UD2014

This national study of survey software regarding universal design and accessibility has been conducted by interviewing the makers of such software.
Among the upsides is that the theory apparently is well understood, many impairments are widely known, and there is the will to make a product with a
high degree of accessibility. In order to achieve the goals of universal design, it is necessary to view universal design as a process in the development of IT solutions. The study indicates that quite few, in the daily operations, work in accordance with this principle. Besides improving the knowledge of the relevant legislation, the developer’s competence regarding how to implement universal design in practice should be increased, and adequate methods and processes should be part of how the companies work.

The research project ’Universal Design in Architecture: a new strategy for implementation’ investigates the understanding of UD as a legislative and architectural concept as perceived from the point of view of the practicing architect. The project is based on theoretical studies of multisensory architecture and on qualitative interviews with 7 practicing architects from Norway and Denmark and case studies of their work.
The project shows that practicing architects have broad experience of working with Universal Design and that sensory and social aspects of UD have particular presence in all of their work. But also that the legislative interpretation of UD takes precedence over the architectural interpretation and that it is perceived as limiting to their creativity and the quality of their work. Furthermore the projects documents how the architects consistently work with sensory, social and cognitive aspects of architectural quality, but only perceive physical accessibility as UD in the legislative sense. Their methods, values and architectural thinking is built on a foundation of multisensory inclusion and quality, only they do not perceive this understanding as being UD in the general and legislative manner. Hence they point to the need of a new strategy for discussing and developing UD as an inclusive architectural means of quality within the architectural profession.
The project is financed by the Norwegian State Housing Bank.

Forest Glen Park in Woodridge, Illinois was provided a grant through the Kellogg Foundation to include Universal Design Principles into its new park. While the park was only 2.1 acres each recreational element used at least one Principle of Universal Design. The park provided gently sloped walkways with smooth transitions to the playground and swing surfaces. The elevated play components of the playground were accessible by a ramp system. A raised garden bed with a water feature provided easy access to garden and the various water features. Picnic tables provided access to a person using a wheelchair to enjoy both the shade and the sun.
Information on the required recreational standards under the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG) are highlighted in this paper. But additional information will indicate what Universal Design Principles were incorporated, why and how they increased the overall accessibility of the park and its various features.

This short paper presents universal design studio conducted for undergraduate architecture students at School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal, India. The studio was conducted under Berkeley Prize Teaching Fellowship-2013 with a theme of inclusive design. The objective of the studio was to identify the environmental challenges for diverse users visiting a historic pilgrimage in India, and provide contextual and inclusive solution for universal usability.

Objectives of tasks
Proposals of the default orientation to improve the convenience of visitors to the national park.
Developing the basic guide lines for improving the convenience facilities for exploring the park including the traffic handicapped tourists. As a results everyone can enjoy the tour.

Space range
National Park, the nation’s public construction, public facilities, pedestrian facilities in all parks

Details of tasks
The concept of universal design and coverage
Analysis of facilities related to the traffic handicapped tourists including the convenience plant for the disabled persons.
Developing the universal design guide lines and setting up utilization plan.
Designing the Universal the National Park Design Guidelines Handbook

Hotels and resorts are an interesting subject for architects since they combine many functions, requiring various spaces and facilities. This places many demands on the process of designing hotels given the diversity of people, including those with disabilities, who stay and work in them and the wide range of activities that these establishments must accommodate. This presentation proposes that hotel and resort design is well suited to teaching UD and will show how all users’ requirements can be met through the design process. Examples of designs and guidelines for accessible and inclusive hotels based on UD principles are presented and discussed.

Compatibility with assistive technology (AT) such as screen readers is a precondition for universal design of ICT. This is also a requirement in the W3C WCAG guidelines. Experience shows that providing compatibility with one screen reader does not necessarily ensure compatibility with other screen readers from different vendors. It is therefore necessary to test an ICT solution with different AT from different vendors to ensure accessibility for all AT users. In this work, we investigate compatibility challenges with AT in depth and explore the potential for an online tool for AT compatibility testing.

To make the built environment accessible for all, building regulations and norms need to be updated to reflect the evolution in mobility aids in the contemporary world. This research is suggesting new proposals for norms and standards for the parking spaces by taking the evolution in new wheeled mobility aids into account.

People with impaired vision/blindness acquire information about the street environment through a long white cane that allows them to feel different surface structures or being able to see distinct contrasts between different surfaces. Hence important design details in the pedestrian environment must function reliably, i.e. different kinds of passages across streets and bicycle lanes, separation between pedestrian and bicycle lanes and design of bus stops. Properly designed surfaces satisfy three requirements: guidance, warnings, and choices. Pedestrian pathways must be easy to notice and follow. Gaps in the environment require artificial guiding surfaces, e.g. sinusoidal or rib slabs and must be 60 – 70 cm wide. The slabs of the guiding surfaces are to be placed so that the grooves lie in the direction of the walk and provide a tactile sensation in the hand via the cane. Warning surfaces must consist of chamfered domes. To enable people with minor visual impairments to follow a path, it must have light contrasts with the surroundings, at least .40 according to the NCS system. At the conference we will show how people with visual impairments experience different design details in the pedestrian environment, and what impact they have on their usability and safety.

Purpose of the Study
To be able to walk around in the neighborhood is an important part of daily life. There are elderly people who cannot go for a walk or cannot go to shop in their neighborhood because of not accessible pathway or pavements, feelings of being insecure or fear of traffic accidents.
The number of elderly citizen’s accidents increases every year with aging in Japan. The number of elderly citizen’s falling accident is more than the traffic accident. In addition, many traffic accidents of elderly people has happened in their neighborhood. It is expected that a lot of falling accidents occur in their neighborhood too, but the falling accident places are not recorded in Japan.
On the other hand, by the transportation accessibility improvement law in Japan, many station and the surrounding of the station have been improved, but the neighborhood district have not been improved. The purpose of this study is to investigate the realities of the falling accident in the elderly people in neighborhood districts.
Methods
To do this, one specific neighborhood district in the city of Toyonaka in Osaka of Japan was selected as the target for this study. The hearing survey was conducted to 40 elderly people about falling experiences in their neighborhood. In addition, another 34 elderly people checked pathways of accessibility in their neighborhood.
Results
The elderly people who had the falling experiences were about 30%, some people had severe injury by bone fracture. The falling places were mapped. The falling reasons were stumbling at uneven pavement and slope, falling to the ditch. In the field check, there were opinion about the width of the pathway, the height of dropped kerb, and amount of traffic, but the falling places by hearing survey were not pointed out. The falling places are not barriers or dangerous places for elderly people in their daily life. It is clear that the place where the elderly people do not think dangerous is the falling places.
Conclusion
From the above results, the elderly people is stumbling at a little uneven pavement that they do not think dangerous. When the local governments make an accessibility basic plan, users participate the planning to state their needs and ideas. However, from the results of this study, elderly people do not find the uneven pavement to be dangerous. In the future, when the local governments make an accessibility basic plan, it is a problem how to find dangerous places of falling on the check field survey.