Inclusive informal campus spaces through Universal Design India Principles

Authors

Gaurav Raheja and Smita Suryawanshi

Session

C3. Universal workspaces and inclusive campus spaces

Date and Time

2014-06-17, 11:00 - 11:20

Room

MA 1
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Abstract

This paper is an attempt to focus upon the role of Universal Design (UD) in informal campus spaces as a means to create access and inclusion. It uses the Universal Design India Principles (UDIP) as an applied concept in the interpretation of accessibility planning issues for an educational campus of higher learning in an Indian context. Based upon a recent live project on conducting access audit for an internationally well known Indian university i.e. Jawahar Lal Nehru University (JNU) at New Delhi, involving the authors as prime consultants, it maps and defines the process employed to guide universal access in educational campus environments. It discusses the various perspectives of contextual relevance of UDIP with diverse users in informal spaces of a typical Indian education context. The paper finds its origin in the belief that universal access in informal spaces on educational campuses would contribute immensely towards an inclusive higher education.