what is your purpose?  when you mention universal design, are you referring to furnishings, fixtures and appliances?  or are you interested in space itself and navigation through space, which may include threshold conditions, visual cues, etc?  or are you interested more in the cognitive challenges that environments or furnishings may present?  or something else? 

making a suggestion about how to relate it to architecture students would be easier if you did provide some additional detail about your interests?

also, do you mean 3rd year masters students or undergrads?

create a competition.  architecture students love to compete.

The architecture students are undergrads.

The purpose of my project is to educate architecture students about occupational therapy, and OT students about architecture, and how we can help each other in building design. Granted, it's really the architects that are doing all the design, but OTs really specialize in how and why people do things, which I believe is particularly important in a home setting.

Perhaps a brief explanation of OT will help, too. We work towards helping people get into or back into their everyday lives, whether they've had an injury or loss of some sort, or if they were born with a congenital disorder. The focus is on meaningful activities to the person, typically covering work and leisure/hobby activities, but also including activities of daily living like cooking, cleaning, etc.

My personal interest in universal design is really in every aspect of it, particularly as a concept or ideal, though I have a bit more of an inclination towards the cognitive side of things.
From what I know of universal design, it has a very strong architectural foundation, but is not taught in a lot of architecture programs. For the purposes of my project, I just want the students to start thinking about it, and hope that they begin to work at least some of the concepts of UD into their projects.

Because this is a doctoral project for me, I have to have some way of measuring the outcome, which I plan on doing with a simple survey which will include questions like, "On a scale from 1 - 10, do you feel like you've learned something about architecture?" and "On a scale from 1 - 10, how likely do you think it is that you will be able to incorporate the principles of universal design in your future school and professional work?"

@AmeliaP, I was told by the architecture faculty that I really shouldn't (can't) give the students any additional work. Perhaps if this works, though, I could make it a competition for a summer project or something.

How much beyond standard accessibility guidelines do you want to go (ADA/ANSI 117.1)? Professionally speaking, these are the rules that we are held to in design. Like the LEED program for environmentally-friendly design, ADA/ANSI guidelines are of course only the tip of the iceberg. Most architects, however, unless they are specializing in "universal design," will never go beyond ADA/ANSI requirements. I think you would benefit from refining your question quite a bit. What aspects of universal design do you want architects to engage? Perhaps you should come up with a building or space program to illustrate what you are getting at or to put it in more academic terms, a narrative you want architects to engage.

Architecture students respond to visuals.

Do you have images (video would be best) of examples of physically impaired people undertaking (or attempting) ordinary tasks, and the challenges posed by routine design features that architects normally take for granted?  (Not just the shot of the wheelchair-bound person at the bottom of the stairs, but other cases similarly pointing out everyday challenges posed by the typical physical environment.)

(Are you contact's initials LF?)

i have a little experience working with OT's on some design challenges and shadowed several for the better part of a week in a rehabilitation hospital.  i see lots of potential in what you are doing. here are some thoughts.

this may be the sort of subject matter where the value of it is more readily apparent to masters level students, particularly if they already have work experience, than undergrads, who most likely still have more of a popular, romanticized notion of architecture.  i think like citizen and won say, you will have to embody the concepts you want to present in very concrete ways that are striking (visually or tactile-ly ?sp?). or if possible, can you arrange to interact with masters students?

you may want to look at John Zeisel's book, Inquiry by Design.  it may give you food for thought as to where your interests could intersect with those of architects.  more importantly, you may want to contact John Zeisel and talk to him about what you are doing. 

This next bit was conveyed to me by an acquaintance of his, so there may be some errors from transmission loss, but i'm sure it is substantially true and should be of value to you.  Zeisel designed an assisted living home, somewhat recently, i think, for people with alzheimer's and they made some rather ingenius, low-tech advancements with regard to small changes in the way an environment is organized that increase quality of life by supporting maintenance of ADL's, without medication.  For instance, the one anecdote i was told is that they moved all of the clocks to lower on the walls b/c most of these people are older and they will not look at clocks that often if doing so requires tilting their head back b/c it can be uncomfortable.  Another anecdote was that they were trying to help occupants find their rooms.  Color didn't work.  Sound didn't work.  Shapes/lights did not work.  Smell worked b/c it is such a primordial modality that it is processed neurally at a level below the cortical, so alzheimer's or not, the occupants could learn and 'remember' the smell of their doorway.

you may also find guidance and/or inspiration from looking at the writings of, or speaking with John Eberhardt.  He is interested in architecture and the brain.

hope this helps.

RE: won and done
Ideally, I would like to go as far beyond ADA as I can, since a major part of my idea is to dissociate universal design from accessibility. Right now my focus is really on the cognitive aspects of design and the use of space, with things like door placements, room layout, etc. to be intuitive and easy to use for anybody. Again, because I can't really add to the students' work load, I mostly need to plant a seed of knowledge in their minds to get them thinking about how a space is use, and what functions need to be served.

RE: citizen
As I mentioned earlier, I'm hoping to dissociate UD from accessibility, so I was planning on using more visuals of things that are poorly designed for people without disabilities, which would in turn make them even worse for someone who does have a disability.
(Yes, my contact's initials are LF...fellow Trojan?)

RE: jmanganelli
Unfortunately, my project is intended to be implemented in the coming fall semester, which begins on August 22nd. I didn't even know where to begin finding an appropriate architecture class to be paired with. I managed to get some face time with Dean Ma here at USC and he seemed interested in my project, and paired me with the 3rd year undergrad housing studio. Given my time frame for graduation (I have to be able to graduate next May), I think I'll have to look into working with architecture grad students as a possible change or addition to this one, depending on how successful it is.
Also, thanks for the info on John Zeisel and John Eberhardt, though I'm having a bit more difficulty finding an appropriate John Eberhardt with Google, any more information you can provide me with on some of his work?

I'd like to thank everyone who's contributed to this thread so far, and if anyone has anything else to add that might help me, I'd really appreciate it!

In a previous life, I worked on the design for Zeisel's house.  How's that for full circle?

try this: 
http://www.amazon.com/John-P.-Eberhard/e/B001JRRGGE/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

also, i did not mean to discourage your work with undergrads --- just keep in mind that you may have to be creative, vivid, bold, explicit in you presentation of the material because the connection may be more difficult for them to see than older, more experienced students. you may want to see if anyone covers anything close enough to your interests in their curriculum that you can reference it as a segue, to place the material for them conceptually.

cool, citizen.  do you still do that type of work?  do you know which project I am referencing?  i have been lazy, i suppose, and never taken the time to google search for it.  the acquaintance didn't mention it by name and i did not want to interrupt him.

How to appeal to architecture students?

Cash.

Either that or challenge them to design a specified system ... after all, they are design students.

Thanks for the link!

I wouldn't say I'm necessarily discouraged about working with undergrads, but maybe a little worried about how to get the idea across to such a young group. I hadn't even heard about universal design until I was in grad school myself, and even then it took a while for me to wrap my head around it.

As for the Alzheimer's project, would this be the one:
http://www.thehearth.org/aboutus.html
With info on John Zeisel here:
http://www.thehearth.org/johnzeiselbio.html

i think you found it, ardilly.

i have never spoken to john zeisel, though i was encouraged to contact him and assured that he is nice and likely open to a quick conversation on these things.

i have spoken with john eberhard and he was very nice and informative.

gil cook, former dean of new school san diego might have some good suggestions as well

Cash?  When I was in school we would have responded quite well to donuts.  Kids these days have it too easy.

I second Citizen's visual comment.  If you can show people why an outlet should be 18" instead of 15" off the ground, or why a clock should be a little lower, I think your audience will have a better chance of understanding.  I think using people to actually show the movement would be best, with pictures next best.

Jman,

I'm not sure which specific project you're referring to, but I've certainly heard of similar situations where the windows were lowered for similar reasons (in another case, for those in wheelchairs).

The project I'm referring to is JZ's vacation res in Martha's Vineyard.

Our prof had students spend half day in wheelchairs to teach us how hard it is to get around. Was good experience an still in my head years later. Failing something like that def recommend lots of pictures.

playing off of jump's suggestion, one thought is to compile some typical patient personas and use props to show them what it might feel like to have that situation and have them perform some of the standard exercises or cognitive exercises OTs use.  wheelchair would definitely put things in perspective.  weight suit.  restricting range of limb motion, foggy glasses, etc, and let them feel what it is like to have some typical conditions and have to use furnishings or navigate space.

These are definitely some things I'll try and incorporate into my time with the architecture students. I believe the OT department here has a lot of stuff I can use. Thanks again, guys!