What
is Universal Design? What is its importance?
It is a new philosophy in organizing the community, environment,
services and information in a way that all design provides
access to as many people as possible (including people with
all types of disabilities, elderly persons, and people with
temporary mobility impairments) without having to make any
adaptations. The idea behind Universal Design is that any
space, building, product, service as well as information
are designed in a way to be accessible, usable, understandable
and comfortable for all people. The principle is not to
differentiate between able-bodied people and disabled people
in design. In this way, Universal Design does not require
additional equipment, special spaces and particular services
specifically for a certain group of people as it accounts
diversity at the very beginning of the design process. This
is a new and innovative idea developed in the US and it
is part of the Council of Europe resolution ResAP (2001)1
on the introduction of the principles of Universal Design
into the curricula of all occupations working on the built
environment.
Universal Design could be a tool for setting standards that
allow all people, including those with disabilities, to
enter the built environment and access services and information.
It could also be a way for decision-makers and local authorities
responsible for the built environment to learn to create
societies that are acceptable and reachable for most of
the population without having to invest extra resources
in adaptations. For societies that have reached some level
of inclusion, Universal Design could be a way of making
these values more sustainable.
Universal Design is a human rights issue: it allows different
people of different abilities to achieve their rights without
any segregation caused by barriers in the built environment.
For South East Europe, a region in transition, Universal
Design is especially important given the on-going reconstruction
of cities and communities and numerous development programmes
taking place within the EU accession process. There is an
opportunity now to introduce the principles of Universal
Design within the development agenda to prevent new spaces
from being built in an inaccessible.
Why is this issue so challenging in terms of implementation?
Formally speaking, there are good laws and by-laws but due
to high rates of corruption within building and construction
they are rarely implemented. This corruption results in
impenetrable connections between institutions and other
parties involved in building, construction and planning
(i.e. investors, construction firms etc…) and it is difficult
to put pressure on these groups to implement Universal Design.
The long-term failure is that the idea of Universal Design
is not included on a sufficient level within the curricula
at faculties and universities. In BiH for example, students
of the architecture faculty learn about Universal Design
and accessibility only at the post-graduate level. In the
industrial design high schools, Universal Design is taught
only if a professor is interested in the topic but there
is no official curriculum on the topic.
How have you disseminated Universal Design principles in
Bosnia?
IC Lotos implemented a project financed by Canadian Urban
Institute through CIDA to help local communities establish
standards for urban plans. The objective of their project
was to disseminate Universal Design principles throughout
local communities in BiH. They translated Universal Design
principles into Bosnian along with a collection of good
practices. They also translated the Council of Europe ResAP
(2001)1 and prepared flyers on Universal Design and human
rights.
After publishing this material, they organized a 3 day seminar
for different stakeholders including: architects, construction
companies, builders, universities, architecture faculties,
industrial design faculties, Tuzla municipalities and local
bodies responsible for issuing building permits, as well
as, NGOs and DPOs from the region. They used the seminar
to promote the idea of Universal Design while showing how
it can be implemented. After the seminar, IC Lotos disseminated
the materials to key stakeholders throughout the region.
What is needed to make concrete changes in the built environment?
Universal Design needs to be accepted as the standard for
building and planning. There are three components needed
to achieve this:
1. A strong legal framework with a well-built monitoring
system and enforcement mechanisms and anti-discrimination
legislation are needed. In the region, there is a strong
need to have good advocates and watchdogs monitoring implementation.
2. Universal Design principles must be a part of the curricula
within the educational system.
3. Awareness raising is needed to promote the idea of Universal
Design within the community.
What are the opportunities for change in the region?
As the countries in the region prepare for EU accession,
there are several EU directives on accessibility that can
be used as a good tool for lobbying the state to adopt similar
standards. The EU directives on access to telecommunication
and information, the EU directive on low-floor buses and
the EU lift directive all introduce Universal Design or
Design-for-All standards in the purchase of public goods.
These pubic procurement directives are a good tool for raising
the awareness of investors on the principles of Universal
Design. At the same time, the Council of Europe ResAP (2001)1
is a good instrument for lobbying universities to include
Universal Design or Design-for-All principles in their curriculum.
In addition to harmonizing national legislation with EU
standards, there are many international actors in the region
investing in the development of cities and towns but without
applying Universal Design principles in their projects.
For example, under a project on the reconstruction of schools
in BiH, many schools that were re-built are not accessible.
There is a real opportunity for advocates to lobby international
stakeholders to include their domestic accessibility standards
and those of Universal Design in the development process.
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