Attended the Boston Regional Library System workshop entitled “Libraries Designed for Social Sustainability” yesterday and found it to be exciting. The presenters, from Adaptive Environments, Inc., a non-profit soon to become the Institute for Human Centered Design, promote universal design or design-for-all. These folks pioneered many ideas about accessible design since their inception in 1978 and contend that design based upon universal principles can be dynamic, exciting and attractive. Accessible design need not equal dull. Inherent in the ideas expressed I found a civic base – a goal to serve all well. Valerie Fletcher, Executive Director, explained that “variation in human ability is ordinary,” not exceptional. The aging of the world population alone makes a compelling case for incorporating these ideas. There will soon be more people over 60 years of age than under thirty – which has probably never happened in human history before. Advances in neuroscience provide further evidence for, identification of, and understanding about the variability in human abilities.
In addition to an overview of these ideas about designing the built, communications, and information environments to accommodate the widest range of physical and intellectual human abilities, Valerie and the AE librarian presented many good and bad examples of design in public spaces, many within libraries. Simple ideas applied in advance and carefully thought out can greatly improve the usefulness of facilities and services for all users. As Valerie said at one point, the need to apply “caution tape,” as on the steps entering the atrium of a library, or signage noting hazards and obstacles present clear evidence of poor design choices. The folks at Adaptive Environments, while happy to help see that design meets ADA compliance standards, consider this the floor above which all good universal design should rise.
Were I applying such ideas to this post I would add some visuals and provide a spoken alternative to these written words!
