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The challenge of teaching universal design is to avoid the stereotypical
approaches to teaching about people with disabilities and stimulate critical and creative
thought among students, faculty, and staff about a full range of users with differing
abilities and preferences. While it is very important that design students be able to
design within the ADA Accessibility Guidelines, its cursory treatment in the curriculum
and the "morning after" status that it receives in design thinking strongly
suggest that a different approach must be taken. The goal of this proposal is to convey to
students the essential value of the ADA as civil rights law - that all people must be able
to use designed environments and that accommodating a variety of users is the essence of
good design.
The challenge of teaching universal design and not getting mired in the specific
requirements of the American with Disabilities Act is to mentally challenge design
students to design inclusively for the full range of users of an environment, rather than
merely comply with a standard or code. Inclusive design is primarily a value, not a skill
or content area. The most effective way to address and incorporate values in a curriculum
is to infuse them into the curriculum.
The core of the UDEP proposal is to encourage and assist faculty in the architecture,
interior architecture and landscape architecture programs to incorporate universal design
values in their classes and studios by building onto what they are already teaching,
rather than asking them to significantly alter what they do.
The team is developing a menu of options - a smorgasbord - from which faculty can choose
materials for inclusion in their classes. The team is available to discuss the value of
universal design and brainstorm as a group and individually how faculty might reflect
those values in their existing materials, or add new material or strategies to supplement
what they already do.
Typical strategies include:
Use of diverse reviewers
 | as reviewers in design studios |
| as design studio clients |
| for desk crits |
| as partners for empathic experience |
Access to existing resources
| appropriate readings |
| stimulating video materials |
| slide images - in collection or created |
| case studies |
| links to internet resources |
Access to new materials
| lecture materials |
| exercises |
| case studies |
| sketch problems |
| computer applications |
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