Universal Design is not just about disabilities.

Blogger Shyamala is an industrial designer. In her recent post (http://pshyama.wordpress.com/) she does a nice job of illustrating a number of universal design principles through the thoughtful creation of three personas with disabilities. It’s well done, but does seem to miss one of the key aspects of universal design. UD is not simply about making things useful/usable by people with disabilities. Really excellent examples of UD improve usage for all people. From a picture of the Toyota prototype that she shows it is obvious that this would be a more usable design for someone with mobility issues. But I am 6’ 4” tall and am forever sitting down in a front seat, not realizing that my wife has moved the seat forward and banging my knees and twisting my back in the process. Sure, it would be nice if I learned, but I don't, and sometimes I have to say that it's not apparent that the seat is forward from a quick glance early in the morning. Also, this design looks like it would provide easier access to the back seat—something that full sized adults or school kids with heavy backpacks would benefit from. I can relate how this would be helpful to folks with impairments—I’m thinking of the times I’ve thrown my back out, when getting into a traditional front seat is a nightmare—but a good design like this is helpful for a much wider audience.

As Shyamala points out “Universal design is the concept or approach to be more precise, of making any design accessible and usable by as many people as possible, irrespective of the age, situation and ability.“ However, typically this gets relegated in practice to “designs that are good for people with impairments or disabilities.” When this happens, we all miss out and the UD message is weakened.

The reality is that many designs are what they are because of historical technological limits or for no better reason than a lack of comprehensive thought being applied during the design process. Also at play is the consumer preference for low price over quality of design and construction, even thought the two are not inherently in conflict. I think affordability should be the eigth UD principle.

When we focus only on accommodation, rather than universal benefit, we unfortunately undermine the full promise of UD. As unpleasant as it is, the reality is that things that are seen solely as accommodations for those with disabilities will wind up being marginalized by a large proportion of the population. On the other hand, if the same designs are seen simply as “easier to use” they will get wider appeal and acceptance. Best to think of UD as a movement to create a more functional, flexible, intuitive and forgiving environment for all of us. If that were achieved, the need to make physical modifications to homes would be greatly decreased.

What's that box? Senior social networking??

What's that box to the left here, the one with the vintage photo of a guy scratching his chin? Its a Twitter gadget, showing my tweets. Might sond abit personal, but so it is, believe it or not.


I'm still not sure that Web 2.0 apps like Twitter will ever amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world (other than to make it crazier) but then again, they may be just the ticket.


Check out this article in the NY Times about social networking for the senior set.


http://tinyurl.com/lczw2n


I foresee tweets from the cruise ship. Tweeting family to say that all is well. A Twitter based device that sends an alert tweet if I don't press it on a regular basis. At least the grand kids would know about it.


Actually, while I expect Twitter won't last in its current form, and that little Twitter box over there will go away someday, I am a strong believer that technology will ease many of the burdens of age, and psychological isolation is certainly one of them. It's certainly not a panacea, but internet based socialization can certainly be a great boon for those who have limited ability to connect in other ways. Indeed, just like some youths and younger adults find it more easy to connect in a virtual world than a real one, there are probaby a lot of seniors who would sit isolated in a room full of people but who find that they have youthful, renewed ability on the social network.

What lesson will they learn?

As we boomers age and take first hand seats watching how our older friends and our parents handle the journey, I wonder what lessons we will really learn. Many times, we have customers who call us out to discuss a plan for an aging or disabled relative, only to have the person’s condition worsen before anything can be done. Often, the loved one passes away. In some cases they have spent years dealing with frailty and diminished ability, with an environment that creates stress or unhappiness, but when they finally decide to take action, it is too late. In the current economy, this is happening more and more.

In just the past month, we numerous examples—a family that made some urgent modifications and bought a portable ramp that never got out of the box because their loved one died. A family who wanted to make home better for their father who was in their 80’s—he passed away just before we were to visit the home. He was surrounded by his grandchildren and passed quietly in his sleep—isn’t that how we would all like to go.

One lesson, the one I would like to see, is that we need to be proactive in order for adaptations to our homes to provide value. But I’m sure many others will see a lesson of “why bother.” Perhaps this will be resignation that the latter stages of our life will be short and not worth taking precautions for. And that will be true for some. But for many more, life could be safer and more gratifying if we plan ahead. Not just for things like walk in showers or masters on the main, but for basic requirements for sound roof, durable flooring and efficient HVAC.

As a generation, which will be the lesson we most often learn—act, wait or not bother at all?

Fix Housing or Sell Housing?

I got interested when I saw the name of the initiative--Fix Housing First. At last, I thought, someone is paying attention to the problem of our aging housing stock. It's a waste to continually tear down existing housing and build new in its place (or spread out and use up more land) when so many properties could be repaired and upgraded, maintaining the character and livabilty of existing neighborhoods.


But alas, the Fix Housing First initiative has nothing to do with fixing houses, it is about incentives to buy and sell homes--a package of tax credits and low fixed rate mortgages for buyers of homes. Nothing for those who prefer to stay where they are.


Now, I recognize that we are all impacted by the decline in home prices, and housing market improvements will help everyone secure credit and retain wealth. Many seniors, in particular, have had to delay plans to move to assisted living or to be closer to family because of the slow real estate market, so a rebound would be particularly advantageous for them. A rebound in the housing market will be good for most existing home buyers.


But the cynic in me also knows that large scale developers are the most direct beneficiaries of a program like this. And I'm reminded that speculation and overdevelopment are partly at fault for the decline in home values, which were inflated by the real estate bubble. Rather than always pushing to use up more land and to build new, wouldn't it be nice to see incentives and programs that support people who invest in their existing property and who help improve and maintain the neighborhood where they live? That would be wiser and lead to more sustainable and effective housing for most.

More details about the Fix Housing Now initiative here: http://www.fixhousingfirst.com/newsite/index.php

Being willing to modify tradition

We had a great Thanksgiving here, hope you all did. The holiday feast has moved to our house over the past decade because I love to cook, and we seem to have no shortage of family and friends who are happy to contribute and eat. But there is a certain level of stress, and a tad bit of work, to pulling it off.

I was on the bus the other day and overheard a woman say “I think I’m getting to that “Bah Humbug” stage of life where I don’t want to go through all the holiday hassle. I tried to get my family to go out to a restaurant.” This got me thinking about a story some friends of mine used to tell. One year, they headed up to visit her folks for the holiday. It’s was about a 3-4 hour drive to Seattle from Portland in those days, and all the way up they were thinking about drumsticks, mounds of mashers and puddles of gravy. They were anticipating the joy of walking into the house from a cold day and smelling all those aromas melding into a sensory explosion. Imagine their concern when they walked in and smelled…nothing.

Seems Mom had decided that it was just too hard and too much stress to cook the meal the day it was to be eaten. She had a new microwave and she intended to use it. She had peacefully cooked up the components of the meal over the weeks leading up and carefully interred them in the freezer. Dessert was even apportioned and ready to go with dessert spoons on the plate. I’ve tried to banish the thought of Swanson TV dinners with this tale, to no avail.

But while it’s easy perhaps to make fun, thinking back I’ve come to realize my friend’s Mom had done a wise thing for her. She had gotten to a point where what was once easy was stressful; where what was expected of her was not what she wanted to do. So she took control and changed the rules. She decided that doing things the same old way got in the way of her enjoyment of the holiday and her family. It’s really an admirable thing, even if I shudder at the thought of serving turkey dinner from the microwave.

This is what we need to do as we age. We need to recognize that the old ways of bathing, cooking, storing things may have been fine when we were young but as we age, we have to modify our routines. And we should do it in a way that makes us feel proud, not beleaguered. We can use new designs and new technology to our benefit. A walk-in bathtub might carry a connotation, but it’s a safer way to get a relaxing soak. Web cameras and social networking sites can help us maintain contact with friends and family and even make new friends, even if we are less mobile. Removing steps to a sunken living room may be just the way to banish the old Rat Pack era design ethics and create a more modern, safer living area. And deciding that downstairs bedroom is really just as good as the one on at the top of the stairs is a great way to intelligently change the way we do things to adapt to the way we are today.

Tradition is great and we all love to remember “the old days.” But when it comes to traditional, inflexible and intolerant aspects of home design, the sooner we relegate them to memories, the better.