Excerpts from: Design for All Institute of India, Special Issue, April 2016 (University at Buffalo - State University of New York), Vol. 11, No. 4
Introduction
by Beth Tauke and Korydon Smith
University at Buffalo, School of Architecture and Planning, United States
Recall the face of the poorest and weakest man you have seen, and ask yourself if this step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him.-Mahatma Gandhi
Universal design (UD), sometimes called inclusive design or design for all, is one of the most important design movements of our time because of its emphasis on empowering all individuals, particularly those who otherwise have not had voice. Based on the principles of social justice, this global movement seeks to improve not only the built environment, but also social and institutional systems for the widest possible range of people.
This issue of Design for All, devoted to universal design education and research, features individuals who have dedicated themselves to social justice issues across an array of design disciplines— architecture, interior design, industrial design, urban design and planning. Contributors range from world-renowned UD educators and researchers to those at the beginning and mid-levels of their careers. Interviews, short essays, and longer articles provide a spectrum of viewpoints that offer new ways to think about universal design in our changing world. The issue begins with a personal reflection from Professor Craig Vogel, director of the well-known
Live Well Center at the University of Cincinnati, who tells the story of how a book and a boy with autism led him to a life-long career in inclusive design. Following this is a set of macro-level thoughts by Dr. Edward Steinfeld, director of the State University of New York at Buffalo’s Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access (IDeA), the premier research center on universal design in the built environment, on the need to develop a global community of UD practice. As an experiential learning expert, Professor Mary Jane Carroll, Chair of the Interior Design Program at Sheridan College in Ontario, Canada, introduces four essential elements of inclusive design education. Furthering discussion on the multi-disciplinary aspects of UD education and research, design anthropologist, Dr. Jo- Anne Bichard, writes about the importance of considering sustainability in relation to inclusive design. Recent graduate student, Kristen Gabriele expands on the social sustainability aspects of her thesis, which addressed improved housing design for transitional villages. Another recent inclusive design graduate student, Daniel Nead, summarizes his thesis, which examined the viability of re-using residual military equipment in Afghanistan to develop mobile classrooms for young girls who otherwise would not receive an education. Bridging the disciplines of universal design for learning (UDL) and UD, Professor Eric Dolph reveals the various ways that students learn in the design studio setting, and encourages inclusive teaching strategies. Dr. Jennifer Webb focuses her essay on workplace design changes, and the need to accommodate workers with various working/learning styles and physical abilities. The issue ends with Professors Kavita Murugkar’s and Abir Mullick’s comparative study, which explores the ways that those with vision loss understand form through touch. Clearly, a wide variety of topics are presented; yet all of the interviews, short essays, and longer articles allude to a common set of questions: How does universal design challenge our conventional concepts of making? How does UD affect the ways we teach, learn, research, and practice in ever-changing pluralistic conditions?
The contributors to this issue are leaders in moving the universal design paradigm from one focused primarily on accessibility to a broader concept that includes all marginalized groups–those with low income, victims of disaster, women, and others whose needs are often neglected in design. This new paradigm gives priority to providing a higher level of access, safety, and convenience in all products and places. Moreover, it extends UD to domains outside the built environment to include the design of systems, services, and business practices. This work is timely. According to Dr. Edward Steinfeld, several global trends are driving the need for new initiatives in inclusive design:
- The increasing diversity of societies in race, ethnicity, income, age, and disability
- The recognition that supporting social participation of women and minorities is a necessity to reduce discrimination and segregation, and increase independence
- The aging of the population, which is driving increases in disability rates throughout the world
- Devastation caused by disruptive natural and human-caused disasters that leave large populations in states of emotional and physical distress
- The globalization of business that is providing opportunities for positive change, but also leading to widening income gaps
- The rapid pace of technological change that is increasing the potential for design to make positive differences in people’s lives
- The crises in health care and education in many countries that demand innovative solutions, particularly in rural areas
- Population growth and rapid economic growth in developing countries that is taxing global resources, especially energy and food.
- Global warming that threatens major disruptions in ecosystems, especially along the seacoast.
Not only do these global transformations and attitude shifts indicate areas in which UD is needed, but they also open opportunities for education and research. For example, design curricula could include the areas of human diversity; health, safety, and wellness; sensory perception; and social justice as core elements of study for all students. Researchers could examine the gaps in knowledge about relief-system effectiveness in meeting the basic needs of victims of natural and human-made disasters. Studies that explore the roles of planning and local government policies in facilitating sustainable food systems could help to provide access to healthy food in marginalized communities. These few examples demonstrate the call for new ways of designing, and could drive efforts for change. Design disciplines have started to respond with organizations such as Design for Good, Design Action Collective, and Design Corps. However, it is the responsibility of UD educators and researchers to ensure that students and professionals are equipped with the necessary knowledge and skill to effectively practice design for social justice. Inclusive design methods provide the evidence base and critical details required to develop work that benefits the broader population. In that sense, universal design is a process of social construction – a representation and shaper of attitudes, values, customs and trends. The role of UD educators and researchers, then, is to identify and develop the knowledge needed for designers to best respond to social realities.Design educators, researchers, and practitioners need to understand these processes and their implications on one hand, and, by taking on leadership roles, develop new socially responsive visions of design on the other. In that way, inclusive designers assume catalytic roles in communities through work with positive societal impact, and become arbiters of change.
Beth Tauke, M.F.A
Korydon Smith, D.Ed
On inclusive design education and research
CRAIG VOGEL
College of Design, Architecture. Art, and Planning at the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
I would define inclusive design as the ability to help others achieve their optimum potential. Everyone should also be able to achieve a state of flow that balances their ability with their challenges and opportunities.
When I was an undergraduate psychology student at Marist College, in Poughkeepsie New York, I volunteered and visited many of the public institutions in the region, from prisons to a facility that housed adults with cognitive disabilities. I had the opportunity to work with a boy with severe autism at Hudson River State Hospital. Needless to say, all these facilities were horrible places for humans to be “housed” and for people to work. I realized that David was not receiving the stimulation he needed through behavior modification therapy, and hoped that one day I could find a way to do better. Talking him for walks and talking to/with him was more stimulating than the therapy I was asked to use to get him to talk.
When I graduated with my undergraduate degree, I was accepted into the Master of Design Program at Pratt Institute. Shortly after starting the program at Pratt, the book Design for the Real World was published. It was Victor Papanek’s book that made me realize that I could connect my interest in improving the lives of people who were not well served through design. I have kept that promise to improve conditions for humans ever since. I also was raised in a three-generation family; my grandmother lived with us and later my great aunt also came to live with us as well. This experience made me aware of the differences and needs of children, middle age and older adults all living in one house in a diverse neighborhood in Brooklyn. The concepts of universal design and inclusive design were very easy for me to embrace because they gave a title and a definition to a world I had experienced most of life.
Individuals either turn away from opportunities to help people or sympathetically/empathetically embrace opportunities to reach out to those in need. I could have been appalled by the condition of the autism ward at Hudson River State where I found David. Instead, I responded to the fact that he needed help. Design gave me the tools to take insight and convert it into action to develop solutions. Design as a discipline for inclusive design starts with human beings and their needs, and works backward. Teaching and conducting research at several design programs and universities has allowed me to evolve my thinking and translational ability along with greater awareness in society with the growing recognition for embracing diversity on every level. I have been able to pass my interests and beliefs on to decades of students who, like me, embrace the ability to make a difference in people’s lives.
During my career the word ‘cripple’ evolved into the use of the term ‘disabled’; these terms were coupled first with words such as ‘accessibility’, ‘adaptive design’, and then evolved into ‘universal’ and ‘trans-generational design’. I believe the words‘ inclusive design’ match the conceptual evolution of designers’ and societies’ attitude and awareness of meeting the greater needs of society. Inclusive design implies solutions that embrace the greatest range of people. The term also covers the opposite approach to designing for specific needs with a non-stigmatizing approach.
Most of my career has been devoted to the goals of inclusive design but I have not been able to make it a sole focus until my recent opportunity in the College of Design, Architecture Art, and Planning (DAAP) at the University of Cincinnati (UC). For the past eight years, I have worked with others at UC and Proctor and Gamble to form the Live Well Collaborative. I have been able to take 20 years of experience and, with support, turn from being a fisherman to help to teach others to “fish” for inclusive opportunities. My recent work has been to establish a working with relationship with Children’s Hospital, which is affiliated with the University of Cincinnati. This work has been the most rewarding work of my career. I have also been able to connect this work to other universities in the world, specifically in China.
There are wonderful opportunities for designers in this century to continue to expand our concept of inclusive design. Social awareness and technology with appropriate economic support could continue to make inclusive design a globally integrated part of every society, for everyone across the lifespan and across economic levels. There are, however, also threats that come with ignorance, limited views of how resources should be allocated, and even if helping others in need is a valid practice. It is important to realize that the counter to inclusive design is the practice of exclusivity, and I would define it as the act of deciding who should not be included. This practice is going on throughout the world in every country. Inclusive design as an area began with serving the needs of people with limited physical and cognitive abilities. I have found that this concept can be expanded. Those of use who are perceived as “fully functional” often have short term and long term needs for inclusive design solutions. Steve Hawking is physically challenged and requires a wheel chair and artificial voice to talk. He is also one of the most influential thinkers of the past and present century. Many of us with limitations accept them and get on with life and have become acutely aware of the importance of valuing every moment. On the other extreme, Bruce Jenner was arguably one of the most abled individuals and an icon of the 20th century male when he won the decathlon gold medal in the Olympics. No one realized that he was dealing with his own challenge of feeling he was a women trapped in a man’s body. He is now a symbol of 21st century sexual awareness and inclusivity.
I think we have new dimensions of exclusive design that are threatening the basic assumption of what our connected global society could be. The most destructive force challenging inclusive design is political and religious rhetoric that preaches hate and attempts to define good and evil. The best exclusive design is not a luxury car for a limited elite; it is an individual with a cell phone and bomb vest. While growing up in Brooklyn, I was taught to fear communism and the atomic bomb. The A bomb was and is a weapon capable of killing hundreds of thousands. Today we fear a completely different scale of exclusivity and destruction. One or two humans with vests of limited destruction but complete mobility can paralyze a city. The current political rhetoric of division and isolation could derail all of the work of inclusive design that I have been fortunate enough to be a part of. I remain committed to the goal of global inclusivity and fulfilling the mission that started when I volunteered to help David and failed, and was then enlightened by a book that gave me a path to potentially make a difference.
Craig Vogel, M.I.D. Associate Dean
Interview with Dr. Edward Steinfeld
Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access (IDeA)
School of Architecture and Planning, University at Buffalo – State
University of New York Buffalo, New York United States
What do you believe to be the essential elements of inclusive design education?
All students need at least three courses in inclusive design with high quality, relevant readings and projects for each: 1) an introductory course for all university students that would get them interested in universal design. Diversity and Design: Understanding Hidden Consequences is a great text for that. 2) a foundational lecture course on universal design that provides concepts, identifies issues, and identifies best practices. We developed a textbook that can be used as the basic reading for such a course, Universal Design: Creating Inclusive Environments, and 3) a studio or clinical practice course, depending on the discipline. It is particularly important that these courses do not become courses on accessibility regulatory compliance. Such content should be part of a general course on regulatory issues, ideally taught to all students.
What do you see as the major challenges of the inclusive design field? How would you address these challenges?
Building a constituency is a major challenge. To do this, we need to change paradigms from legally mandated accessibility for people with disabilities to a broader approach to design that seeks to improve usability, health and social participation for all people, including those often marginalized and under-represented in the design process. We are addressing this challenge through university education, continuing education, improving codes and standards and development of a UD recognition program based on the adoption of clearly defined universal design strategies.
Building capacity to teach UD also is a challenge. Not many faculty in design schools really have adopted UD. They pay it lip service, but do not have the knowledge and skills needed to teach it in a comprehensive way and are not active in research. The solution is to provide advanced degrees with a concentration on UD for graduate students who want to become educators.
What do you see as the major opportunities of the inclusive design field? How would you address these opportunities?
Industry sees the value of universal design more so than the design professions. But, whatever the client wants, the professionals will do. So, finding early adopters among clients is the key to taking advantage of this interest. One way to do that is to publicize best practice examples and demonstrate their value through design research. Another is to organize communities of practice in UD among existing communities, e.g. housing, arts facilities, workplace environments, health facilities, etc.
What changes do you see on the horizon in inclusive design education?
Universal design is starting to take on a broader emphasis, going beyond the traditional disability focus to address issues of income disparity, health promotion, social integration and a broader approach to design participation
What changes do you see on the horizon in inclusive design research?
It is important for universal design researchers to increase emphasis on knowledge translation by mining the scientific literature. Research is needed that addresses priorities in practice and gaps in the literature, especially in the ambient environment, e.g. acoustics, lighting, thermal comfort, etc. In addition, research is needed that develops useful tools for practice, e.g. virtual and digital tools for incorporation in the design process.
What changes do you see on the horizon in inclusive design practice?
First, validation of UD knowledge is a next step. At the present time, anyone can say they practice universal design. I think there will be a move toward an accreditation or credentialing program to demonstrate that a practitioner really has the knowledge and skills needed to implement a UD approach.
Second, there needs to be a stronger community of practice in UD across the globe. Sharing information and coming together on key concepts and initiatives will help everyone achieve their goals more effectively. This is starting to happen.
What aspects of your inclusive design teaching/research/practice are most compelling and/or satisfying to you? Why?
I am encouraged to see the interest that students have in design for diversity. They are hungry for knowledge that they can use to solve real human problems that are evident all around them. While they value the technical skills they get in design education, aside from sustainable design, they are more interested in human problems. The educational establishment has not addressed differences related to the body, social class, race, culture and others sufficiently. While educators may provide courses with content on diversity, it is often addressed in a critical way rather than in a productive and problem solving context.
What changes have you brought to inclusive design education?
My colleagues and I developed the first graduate concentration program on UD in the U.S. The IDeA Center also has the first online series of courses on the subject that are available as continuing education for practitioners. I am particularly heartened by the excellent students from all over the world who we are attracting to our graduate concentration.
Figure 1. Dr. Ed Steinfeld working with an M. Arch. student in the Inclusive Design Graduate Research Group.
What are your current research interests? How have you involved your students in your research?
I direct a federally funded center of excellence in universal design and the built environment in which we are doing targeted human factors research on anthropometry for people with disabilities, safer stairway design, reduction of slips and falls and developing products for improved way finding. We are also developing evidence-based design strategies that will be available for use in recognition programs like certification.
I also co-direct a federally funded center of excellence in accessible public transportation in which we are studying how to improve accessibility to large and small buses, how to reduce barriers to accessing transit systems and developing accessible software for next bus apps.
We have launched a consulting program for product manufacturers through which we help them develop and test products with UD features.
We also have services directed specifically to design for disability. Our staff design about 60 home adaptations a year for local households with accessibility needs and we have an increasingly active accessibility consulting practice focusing on design reviews and access audits.
I am also involved in a collaborative study with the University of Limerick on continuing education needs in UD among Irish architects. We are doing this work for the Irish Centre of Excellence in Universal Design. We hope to expand this shortly to Australia and the U.S.
Figure 2. Dr. Edward Steinfeld conducting a workshop in Dublin, Ireland for UD educators and clients.
What will drive adoption of UD in the future?
The aging of the population is the most important driver of interest in universal design in first world economies. As you know, I am a gerontologist as well as an architect and I have always advocated for applying UD to issues of aging. In particular, I believe if we had universally designed communities, older people would have very little interest or need for age segregated retirement settings. The IDeA Center is a partner in leading a local Age Friendly Communities initiative with the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and our county government. Through this work we are finding many ways that UD can be applied to issues of aging.
In developing countries, the focus needs to be on addressing the needs of the most marginalized people. This includes addressing problems of homelessness, access to adequate sanitation and water, resiliency in response to disasters, etc. The new University at Buffalo Community of Excellence in Global Health Equities is taking on these challenges, and we hope to play an important role in showing how UD can be applied to these problems effectively.
Edward Steinfeld, Arch.D.is a Distinguished SUNY Professor
Interview with Professor Mary Jane Carroll
Department of Interior Design, Sheridan College, Mississauga, Canada University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
What do you believe to be the essential elements of inclusive design education?
I believe that there are four essential elements in inclusive design education. The first element is advocacy: that is to raise student awareness so that they will become advocates of inclusion, both in policy and practice. If they become advocates as students, they are more likely to become advocates as practitioners. The second element is to make inclusive design key in content across the curriculum, and not limited to courses that are specifically focused on inclusion. If inclusive design becomes ingrained as an expected component of a design strategy, then inclusion becomes a part of normal practice for the design student, and later the design professional. The third is to offer inclusive design curriculum that is open to non-majors, thereby creating greater awareness and potentially greater advocacy across disciplines and beyond the educational realm. The fourth is to make inclusion a part of the delivery model for the teacher. This means the recognition that student groups are by nature diverse and therefore attention to methods of delivery to include different learning styles, as well as differences in physical and cognitive ability benefit the learning experience.
What do you see as the major challenges of the inclusive design field? How would you address these challenges?
In my experience, one of the greatest challenges in practicing inclusive design has centered on client misconception. Specifically, clients incorrectly believe that inclusion and accessibility for people with disabilities are synonymous terms, and that inclusive design solutions are an expensive luxury. I try to address these myths by raising client awareness. As the bottom line is generally the prime motivator for clients, I have found the best method in advocating for inclusion is through the use of a comparative cost breakdown. This helps clients to understand that they need not invest more money in the job for it to be inclusive. And, at the same time, they need not compromise on aesthetics to create an inclusive environment. Of course, this approach is dependent upon the type of job. It is easier to advocate for inclusion in commercial work rather than in residential work as building codes are more stringent and as clients are less personally invested in commercial projects. In residential design, advocacy is more complex. In these cases, I generally advocate for lifespan decisions, and show design decisions that speak to these decisions. Personalizing the need is also important. Life events such as a broken leg, bringing in heavy loads of groceries or aging in place resonate with most clients. However, I have found that this lifespan argument can be age sensitive. Older adults are more likely to be persuaded than younger adults to employ lifespan strategies.
Another issue facing the inclusive design field is that it has not received the level of public attention that other initiatives, such as the sustainable built environment initiative, have received.
Sustainability has become an essential part of practice for designers through the establishment of LEED standards. A building that meets LEED standards is celebrated with public awards, given substantial financial incentives and is heralded as socially responsible. Most design firms now have practitioners on staff that are LEED certified. Although I realize that there are initiatives to this effect in process for the inclusive design field, this type of widespread industry recognition has not been achieved.
What do you see as the major opportunities of the inclusive design field? How would you address these opportunities?
I think most designers would agree that the changing demographics in North America will provide a major opportunity for the inclusive design field. Now that the rights-oriented boomer population has reached senior status and now that we have a greater portion of our population than ever in our history that is over the age of 65, new opportunities will emerge for this area of study and practice.
Some of the opportunities related to the age-quake will be job-based and some academic. For instance, at present, we have a decided lack of professionals who are trained to work in this area of design, and so I see this as a potential niche market for emerging young designers and education to address. Likewise, not all post-secondary design programs include inclusive design curriculum content, and so that is also an area of opportunity and perhaps of specialization.
The other opportunity that I see for the inclusive design field concerns inter-disciplinary research. The design disciplines have been slow to embrace evidence-based research studies and to work closely with other disciplines, such as gerontology or public health. The changing demographics provide a real impetus for interdisciplinary research to occur.
What changes do you see on the horizon in inclusive design education?
One of the most dramatic changes on the horizon for design education is the inclusion of inclusion in the curriculum, and as a focus for design research. The past few years have seen a renewed focus on the end user in design education, and this has lead to greater importance being placed on environment-behavior research and curriculum content. For instance, educational accreditation bodies such as CIDA (Council for Interior Design Accreditation) now include whole standards that are devoted to human factors and universal design. And for Ontarians, the new standards act, the AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act), will mean increased emphasis on training to work in a more inclusive manner. This will occur both within the traditional academic curriculum but also as part of the continuing education seminars and workshops available to professionals.
Likewise, the shift in demographics and the needs of the client base that is associated with these demographics will also provide incentive for academic programs to include content that addresses issues such as aging in place, and public accommodations.
What changes have you brought to inclusive design education?
Over the past decade, my course content has focused on experiential learning, self-reflection, and community outreach rather than following a case study and lecture approach as in the past. For example, I now encourage students to evaluate public interiors using sensory impairment exercises. These exercises reinforce the need to be inclusive early in the design process rather than removing barriers later. I have also developed a community outreach program that requires third year students to work with a local not-for-profit organization to raise awareness through design. Each student group works with a different community group. These include a First Nations organization, an LGBTQ organization, two mental health organizations (one for youths and one for adults), an elder abuse organization, an eating disorder organization and so on. The final realized project is a built exhibit/booth that showcases issues important to the organization. Each kiosk is sited prominently within the college for a one-week period.
And finally, I have developed a first year, multi-sensory design project, the design of a Snoezelen room (a controlled multi-sensory environment used in cognitive therapy) for autistic children.. This project asks students to design with all of their senses, particularly as they are asked to go beyond the layout and design of space to design a new multi-sensory element that could be used for this group.
What are your current research interests? How have you involved your students in your research?
In the past few years, I have focused two areas of research: affordable aging-in-place and people over the age of 50 returning to the classroom for a second career. Students work with me through small internal grants from the college, or alternately through their thesis projects in year 4.
Mary Jane Carroll, M.Arch.is Chair and Professor of Interior Design at Sheridan College in Toronto, Canada
Interview with Dr. Jo-Anne Bichard
University of Brighton, Brighton, United Kingdom
Royal College of Art – Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, London, United Kingdom
What do you believe to be the essential elements of inclusive design education?
I believe the most important element is that the student wants to design inclusively. At the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design we used to have long debates about ‘teaching’ inclusive design as some universities offered it as a module. However, we felt the desire had to come from the designer in the first place–they are designers first, then they find inclusive design. So we offered workshops for newly arrived students and tutorials for those who were further on in their courses, but who wanted to undertake inclusive design. We also had a mantra that inclusive design is just good design. Ideally we are looking for design to be automatically be inclusive, and I am beginning to see this. More and more design has considered the wider population as part of its process, and a current design committee I am working with definitely sees inclusion as mainstream.
What do you see as the major challenges of the inclusive design field? How would you address these challenges?
I have always felt inclusive design to be a philosophy, in that it is a way of thinking and, therefore, beginning the process of design (and it works far better if it is inclusive from the start), but this philosophical perspective might also be because I am a design anthropologist. The challenges remain the same as those that have always been there–how to convince business that despite the overwhelming evidence that inclusive design is good business, it should be incorporated in the design of new products environments and services. It is not mainstream yet. I do not know how to address the inertia of business–one would think the business case would be enough–but it seems the perceived outlay is still considered too costly. So I guess that is one thing we could change. The other is that I often see inclusive designers become facilitators on projects, especially when they have been trained in inclusive design; they know how to work with people and how to engage them in the design process. Subsequently, they are sometimes sidelined, acting as the conduit between users and other designers. This is worrying as there might be key insights that the inclusive designers might be able to contribute, but that might not be taken up by their non- inclusive peers as it did not come directly from the users. Sometimes it is overlooked that it is not just giving the users what they want, but also reading between the lines of what they desire as well. Finally, I do think from a philosophical perspective, we should challenge when inclusive design is merely special needs design– there is still quite a lot of confusion between the two.
What do you see as the major opportunities of the inclusive design field? How would you address these opportunities?
The biggest opportunity is that more consideration is given to inclusive design, we train more designers to undertake it, and they carry the inclusive design philosophy throughout their careers. It has to be remembered that it is not a process that serves every designer. There are a number of skills that are needed that go beyond merely being good at design–being good with people as well as having patience and empathy. There are some people who have tried inclusive design and have not enjoyed it. So from a perspective of introducing it to students, I always emphasize the training in resilience, both professionally and personally, that it also provides. So the opportunity lies in bringing designers to the inclusive programme so that they are aware of it; even if they are not the type to undertake it themselves, they could contribute through their own skill set.
What changes do you see on the horizon in inclusive design education?
Well, I read somewhere that European legislation would make it compulsory that all architecture students are taught inclusive design. I don’t know the details as I don’t teach, but I do have reservations about this. Firstly, this action would require clarification about what exactly inclusive design is, as in the UK, the practice in built environment construction is radically different from the practice in built environment research. These need to be somehow brought together or we are going to continue to have poor quality environments that have merely met the letter of the law rather then use creative problem solving to address people’s needs. This again may come down to the question–can we actually teach inclusive design or is it something designers have to come to and which we mentor?
What changes do you see on the horizon in inclusive design research?
The innovation in research will come from the engagement processes designed to bring people into the inclusive design process. These are key in communicating with users, understanding their perspective and experience, but in a way that speaks creatively to designers. Having used techniques from the social sciences, I now see social scientists using these research methodologies developed from design, and it could be that design leads the way in creative interaction with research subjects across all disciplines. Having worked across many medical, engineering, and social disciplines I am very excited to see design methodologies being engaged across disciplinary boundaries.
What changes do you see on the horizon in inclusive design practice?
I am beginning to see a more engaged consideration of sustainable elements in inclusive design, in an attempt to tackle our most serious global concern of climate change. Unfortunately, these design perspectives have often been treated as singular movements when, in my view, they are closely aligned. Inclusive design is, by its nature, a socially sustainable practice and can be argued to be economically sustainable. Now it needs to make the case for being environmentally sustainable and bringing in considerations of the circular economy. However this also means it needs to engage with the very controversial perspective that population ageing is contributing to climate change. Hence it is, in my opinion, that inclusive designers do so from a sustainable design perspective.
What aspects of your inclusive design teaching/research/practice are most compelling and/or satisfying to you? Why?
For me, it will always be making the difference for just one person. So the student who attends one of my workshops in the early stages and then returns throughout their two years, and then possibly becomes a research associate is a great satisfaction. In research, it comes from the users who have engaged with the process and come forward for further studies. It is always very hard to recruit a diversity of people for research, and so I am always grateful for those who willingly share their time and experiences with us, especially in my particular area of built environment and public toilet research as it often takes a long time for the research to be realized in practice. And finally in practice–I would say it is the excitement of seeing your research delivered. For me, this has been the creation of The Great British Public Toilet Map and having it go live for people to use.
What changes have you brought to inclusive design education?
I have set up a dedicated Design Ethnography workshop that introduces design students to the structure and processes of undertaking ethnographic research, and gives them a foundation to begin exploring their interaction with users. This has now been delivered at the Royal College of Art, the IE School of Architecture and Design in Madrid and the University for Art and Design in Berlin. One of my aims is to introduce as many social anthropologists to designers as possible, so that they can share knowledge and experience that helps bring the user to the forefront of design research.
What are your current research interests? How have you involved your students in your research?
My current research interests focus on the development of the design anthropology field within inclusive design, as well as the access/inclusive debate that is still evidenced in the design of the built environment. At a micro scale, I am still interested in the design of public toilets and their failure to meet people’s needs from a functional design perspective, but also am currently interested in the problem of dog fowling. Pet ownership is an excellent way for older people and those with disabilities to combat feelings of loneliness. However what happens if dog owners, whilst benefitting from the companionship cannot meet the civil responsibility of cleaning up after their pets? I am very inspired by the work of Hen power who have introduced chickens into older people’s lives. I would like to not only explore how pets can help combat loneliness and increase well-being, but also how design may possibly help those who are less able, to take care of their animal friends.
