Last Thursday we held a meeting on universal design and dr hab. inż. arch. Marek Wysocki from the Universal Design Centre at the Technical Univesity of Gdańsk was our guest.
Our expert presented various worldwide examples, where all users' needs were taken into account in the process of designing. He mentioned factors that influence social activity in the public space, availability strategies and listed laws that force designers to remember not only about sporty users in full health.
Our guest conducted a mini-study during the meeting which was a very interesting experience that engaged all participants. First, he asked everybody to stand up and then consecutively subsequently asked people to sit down - first those with glasses, then those with kids or those who sometimes lead a stroller, those who had an elderly person in the family who needed help with mobility. At the end he asked those people to sit, whi had a wheeled suitcase and sometimes used it. From all participants only a few remained standing. The experiment was to show that any of us can have problems with mobility one day and that is why universal design is so important.
The definition of 'universal design' in built on the following rules:
- 1. utility for people with different physical abilities
- 2. flexibility in usage
- 3. easy and intuitional usage
- 4. legible information
- 5. fault tolerance
- 6. convenient usage without strain
- 7. size and space adjusted to the access and usage
- 8. equality perception (equal rights).
Plenty of participants were fascinated with stairs covering an elevator for the disabled. Here's how they work:
After the presentation we were able to ask questions. The first one came from the presenter himself: What can you do to help implement universal design?
