BARRIER FREE ARCHITECTURE

ASSIGNMENT

(ARTICLE REVIEW)

BY : GAURAV CHAUHAN
A1904014133
SECTION C BATCH: 2014-19
 From accessibility to inclusion

An ethical perspective
By : Dr Inger Marie Lid
[Oslo and Akershus University College, Norway]

Does universal design promote respect for human dignity? One of today’s most important
challenges concerns the interpretation of human plurality. Universal design signifies that
diversity in abilities in the human condition is to be accommodated. At a society level,
universal design is based on equality and equal opportunities as values. For the individual this
strategy should be linked to plurality, inclusion and self-respect.

What does it mean that universal design is usable?

It can be helpful to analyse universal design on a micro, meso and macro level

Macro level Ethical concept, concept of human, social justice

Meso level Technical standard
Micro level Individual experience. Accessibility and usability, citizenship
The micro level relates to different individuals, inclusion and self-respect. Accessibility and
barriers are experienced by individuals with or without impairments. Universal design is not
the best concept to use at this level, since what people experience, are accessibility and
barriers. According to CRPD article 2, universal design products, environments, programmes
and services should be “usable for all people to the greatest extent possible”. In order to
examine if something is usable, we need to visualize individual persons. Experiencing access
contributes to giving individuals a social basis for self-respect as equal citizens. Usability is a
subjective term. If design is to be usable by all people to the greatest extent possible, there is
a need for knowledge from a great number of different individual perspectives. At the meso
level, the fact that physical barriers hinder people from taking part in life and society as
citizens is addressed by technical standards in planning and building regulations. Disability
can emerge in concrete situations if technical standards do not include the perspective of
people with impairments. In the Norwegian context, universal design is now implemented in
several laws and regulations, for example in the Planning and Building Act. At a macro level,
universal design is an ethical and political concept based on democratic values aiming at social
inclusion. At this level, universal design expresses recognition of people as different and
equal.
Conclusion
The ethical dimension in universal design relates to the individual and the situation.
Universal design as a design principle can lead to a world where people are visible as different
citizens. Universal design concerns citizenship, social inclusion, participation and human
dignity on a structural level. However, the strategy is not infallible and needs further
development and evaluation in order to be a productive tool for inclusion. Put in a democratic
context this strategy is valuable and vulnerable. It should be approached comprehensively
and evaluated in light of different individual perspectives.
Universal design has the potential to give scope and place for manifold people and thus let
different people see each other as they are. As pointed out, Hannah Arendt emphasized the
right to have rights as a right to belong to some kind of organized community. When what is
practised at a meso level is in accordance with the values and can accommodate a rich
plurality of individual conditions, universal design can lead to a more equitable and inclusive
world.

Visual design of bicycle routes to prevent single-bicycle crashes

The IDED analyses shows that thread marking is necessary for safe descending of this stair.
The IDED method consists of two steps: ‘Image Degrading’ (ID) and an ‘Edge detection’ to
calculate and display the visibility of important structures in the periphery of the visual field.