Accessibility Watch:Two Decades of Living with ADA
This summer marks the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), our federal government’s attempt to ensure the civil rights of U.S citizens with disabilities. It requires that all public spaces and programs be accessible to everyone, regardless of their abilities. This, of course, is a commendably idealistic standard. But as anyone who navigates the real world (either with a disability, or as in my case, with someone who has a disability) will tell you, the promise of the well-intentioned law has come true only partially. There’s much more work to be done! While the ADA has been a good start, and now that the architecture, building, and planning industries have gotten the ADA design standards down fairly well, it’s time for progress to be made in other areas of design.
Experiencing life with my mother, whose mobility is impaired by Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a disease which affects the central nervous system and impairs movement, we see every day that many aspects of her life need designers’ attention, not just the built environment. The smaller, more personal objects that are vital to mediating her interaction with her world—canes, walkers, wheelchairs, and scooters—deserve high standards of design too. In health insurance speak these objects are “Durable Goods,” intended for use on an ongoing basis. In many cases the design of these objects is completely dependant on cost restrictions, and suffers from a lack of thoughtfulness, imagination, and innovation.
In John Hockenberry’s 2006 Metropolis article about a famous architect with a serious disability, “The Re-Education of Michael Graves”, Michael Graves, explains his compulsion to redesign the medical equipment he found most unappealing, once it became a necessary part of his own lifestyle. Perhaps it’s the designer’s impulse in me too, but I’ve felt the need to do the same for the objects in my mother’s life, from fashion and furniture, all the way down to syringes and their systems of disposal.
Why should someone I love have to live every day with poorly designed goods that just barely do the job, and can be so isolating, cold and impersonal? Why is there so little choice? What are the psychological repercussions of such inattention?
Ultimately even the Graves line of products deviate little from the look and feel of their predecessors, a valiant attempt on the road to progress, but not a great stride. I would love to see designers, manufacturers, and retailers embrace the idea that disabilities rights extend beyond door widths and ramps, to entire lifestyles that deserve considerately designed objects.
Emily Leibin is an industrial designer and design writer living in New York. In May of 2010 she graduated from the School of Visual Arts’ MFA Design Criticism program. She holds a BA in industrial design from Pratt Institute and is a fellow at the Philip Johnson Glass House in New Canaan, CT. emilyleibin@gmail.com
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[…] Two Decades of Living with ADA […]
Pingback by Multiple Sclerosis Daily News » Design for People with Disabilities — August 23, 2010, @ 3:18 pm
As someone now in a wheelchair, I agree totally with Emily.
Comment by Horace — August 23, 2010, @ 5:58 pm
Very insightful commentary because Ms. Leibin’s mother is not alone.
As the US population ages (yet vainly attempts to ignore all signs of becoming old), products with high design aesthetics and ease of use will gain more and more support from disabled and abled alike.
Any skeptics can look to the success of brands like OXO as prove.
Comment by Steve — August 24, 2010, @ 1:18 am
Part of the problem is that most people do not think about these things until it directly affects them in some way or another. I doubt you had thought about this issue until your mother was affected. As someone who works with the visually impaired, I’m often disappointed at how slowly technology advances. The basic reason is that there is no money in it. When something that is effective and designed well is made, it is then ridiculously expensive because these things aren’t mass produced and take a great deal of time. Maybe there will be advances in mobility devices for the elderly, as such a huge portion of our population will soon be entering that category. I believe that the government needs to fund development in assistive technology and mobility devices because a government should be responsible for the welfare of all it’s people, disabled or not. If that means higher taxes so be it.
Comment by SMR — August 26, 2010, @ 1:57 am
[…] I usually go to 456 Berea Street for interesting posts on accessibility and compliance in design, but Metropolis Magazine features an interesting post, which might inform your own interface work, on how two decades post ADA universal design is not so universal when “product” lags behind… […]
Pingback by Think Vitamin » Around the Web: Data Detectives & Designers & Font Loved Forms — August 30, 2010, @ 9:06 pm
The area little covered by ADA and little addressed by architects and designers is the tremendous number of people with hearing loss now and growing.
My pet peeve: very noisy restaurants. I remember as a kid, the “special” dinners I had with my parents when we all dressed up were in carpeted and low ceiling restaurants where you could easily hear each other. But the fashion has been bare floor (easy clean up, I guess), high ceilings, lots of metal, exposed pipes and ducts, music that is everywhere with small speakers and turned up too loudly, and an acoustically active room that even normal hearing people have trouble with. Now, imagine you have lost some hearing. It’s impossible to hear or enjoy your meal.
There are also other inner ear related problems such as Ménière’s disease which impacts hearing, balance, and causes tinnitus. Having a calm, well designed, easy to walk/wheel in, no crazy lights or noises for an establishment, would help many.
The National Institutes of Health estimates that about 615,000 people in the US have Ménière’s disease and that 45,500 new cases are diagnosed each year. In contrast, there are approximately 250,000 to 350,000 people in the United States with Multiple Sclerosis.
That one hearing loss related disease, out of many with hearing loss, is double MS.
Comment by JC — September 1, 2010, @ 4:18 pm