, and activists were influenced by his presence, whether in one-time meetings or life-long friendships.<br /><br />Thank you, Paul. I will miss you tremendously.<i><i><br /><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">_uacct = "UA-4648623-1";urchinTracker();</script></i></i>Besshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691600265011800746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5895085051436907920.post-32583207032212112392010-07-29T09:51:00.007-04:002010-07-29T15:07:50.593-04:0020th anniversary of the ADA, other newsI've been a bit slow on the blogging this summer (well, slow meaning fully stopped) - such is the state of dissertating, researching, traveling, and letting time pass, I guess. I have two longer posts in the works, but in the meantime, some bits and pieces:<br /><br />- There were many celebrations and reflections this week in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act on July 26- the major civil rights act, passed in 1990, that barred discrimination against people with disabilities and mandated equal access to work, employment, and public spaces/services. The best stories, of course, avoided sappy "celebrations" of overcoming and cut to the chase: this Act has made a significant difference in many people's lives, but remains controversial and in many cases, its mandates are unfulfilled (with improvements seen in the 2007 ADA Restoration Act).<br /><br />NPR's news shows had several stories, many of them authored by, or prominently featuring people with disabilities reflecting on the Act and their lives facing discrimination, like <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128697147">Ben Mattlin</a> telling of how one job interviewer asked, "How would you make photocopies? I mean, you'd be here to help us, not for us to help you," and special education specialist <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128768978">Deborah Peters Goessling </a>talking about the "one inch" that still often prevents her from participating in everyday life (interestingly, she is really touching on "visitability," i.e. being able to visit people's private homes, not covered under the ADA). In a <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128778558">story on the Act's effects on architecture</a>, U. Penn professor Monica Ponce de Leon talked about the more widespread acceptance of the ideal of Universal Design. She described a project for the library at the Rhode Island School of Design, where her firm developed furniture and study space for a diversity of students:<br /><blockquote><p>[Robert] SIEGEL: So depending on one's individual needs, one's individual size, or for example if one used a wheelchair, you could find a space that would work for you in that. </p> <p>Prof. PONCE DE LEON: Exactly. You're actually acknowledging that we all have different degrees of abilities. So at RISD, since you have a student body that is there for four or five years at a time, there was a great possibility that a student may find actually their favorite spot, maybe because their legs are longer than the average or maybe because their height is a little shorter. And it enabled us to embed different ranges of abilities within the design of the space.<br /></p></blockquote>- In remembrance of the 20th Anniversary of the ADA, the National Museum of American History's fantastic curator and disability historian, Katherine Ott, presented some objects out of storage on Monday the 26th. I saw the announcement too late (not in DC anyway), but we can all look forward to an exhibition on American disability history in the coming year from the Smithsonian; in the meantime, here are some old links to Katherine's excellent past exhibitions on <a href="http://americanhistory.si.edu/polio/index.htm">Polio</a> and the <a href="http://americanhistory.si.edu/disabilityrights/">Disability Rights Movement</a>.<br /><br />- Various spots around the web remember the irreverent cartoonist John Callahan, who spurned the "pathetic" narrative of most disability discourse in pieces like this one:<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/07/28/28callahanimgB/28callahanimgB-popup.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 526px; height: 462px;" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/07/28/28callahanimgB/28callahanimgB-popup.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Image via the New York Times: obituary for Callahan <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/07/magazine/defiantly-incorrect.html?pagewanted=all">here</a>. A fond and personal remembrance from Portland <a href="http://oregonmusicnews.com/blog/2010/07/25/john-callahan-cartoonist-songwriter-portland-icon-passes-away/">here</a> (via <a href="http://www.disstudies.org/">SDS</a> listserv).<br /><br />Looking up some of Callahan's old cartoons and illustrations, I also liked this one, which accompanied <a href="http://www.newmobility.com/articleView.cfm?id=428">an article in New Mobility on visitability in housing</a>:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.newmobility.com/mag_images/01/september/NM0901_housing1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 352px; height: 162px;" src="http://www.newmobility.com/mag_images/01/september/NM0901_housing1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">_uacct = "UA-4648623-1";urchinTracker();</script>Besshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691600265011800746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5895085051436907920.post-60017005379221484802010-05-14T12:58:00.007-04:002010-05-17T10:08:50.571-04:00American Able is AwesomeOh man, I am so thrilled by <a href="http://hollynorris.ca/americanable#h39067524">American Able</a>, a spoof of the ridiculous quasi-porn hipster photos that dominate American Apparel ads, shot by the photographer <a href="http://hollynorris.ca/about.html">Holly Norris</a> and featuring "crooked" artist/performer <a href="http://crooked.zenfolio.com/">Jes Sachse</a> (side note: it doesn't surprise me that a sly shot at an "American" company comes from a different part of North America, Canada):<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.wornjournal.com/html/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/americanable4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 598px; height: 448px;" src="http://www.wornjournal.com/html/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/americanable4.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />The photos fantastically, directly confront the lack of disabled and queer images in pop culture, with a cool and upbeat vibe that almost makes you want to buy those clothes just so you can be as cool as Jes (if only American Apparel realized the potential of going beyond their <a href="http://www.americanapparel.com/women-basic-t-shirts.html">usual pool</a> of young, thin, women making porno faces/poses at the camera). Read more <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5895085051436907920">on Worn Journal</a> and<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span> <a href="http://iheartthreadbared.wordpress.com/2010/05/14/linkage-t-shirts-models-blog-love-american-able/">Threadbared</a> (where I first read about it)- two great, smart fashion/art blogs! Image <a href="http://www.wornjournal.com/html/">via</a>.<br /><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">_uacct = "UA-4648623-1";urchinTracker();</script>Besshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691600265011800746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5895085051436907920.post-61854996759438560982010-04-18T16:49:00.003-04:002010-04-18T17:23:46.856-04:00groping<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"><br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />_uacct = "UA-4648623-1";<br />urchinTracker();<br /></script><br /><br />A few stories have crossed my screen/desk/whatever lately that concern blind people and sexuality that seem very weird and misplaced: first, the release of <a href="http://www.tactilemindbook.com/">Tactile Minds</a>, a tactile image and Braille text pornography/erotica book by a Canadian graphic designer named Lisa Murphy. This project sounds interesting enough (I really don't know anything about the availability of erotic materials for blind and visually impaired people - though it is notable that Playboy published a Braille edition from 1970-1985), though it was unfortunately mostly covered as a kind of "news of the weird" item, as if no one has ever heard of blind people having an interest in sex or sexy images or whatever [via <a href="http://jezebel.com/5519042/10-things-you-may-have-missed-on-tv-this-week/gallery/?skyline=true&s=i">Jezebel</a>, <a href="http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2010/04/a_woman_in_toro.php">Village Voice</a>).<br /><br />This wouldn't be particularly notable, but today I read in the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/magazine/18fob-Bergner-t.html?ref=magazine">NY Times Magazine</a> of a study that aims to find out what men's "real" preferences in women's body types are by toting around headless mannequins of various dimensions for blind men to grope. Hmm, how many things are wrong with this study?<br />a) just because blind men are not exposed to the actual images in commercial culture, that somehow means their opinions/preferences are not shaped by prevailing social attitudes about body type and sexuality?<br />b) the goal of the study was "an attempt to gauge the force of culture, to weigh the learned and the innate, in determining sexual attraction" -- so the blind are not part of culture, and are somehow more "innate" in their sexual desires?<br />c) if blind people feeling up mannequins is an accurate judgment of men's "innate" preferences, then sighted people judge body shape alone, without any other contextual clues? (without heads, for example - so race, skin color, hair, and facial expression don't factor into sexual attraction?)<br />d) the study was careful to select only "blind from birth" subjects - but how did it define "heterosexual"? Because that's a totally static category, right?<br /><br />The study - and the article about it - show the appeal of these tidy, evolutionary explanations of the roots of our desires and preferences:<br /><blockquote>...sighted and blind men both strongly favored the mannequin with the lower W.H.R. [Waist-to-Hip Ratio], but this slimmer-waisted body received especially high scores from the men with sight, maybe because a life spent amid cultural signals compounds the work of evolution. Still, the gropings of Karremans’s blind offer a glimpse into the ancestral depths of our desires.</blockquote><br /><br />Sure-- OR the fact that the two subject groups matched pretty closely could be because the blind men are part of the larger culture? Their slightly less strong preference - could that be because of the compounded cultural messages that de-sexualize blind people and other people with disabilities? Just a guess.Besshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691600265011800746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5895085051436907920.post-65512837497235849652010-03-19T15:47:00.004-04:002010-03-19T16:02:47.367-04:00fun ideas for a sunny friday<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"><br /></script>I always feel a bit touchy around the many "experimental design for the disabled" sites/blog posts/articles you see around.. but <a href="http://www.switched.com/2010/03/19/design-concepts-the-modern-wheelchair/">these wheelchair designs</a>, selected by mainstream design site <a href="http://www.switched.com/">Switched</a>, are pretty fun:
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<br />A pink-cushioned bent plywood armchair in the style of the Eames Chair, fitted with matching tires and an ottoman, would be hell on the balance but makes a clear (intended) comment about the difference between brand-name design icons and designs for assistive technologies.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.switched.com/media/2010/03/rclp.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 525px; height: 300px;" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.switched.com/media/2010/03/rclp.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>
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<br />Roll.Charge.Light.Protect offers the idea of wheelchair spokes that light up (charged by the wheels, of course) for safer night wheeling. Definitely reminiscent of the many light-up gizmos commuter cyclists choose for helmet, seat, clothes and fenders.
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<br />Switched also did a post of <a href="http://www.switched.com/2010/03/11/design-concepts-gadgets-for-the-visually-impaired/">design prototypes for gadgets for visually impaired users</a> - interesting that all but one are for computerized readers/sensors of some kind. Designers often fall into the trap of assuming all assistive devices are extremely high-tech, expensive specialty items, and overlook the everyday technologies everyone uses - wonder what potential any of these have to be integrated into <a href="http://righttodesign.blogspot.com/2009/07/thoughts-on-kindle-and-computers.html">mass-market products</a>, as current screen-readers are - <a href="http://righttodesign.blogspot.com/2009/07/thoughts-on-kindle-and-computers.html">on the iPad</a>, for example..
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<br />Peter Axelson (image via <a href="http://www.dsusa.org/ChallMagarchive/Fall07/challmag-fall07-DSUSA40Yrs.html">Disabled Sports USA</a>), an inventor, promoter, and 7-time World Champion in monoskiing, will be one of the U.S.' official delegates to the Olympics closing ceremony on Sunday, Feb 28 (<a href="http://www.recordcourier.com/article/20100223/NEWS/100229940/1062&ParentProfile=1049">via</a>). Axelson has designed sports equipment for people with disabilities since 1981, when he founded <a href="http://www.beneficialdesigns.com/">Beneficial Designs</a> and produced his first monoski. Since then Beneficial Designs has produced equipment for alpine and cross-country skiing, surfing, and rowing - releasing each design for open-source use rather than patenting and limiting its availability.
<br />(while looking up images for this post, btw, I came across this great article on the <a href="http://www.disaboom.com/adaptive-skiing/from-rehab-tool-to-elite-sport-a-history-of-adaptive-skiing">history of adaptive skiing on disaboom</a>)
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<br />Then the Paralympics start shortly after the Olympic Games - March 21.
<br />The Paralympics are unlikely to be on NBC - but there is an internet TV channel for them <a href="http://player27.narrowstep.tv/assets/players/4304/html/index.html">here</a>.
<br />This is a great preview of the Canadian sledge hockey team (they won gold in 2006):
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<br />If anyone reading this hasn't seen it, the 2005 documentary <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0436613/">Murderball</a> is a fantastic warm-up to the Paralympics.Besshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691600265011800746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5895085051436907920.post-21122735344364433012010-02-11T10:38:00.006-05:002010-02-18T11:08:03.019-05:00misc. links<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"><br /></script>
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<br />I have just started a new fellowship at the <a href="http://invention.smithsonian.org/resources/research_fellowships.aspx">Lemelson Center for the History of Invention & Innovation</a> at the National Museum of American History. It's great to work here, partly because there are a bunch of people working on a Disability History exhibition coming up in the fall (I think) - great because I don't meet a lot of people who work on disability history in my everyday academic life. One of the staff pointed me to this video - from the Disability Rights Commission in the UK - which shows some of the common accessibility issues people with disabilities face through an funny imagined scenario... watch the full version <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/DisabilityRightsComm#p/u/14/FZfOVNwjFU0%3Ehere%3C/a%3E%20in%202%20parts.%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3ESome%20other%20random%20things:%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E-%20%3Ca%20href=" com="" this="" 0310="">here</a> in 2 parts.
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<br />- <a href="http://www.esquire.com/print-this/roger-ebert-0310">Remarkable profile of Roger Ebert</a> from Esquire, describing in moving and non-sappy detail his life since he lost his voice.
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<br />- Interesting project: <a href="http://www.designyc.org/">DesigNYC</a> (founded by Ed Schlossberg, student of Buckminster Fuller as well as husband of Caroline Kennedy) pairs designers with social causes: examples include an "Eating Healthy in Bed-Stuy" booklet for Bed-Stuy Farm Share; a safer, brighter winter lighting plan for the Broadway commercial district (60th-135th); and several interior/community spaces, including one for a housing project for people w/ mental illness. <a href="http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=12681">Article at Design Observer</a>.
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<br />- Kansas City Star <a href="http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/1740304.html">remembers Paul Levy</a>, activist for accessibility and director of non-profits including The Whole Person Inc., Kansas City; the Coalition for Independence; and Universal Design Housing Network
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<br />Besshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691600265011800746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5895085051436907920.post-84754350512092522742010-02-10T09:31:00.005-05:002010-02-10T10:06:15.587-05:00The Other Disabilities<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"><br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />_uacct = "UA-4648623-1";<br />urchinTracker();<br /></script><br />It's pretty rare to come across much writing/thinking about design for disabilities other than mobility and dexterity impairments: paralysis, arthritis, etc. <a href="http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=10427">Here on Design Observer</a> (one of the best design commentary sites around), a reflection on design and OCD by Chappell Ellison, a designer based in New York. Not surprisingly, the essay won a <a href="http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/writing-awards">2009 AIGA Winterhouse Award</a> for Design Writing & Criticism.<br /><br />Mainly, the essay is a poignant memoir of difficult objects in Ellison's brother's life as he lives with OCD. Laundry baskets with endless holes to clean, restaurant tablecloths rife with germs. But the last few paragraphs address how and whether designers can respond to this particular disease. Universal Design, she (I think?) admits, may not be a useful paradigm, and ultimately it will never be possible to anticipate all of her brother's (let alone the other thousands/millions who have compulsive disorders) object-related concerns. I'm thinking that even Ellison's awareness of such compulsions probably makes her a better designer, aware of the unintended consequences of surface, texture, and form. As she writes, <br /><br /><blockquote>As a designer, I know that it is impossible to consider every tiny percentage of each special interest group when creating a new product... To create an object for someone who fears tactility and physical interaction is the sort of assignment that turns a designer’s world upside down.</blockquote><br /><br />But maybe that is part of the point - design cannot address every variation in human bodies and experiences. Universal Design even has its problems for people with mobility issues - many blind people who use canes have a harder time determining the end of the sidewalk with a curb cut; some people prefer stairs to sloping walkways, etc. Disabilities that affect cognition and behavior are even harder to address and anticipate through design. But as this article suggests, the aim of acknowledging, if not "solving," disability in design might prove to be a fruitful one.Besshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691600265011800746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5895085051436907920.post-67498122514955679682010-02-09T09:51:00.004-05:002010-02-09T10:00:07.497-05:00<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"><br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />_uacct = "UA-4648623-1";<br />urchinTracker();<br /></script><br /><object width="400" height="225"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9007681&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1&group_id=" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9007681&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1&group_id=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="225"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/groups/33076/videos/9007681">Dwell presents | The Bathroom Reinvented: Universal Design in Public Bathrooms | Part 1 | by Gary Nadeau</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/garynadeau">gary nadeau</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p><br />Nice video clip of Gary Nadeau (of Dwell magazine) visiting public bathrooms with Dan Formosa and Richard Whitehall of Smart Design (designers of, among other things, OXO Good Grips). They are a great odd couple on Universal Design.. Formosa gives the technical definition - its roots in barrier-free legislation - while Whitehall gives the larger meaning/context: Universal Design suggests the possibility of attending to human needs, including emotional, political, social.<br /><br />Also maybe the best looking collection of people ever collected to expound on the experience of going to the bathroom.Besshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691600265011800746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5895085051436907920.post-76604642001362092462009-11-12T10:30:00.005-05:002009-11-12T10:34:00.080-05:00two new architecture projectsvery different ones...<br /><br />- The <a href="http://solard.iastate.edu/">Interlock House</a> was a recent entry in the Solar Decathlon in DC (via <a href="http://www.metrodcliving.com/urbantrekker/2009/10/pictures-from-2009-solar-decathlon.html">Urbantrekker</a>). Designed by a team from Iowa State, the house "is designed specifically to appeal to seniors and meets all regulations for accessibility under the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. The house is also designed to "interlock" into existing communities instead of taking over undeveloped land—a much more sustainable approach to building." (nice way of putting the joint goals of universal design and sustainability)<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://solard.iastate.edu/images/renderings/neighborhood_integration.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 680px; height: 443px;" src="http://solard.iastate.edu/images/renderings/neighborhood_integration.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><br />Image: Computer drawing of the Interlock House, a modern, rectangular house with an angled roof covered in solar panels and surrounded by a yard and blooming garden. A wide, flat deck that wraps around the corner. In the mock-up, an older couple go about their daily tasks: she is arriving with a bag in hand, he is raking leaves.<br /><br />- <a href="http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=426&storycode=3152525&channel=426&c=1">Temporary solar-powered wheelchair lifts</a> are to be installed at the Duke of York steps in London for the Festival of Architecture next year (via <a href="http://www.bdonline.co.uk/">bd</a>). Cool solution for the age-old historic buildings accessibility problem, and fitting modern look for the festival. Reminds me of my old post on a world without stairs.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.bdonline.co.uk/Pictures/web/q/v/c/Duke_steps_lift_web.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 468px; height: 326px;" src="http://www.bdonline.co.uk/Pictures/web/q/v/c/Duke_steps_lift_web.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a> Image: Computer drawing of the three-tiered Duke of York steps, with the mock-ups of three glass towers installed on the landings to house wheelchair lifts.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />_uacct = "UA-4648623-1";<br />urchinTracker();<br /></script>Besshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691600265011800746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5895085051436907920.post-59458928276155714152009-11-09T14:51:00.002-05:002009-11-09T15:00:41.074-05:00college<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"><br /></script>Apparently a new building at Cal State - Long Beach has all the signs of accessibility we've come to recognize -- that is, just the signs. Beyond the standard blue wheelchair signs indicating access, the planners seem to have forgotten to actually add accessible features. I love the outrage of the <a href="http://www.daily49er.com/opinion/our-view-outpost-should-open-doors-for-disabled-1.2056608">op-ed in the student paper</a>, the Daily 49er:<br /><br /><blockquote>This is a brand new frickin’ building. If no accommodations are made to make it easier for disabled persons to enter, what is the purpose of the signs? Are they just put there to tell people with disabilities they are welcome inside — if they can manage to get in? It’s like saying, “We have food, but you’re only allowed to smell it from outside if you can’t open the door yourself.”</blockquote>I'm dismayed at this design goof, but I love the insight into how students these days see accessibility requirements, which for many of them have been in place since they were born (sorry fellow old folks -- many college students were born in 1990 or later). The op-ed quotes the ADA and the University's diversity policies and asks how this oversight could have happened. For them, these codes are a given, and violations (at least violations this obvious) an outrage. We're a long way from the early disability rights activists at UC Berkeley in the late 1960s, who had to ask fellow students to drag their wheelchairs up and down stairs, and plan their classes around physical barriers around campus.<br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />_uacct = "UA-4648623-1";<br />urchinTracker();<br /></script>Besshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691600265011800746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5895085051436907920.post-71497858544674080202009-10-28T15:08:00.003-04:002009-10-28T15:28:05.842-04:00new links<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"><br /></script><a href="http://ablegamers.com/disabled-gamers---general-news/515-video-frag-dolls-morgan-qrhouletteq-romine-on-ablegamers.html">Ablegamers</a> is a site about disability and gaming -- a niche I did not expect to be so interesting (being a total non-gamer)! Got to love extra nerdy stuff like an exploration of Dean Kamen's "<a href="http://ablegamers.com/disabled-gamers---general-news/336-st-arm-wars.html">Luke Arm</a>" (a robotic prosthetic arm named after Luke Skywalker) as well as more serious content like <a href="http://ablegamers.com/disabled-gamers---general-news/515-video-frag-dolls-morgan-qrhouletteq-romine-on-ablegamers.html">discussions</a> of connections between the female gaming community and disabled gamers.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.michigandaily.com/content/annual-event-emphasizes-disability-issues-and-art">"Art and Abilities"</a> - an annual special exhibition/event at the University of Michigan.<br /><br />Online <a href="http://www.pixeldiva.co.uk/shares/expand-the-awesome-design-for-a-wider-audience/">slide show</a> about web accessibility, by Ann McMeekin.<br /><br />Cool thing: via <a href="http://designingwell.blogspot.com/2009/09/step-saving-kitchen-1949.html">Designing Well</a>, a 1949 film clip of the "Step-Saving Kitchen," with a reminder of how many of these suggestions (standard postwar scientific management stuff) would be considered "universal design" today (music added by YouTube user and is not original):<br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/MsNWbdxIb9M&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/MsNWbdxIb9M&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br />Easy-to-reach shelves and storage, cookbook page holder, pull-out work surface to sit at, and a rolling cart. Not to sure about those drop-in cooking surfaces though...<br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />_uacct = "UA-4648623-1";<br />urchinTracker();<br /></script>Besshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04691600265011800746noreply@blogger.com0