Universal Design: Try Before You Buy

You’re a construction worker, single and moving into a new rental apartment. Unknown to you it has been updated applying universal design. Not a bad place. Bigger bathroom, wider doors and hallways, everything is easier to reach. Different, but good. Then one day, oops, hernia. Back home after the hospital, whew, this apartment is really great! It’s making life easy as you recover, especially when coughing by itself is a chore, never mind having to manage the rest of day-to-day living. You later discover the apartment owner had renovated the apartment for his father and learn about universal design; forever you will include it in your life – it made that much of a difference.

Without having a hernia, how can you appreciate universal design? Here are a few games to try that take away some degree of mobility and foster an appreciation for designs that accommodate your changing condition:

1. Tired legs: Add about 5-10 pounds to each leg – ideally use an ankle cuff weight and wear as much as possible. Discover the extra effort needed just to walk. Looking for elevators and benches now?
2. Car-less: Leave the car at home for one week. Who’s driving you around? How convenient is public transportation?
3. Arthritis: Invent ways to mimic the loss of grip with your hand or loss of mobility. Use medical tape to restrict your thumb or finger’s movement. Wear an undersized jacket from the thrift store and move without ripping the shoulder seams.
4. Vision Impairments: Be responsible and safe with this one. Wear an eye patch and notice diminished depth of field. Wear sunglasses throughout the day and into the evening. How much more light is enough? To a pair of eyeglasses, (use non-prescription if you don’t have eyeglasses), smear a thin film of soap. Can you dial a phone number?
   

As you visit places, think about your mobility as if some aspect of your body was less than able. Remember that time when you had crutches. Or, observe how others are getting about. I see moms with strollers navigating the NYC subway – it’s a two-person operation and they struggle when on their own. Have fun; explore.

Universal Design: Am I Too Overwhelmed?

Yes I am overwhelmed! Being overwhelmed is normal and everyone agrees. However, overwhelm doesn’t have to be an unchallenged way of life. Overwhelm is the condition of being a victim, only in this case the perp isn’t some guy with a mask and a gun, it’s the job, the bills, the inbox, the kids, the home and every other circumstance that wants to rob you of you.

The first and only step out of being a victim is taking 100% responsibility for your life – you did it, all of it. Nobody did anything to you not even some deity, be it good or evil. Once assumed, no longer do things happen to you, you are allowing them to happen, sometimes through ignorance, and are responsible for their happening. Wow. That’s good news – back in the driver’s seat! Phew.

If I am the driver, and right now I seem to be driving myself crazy with stress, where in fact would I actually want to go? If I look down the road I’m on I see sickness, upset, anger, fear, frustration and disease. Desirable destination? NO! But I can’t see any options either – no side roads, no U-turns. If I am taking this journey off the road called Overwhelm, I’m gonna need help. I’ll need a map, some friends and a few new ways of doing business. Wow. I’m not sure how, but, this is gonna work!

Fast forward to some time later: You’re the master of your life just from this simple shift to being responsible. You don’t complain anymore. Being 100% responsible handled overwhelm and is handling other areas too such as finance. You are as engaged in life as before, but the experience is one of play, joy and passion. Life no longer occurs as a series of crisis that blindside you; it’s not like driving through the fog. The destination, though far off, is now clear and intentional.

Now can I look at universal design? Yes. I can see that it’s a bit like insurance – not a lot of fun, but something that gets handled. It’s now part of my master plan as much as finances, fitness, a sense of community, my emotional stability and my growing ability to care for others. I am creating my future; it is mine to create; and, it will indeed be good.

Universal Design: Destination or Journey?

One day, there will be the ultimate universal design handbook. It will have well conceived answers to every design quandary, each achieved cost effectively and with elegance.

No. That would be as if universal design was a destination, a place we arrive at where solutions were the intention of its creation. This notion that a checklist can be created pervades the present consciousness of legislators and building inspectors alike. We will have measures by which we can recognize the effectiveness of our solutions, however, what brings us closer is when universal design is understood as a journey.

Universal design gives a place from which to look. It is our starting point and it is our compass. As we travel, we find that we have come further and that there is more to go. But to imagine that we arrive is to fall back to a notion that it could become a set of solutions, and that we must conform to them. That would assure that universal design could never be more than a trend, never more than a set of laws that some day gets trashed as disappointment by a future generation.

Universal design is a crackle of possibility seeking expression. It is an opportunity of liberation. It is a willingness to get a lesson thus far not learned. It is a letting go of old thought.

The promise of universal design is inclusiveness. As such, it represents a shift in consciousness more than a recipe. It represents a shift away from a thinking that is rooted in fear, doubt, worry and anxiety. It moves from scarcity to abundance; from stingy to generous; from me to us, from excluded to included. Universal design is an expression of compassion, and, compassion gives us true peace.