In 2012 a project was conducted aiming to explore accessibility in preschools and schools in one region of Sweden. The project was a cooperation between the Swedish National Agency for Special Needs Education and Schools and Mälardalen University. Both questionnaires and interviews were conducted. Questions and answers concerned accessibility to the physical, pedagogical and social environments (Ds 2010:20).
The results show that physical environment in schools and preschools usually are not ready to welcome new pupils with disabilities. When a pupil with disabilities comes, the school will first have to adapt the physical environment to individual needs before education can start.
The pedagogical environment and the teaching can be devided into three categories: traditional teaching, teachers who have started to change their teaching and progressive teachers who have come a long way towards accessibility
A tolerant and accepting social environment varies between school that provide joint activities for pupils with and without disabilities and those that do not.
Can a person with mental redardation set a standard? How about a person with autism? Or with some other cognitive disability?
”Begripsam” is a project on user-driven assessment and user participation in standardisation for persons with cognitive disabilities. Ordinary methods are not working well why we have developed a mix of old and new ones. Is it possible to have a universal design approach on these methods?
Quadrangle Architects is 100 person architecture and design firm in Toronto, Canada. When designing their new studio space, they took the opportunity to incorporate the principles of Universal Design in an integrated manner into the process and design of the new space. This case study explores the process of the design, the inclusive design features of the studio, the impact of the new space on the staff, clients and visitors and new opportunities for advocacy. The success of the design is evident in the user satisfaction for those working at Quadrangle, in the recognition the firm has received through tours, writing, speaking engagements and an international universal design award. The space continues to be used as a living lab by the accessibility specialists at Quadrangle to explore new ideas in universal design.
The rise of the number of Disabled Individuals, worldwide, to a billion, necessitates applying the policies that allow full participation in social life or Mainstreaming these Individuals. Western countries provide a good example in this respect and the choice of the United States and Sweden will be justified. As to Arab Countries, Egypt and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia reveal efforts to integrate this group into social life and Mainstream its members.
Downsizing and retirement village living are popularly regarded as the norm for older Australians, when in reality this accounts for only a small proportion of them. Most remain in their own larger detached homes in the general community for as long as possible, until disability or illness renders this difficult or impossible. However the design of most detached suburban houses does not facilitate ageing in place. Based on findings from two recent research projects funded by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, this paper explores why most older Australians remain in their own homes, why those who do move or downsize do so, into what types of dwellings and tenure, and how they go about this process . The findings challenge conventional understandings of both housing utilization and downsizing. Underutilisation is largely a misnomer amongst older Australians and downsizing is relatively rare. Those who do downsize do so generally for lifestyle and reduced maintenance rather than financial reasons, yet there is a lack of supply of appropriately designed, located and affordable housing which ironically might encourage moving/downsizing to the benefit of the ageing population and the wider housing market. These findings also support the need to accelerate the adoption of universal design principles in both housing and neighbourhoods, a need also recognized by older people themselves.
In this paper we describe guidelines derived from developing a mobile touchscreen based assistive tool which aims to maintain and improve individual health conditions and support physical activity by elderly. We do not focus on the features of the tool but rather on the general insights about the persuasive technology that were gained from interviews, focus groups and iterative co-creation workshops.
The LormHand is a public installation allowing deaf-blind people to post messages on Twitter or other social networks. This is achieved by means of a tangible interface in the shape of a hand, designed to recognize the tactile patterns of the Lorm Alphabet. It was originally developed for a deaf-blind protest in Berlin and addresses the condition of isolation imparted by deaf-blindness.
The authors found problems that the elderly people are facing in their daily life using everyday technologies including home electric appliances. They developed principles to design home appliances for elderly persons and a couple of talking apparatuses to draw attention or to lead correct behavior for persons who are dementia or MCI. They are the smell warning for refrigerator, the adviser to stay at home, and the room climate telling.
The user-centered design process helps ensure the requirements of the users are met throughout the development of a product or service. Universal design is an approach that makes sure that the needs of people with disabilities are incor porated. While many have suggested combining user-centered design and univer sal design, we demonstrate how it can be done in the development of prototypes and mobile apps for the Internet of Things. Applying the user-centered and univer sal design process allowed us to identify complex issues with user interaction that would not have have been found only using accessibility guidelines. We recom mend focusing on technical accessibility, performing user evaluations with persons with disabilities, and having an accessibility champion for advocating universal de sign issues throughout a project.
To what extent does the demand and development of online anonymity interact with efforts to achieve universal design and preserve copyright protections? Based on original research, currently in progress, this article establishes a rational choice model for policy actors involved in the adoption of online anonymity technology. The analysis then compares the model to qualitative data collected from a document analysis of media and government publications and quantitative data on web search trends. The results demonstrate the importance of a universal design approach to web content, the limitations of current legislative approaches to accessibility, and the unintended effects of intellectual property laws. The paper concludes by identifying opportunities for extending the empirical examination of the web as a site of intractable governance.