Archinect - News

A deeper look into #ADAFails and the inaccessibility of common public spaces

2020-02-03T12:31:00-05:00

Ask any disabled person about the gap between the ADA’s aspirations and their hard realities. We are often forced to stop in our tracks and weigh the chances of falling and suffering minor or serious injury against the need to go into a library, store, or post office. But it’s more than that. We believe strongly that we deserve a right to exist in the world. We’re just waiting for the rest of the world to truly believe this, too.

Writing in The Nation, author Elizabeth Guffey reflects on the ongoing accessibility failures that impede the everyday experiences of countless people in the United States despite the fact that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was enacted 30 years ago.

Guffey takes a look into the #ADAFail photo genre that documents common “access fails," or quotidian instances of inaccessible design that making navigating through the country's built environment frustrating, difficult, and often dangerous for people who have disabilities.

One thing you can say about @NCDOT: Their licensed professional engineers spare no expense in addressing the basic needs of people with disabilities along state highways across the Good Roads State. #HoldMyBeer #ADAfail #LawsuitPlease #UncivilEngineering pic.twitter.com/egm6mw6x1p
— Don Kostelec (@KostelecPlan) November 14, 2019

Class action lawsuit filed in Hunters Point Library accessibility dispute

2019-11-26T13:29:00-05:00

New York City-based legal group Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) has filed a class action lawsuit against a collection of public agencies representing the borough of Queens, New York "challenging the inaccessibility" of the new Steven Holl Architects-designed Hunters Point Library, according to a press statement.

A press release announcing the suit reads: "Under longstanding disability rights laws, newly constructed buildings must be made fully accessible to people with disabilities. Yet Hunters Point Library, which is an entirely new $41.5 million building constructed after years of in-depth planning, shockingly excludes persons with mobility disabilities from full and equal access to its services through reliance on stairs and other inaccessible features."

The statement argues that a series of "barriers" to accessibility exist at the library, including:

Three levels within the building are "completely inaccessible to persons with mobility disabilities"
The children’s section inc...

Lovely Hunters Point Library is actually lacking in terms of universal design

2019-10-04T07:00:00-04:00

“I think it looks really beautiful," said Frank Wu, the president of Court Square Civic Association, a group in Long Island City that tries to encourage smart development. [...] “There are a ton of stairs but only a single elevator,” he said, adding that accessibility has long been an issue in Long Island City, which has seen the number of young families with strollers balloon in recent years.

A much-lauded new library in New York City's Long Island City district designed by Steven Holl Architects might have serious shortcomings when it comes to accessibility and universal design.

The library's fiction collections are organized along a set of tiered levels that can only be accessed via staircase. Photo © Steven Holl Architects.

As patrons have flocked to the library, it has been discovered that certain areas are less accessible than others, including the library's fiction aisles, which are set along multiple tiered levels that are only accessible via stairs.

Joe Bachner, a resident who visited the library, told Gothamist, "If you can’t walk, you can’t go through that area."

In order to overcome this situation, Gothamist reports, librarians are available to go up and select books for library patrons, as necessary.

OLIN Labs hosts educational series on universal design

2019-08-09T13:30:00-04:00

The series served as an introduction to Universal Design, described the social model versus the medical model of Disability, and shared the specific needs and design strategies to accommodate both the Deaf/HoH as well as the Autistic and Neurodivergent communities. This series initiated a conversation reaching across Disabled communities, and demonstrates that while different Disabled communities’ needs may be different, the design solutions are often incredibly similar.

With the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disability Act approaching, discussions that examine where design and accessibility intersect have increased in frequency.

In June 2019, for example, OLIN Labs' hosted a lecture series covering a range of topics relating to the interconnected issues of inclusion and access.

There was the Intro to Disability and the Built Environment, a lecture by Dr. Victor Pineda, founder and president of WorldENABLED, an educational non-profit that promotes the rights and dignities of persons with disabilities. The lecture asked: "what can we do as landscape architects and planners to design more accessible public places, to better include stakeholders with disabilities in the design process, and to understand how public policy can deeply influence Universal Design."

Another lecture, Design for Autism and Neurodivergence: Shaping the Sensory Landscape by People Lab member, Danielle Toronyi, "introduced designers to the Autistic and Neurodivergent c...

With no wheelchair ramp, Tony Award winner Ali Stroker couldn't join her cast and crew on stage to celebrate their win

2019-06-12T15:15:00-04:00

After her win, Stroker spoke to reporters about the lack of accessibility on Broadway. She said that most of the theaters’ backstage areas are not generally accessible to performers with disabilities. “I would ask theater owners and producers to really look into how they can begin to make the backstage accessible so that performers with disabilities can get around,” she said, per The New York Times.

Ali Stroker became the first person to use a wheelchair to win a Tony Award during Sunday night's glitzy ceremony at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Her historical win — which was for Best Featured Actress in a Musical in the acclaimed Broadway revival of “Oklahoma!” — is a milestone in bolstering the representation of people with disabilities.

However, there was an obstacle for Stroker during the ceremony that is all too common for people with disabilities in everyday life: No ramp had been built to connect the audience seating area to the main stage. In one instance, she had to wait in the wings on stage in case she won in her individual category. Then when “Oklahoma!” won Best Revival of a Musical, Stroker could not join the rest of the cast and crew on stage to accept the award. While Stroker generally had a celebratory night, that moment was yet another disheartening reminder that basic universal accessibility needs are still easily overlooked.

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What buildings can teach us about accessibility and future cities

2018-11-12T19:53:00-05:00

Accessibility looks like different things to different people. When architects design buildings there are parameters that must be met in order to meet standard building codes. With the passing of the Americans with Disability Act, building regulations were placed to ensure that the design process included these "check off items". However, how can individuals with varying disabilities know where spaces are "fit" for them.

McCormick Tribune Campus Center, ITT Image © Simon King

Accessibility mapping has become a method which helps identify areas that provide access to individuals with disabilities. Groups all over the world from Nashville to Paris take part in "map-a-thons" that allow people to come together in a collective effort to understand where access is available in their city. Whether they themselves are disabled, know of people who are, or concerned citizens who want to become more aware of their surrounds for others accessibility mapping allows for the tracking and documenta...

Cooper Robertson emphasizes Universal Design in new Gateway Arch Museum

2018-10-03T15:40:00-04:00

In redesigning the Gateway Arch Museum that opened in July, Cooper Robertson — along with James Carpenter Design Associates and Trivers Associates — made it a priority to integrate Universal Design, which goes beyond ADA regulations to create buildings that can be equally accessible to people of all abilities. The redesign adds 45,000 square feet of new museum area and over 100,000 square feet of reconfigured galleries, public education facilities, and visitor amenities.

A gently sloping plaza, architecturally integrated ramps, and engaging exhibitions allow everyone to experience the building in the same way. The redesign doesn't just “simply provide accessible ‘alternatives’,” said Cooper Robertson's Scott Newman in a statement. And for the first time, a special exhibition in the tram lobby allows visitors to experience the top of the Arch through live webcam feeds from the observation deck.

“The Gateway Arch Museum reflects a fundamental shift in the public sector and the design ...

The final frontier: wheelchair accessibility in science fiction

2018-08-01T15:29:00-04:00

Space remains a vast, untamed place, penned in only by the limits of our own imaginations. So why the hell are there so many staircases in space? [...] Once you start realizing how many stairs there are stopping you in real life, it becomes impossible not to notice them existing in the sci-fi you adore. Turns out they’re everywhere [...] our sci-fi imitates a real-world reliance on steps and stairs in our architecture.

With Staircases in Space: Why Are Places in Science Fiction Not Wheelchair-Accessible?, Ace Ratcliff pens an excellent analysis of the pervasive presence of staircases in sci-fi that appear to foreshadow a future where universal accessibility for wheelchair-bound people like herself—and beyond that, the full inclusion in society—remain utterly unachieved.

"Unfortunately, 50 years worth of Federation starship manifestations also means half a century of inaccessibility," writes Ratcliff. "The original USS Enterprise bridge has enough steps you could take the equivalent of an aerobics class just trying to get from the turbolift to the Captain’s chair. The same level of inaccessibility goes for both the USS Voyager and USS Discovery, and if you’re a wheelchair user, you better not try to grab an after-shift bottle of bloodwine at Quark’s Bar unless you plan on dragging yourself up several steps to get there. In fact, the bridge from The Next Generation’s Enterprise is the only one that...

Architecting for the Golden Years

2017-01-15T20:37:00-05:00

Building industry professionals are taking note. Since the National Association of Home Builders started to offer a Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist program in 2002, nearly 7,000 contractors, architects, interior designers and occupational therapists have become credentialed by attending a three-day course, according to Elizabeth Thompson, a spokeswoman for the association.

Kaya Laterman examines designing for an aging population. Renovations focused on age-in-place fixes, along with rise of NORCs (Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities) in NYC, are creating new market opportunities.

Plus, some training/CEU sources via Living in Place Institute and NAHB

Design for an Aging Population

2013-02-06T23:23:00-05:00

A new multidisciplinary field has emerged in several universities in which sociologists, psychologists and urban planners work to tailor architectural designs to seniors as that demographic continues to grow. In America, 54 million people are over the age of 55 and that number is predicted to increase over the next 30 years by nearly 50 per cent. Despite most people’s desire to age in their own homes, most will be required to seek alternative arrangements.

Architecture for Recovery: IDEO and Michael Graves Design a Home for Disabled Military Veterans

2011-11-30T18:07:10-05:00

Oftentimes, United States' military men and women carry the physical and emotional wounds of their service home with them, "find[ing] workarounds to cope with their surroundings based on individual capabilities and preferences." Today, IDEO and Michael Graves Associates see their work come alive as the U.S. Army Fort Belvoir and Clark Realty Capital unveil a new model for building accessible homes on military installations: the Wounded Warrior home.