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By Rosemarie Rossetti, Ph.D.
My husband, Mark Leder, and I didn't start out with intentions of building a national demonstration home and garden in Columbus, Ohio. The project evolved out of our frustration and housing needs due to a life-changing event. Our intension is to stay in this home for the rest of our lives.
On June 13, 1998, our third wedding anniversary weekend, Mark and I went for a bicycle ride on a rural wooded bike trail in Granville, OH. After riding for a few minutes, Mark thought he heard a gunshot and slowed down to investigate. As he scanned the scene he saw a large tree falling. He shouted, "Stop!" But the warning was too late. Instantly, I was crushed by a 3 ½ ton tree and paralyzed from the waist down.
Coming home from the hospital in a wheelchair in July 1998 after my spinal cord injury, I realized how my home intensified my disability. I was unable to roll on the carpet; fit through bathroom doorways; reach the clothes in my closet; access food in the pantry; reach glasses and dishes in the kitchen; take a shower or bath independently; do the laundry; use the oven or microwave; get food out of the freezer; access any of the landscape; come and go out of any door independently; and get to the second floor or basement. My husband and I knew that we had to sell our home and find something more suitable.
In September of 2004 we hired architect, Patrick Manley to draw the house plans for our new home. In January 2005, Mark and I were encouraged by our mastermind group to make our home a national demonstration home and garden and to acquire corporate sponsors.
In January 2005 we hired kitchen and bath designer and internationally renowned universal design specialist Mary Jo Peterson. She worked with Manley on the kitchen, pantry, bathrooms, and wardrobe floor plan and positioned the cabinets, appliances, plumbing fixtures, and countertops. She also helped select these items. Anna Lyon, our interior designer consulted on the floor plans and elevations and selected lighting fixtures, paint, stain, furniture and finishes for the home. Ardra Zinkon was the lighting designer. The design team from KraftMaid Cabinetry refined the Passport series cabinet design throughout the home.
Our design team focused on accessible features to accommodate me in my wheelchair including: knee space under the sinks and cooktop; 9" x 6" toe kick at the base of the cabinets; an elevator; countertop heights to accommodate me in all rooms. My husband is 6'4" tall while I am 4'1" seated in my wheelchair. Our heights and reaches were factors in the home design so that we were both accommodated.
We hired Robert August in October 2005 to help us with branding, marketing, and contacting international and national corporations to partner with us by contributing products and services. He named our national demonstration home and garden the Universal Design Living Laboratory. (www.udll.com)
Mark and I bought an acre and a half lot in December of 2006 and continued with the planning and design process. We broke ground on September 23, 2009. In addition to being accessible, universal design and green building construction principles were followed. We followed the standards from three universal design national certification programs: Livable Design, Life-Flex Home, ZeroStep.
On May 18, 2012 we moved into our new home. There are currently 188 contributors. Our home could not have been built without their support. Mark and I have personally funded the UDLL and served as the general contractors with Mark doing much of the work himself.
Independence
Rosemarie Rossetti says accessible features add value to new houses Rosemarie Rossetti's 3-year-old dream house became instantly useless in 1998 when an 80-foot tree fell on her while she was bicycling.
Paralyzed from the waist down, Rossetti was suddenly faced with inaccessible entries, wall plugs that were too low, counter-tops that were too high, bathroom doors that were not wide enough and shower stalls that were impossible to use without help.
Rossetti has turned that awareness into a career as a speaker, trainer, consultant and writer who promotes accessibility in the home building industry.
She is scheduled to moderate a discussion on "Universal Design" and accessibility at a Jan. 29 Housing and Construction Summit sponsored by the Home Buildings Association of Greater Grand Rapids (HBAGGR) at the Pinnacle Center in Hudsonville.
To test and demonstrate her principles, Rossetti and her husband, Mark Leder, have built a national demonstration home and garden, the Universal Design Living Laboratorywww.udll.com in metropolitan Columbus, Ohio.
For the full article by By see:
http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2013/01/accessible_housing_became_her.html
Culture in the Further Development of Universal Design
Scott Rains, D. Min
srains@oco.net
Reprinted from Design for All India:
By now most readers of Design for All India have a healthy grasp of Universal Design. Many, perhaps most, have become highly competent in its application as is evident from the articles appearing in past volumes and today. Beyond technical mastery of the Seven Principles, knowledge of best-of-breed solutions, and familiarity with allied concepts such as Visitability, Adaptive Technology, or anthropometrics there is a cultural component to this design approach that is unquantifiably - but undeniably - transforming Universal Design. By systematically and thoroughly examining this cultural component in the coming decade we will discover the true nature of Universal Design to be social sustainability.
Defining the Cultural Component
There are two ways to define this cultural component.
The first is to take the generally accepted meaning of culture as a social system involving ethnicity, nationality, language, arts, shared values or some combination of these elements to define a coherent and dynamic system. The second is to apply the term culture to that system in relationship to persons with disabilities as a whole (pan-disability culture) or as various sub-groups (blind, deaf, deaf-blind, spinal cord injured, post-polio cultures).
Research into response to Universal Design in this first domain is still in its infancy. A rich body of literature will result from future inquiries into adoption, rejection, and adaptation of Universal Design by cultures as they have been traditionally defined. Such study can provide a complementary approach to other inquiries into disability in the field of Disability Studies.
Historically Universal Design arose in the 1970's as a product of the Disability Rights Movement in the United States. Closely associated with the work and teaching of North Carolina architect and quadriplegic Ron Mace it began to gain widespread acceptance in the 1990's through a dissemination process that has not been well documented. One theme in that documentation will be the interplay between the cultural values embedded in Universal Design, either intentionally or unintentionally, and those held in locations where it is introduced.
Anecdotal evidence indicates integration of Universal Design in Japan's Mitsubishi, Toto, NTT DoCoMo and a uniquely Korean appropriation of Universal Design at Samsung. Reference to the Tao and the principle of balance symbolized in Tae Kuk are being integrated into the approach as applied to product design by the latter. Research by Thai scholar Antika Sawadsri (2006) on affective responses to Universal Design in Tai domestic settings is the first of what ought to be a series of similar studies done around the world. Such a micro-scale look at cultural factors involved in receptivity to Universal Design will provide uniquely targeted guidance to social planners and businesses attempting macro-scale Universal Design projects in the same social conditions.
As successful application and adaptive enculturation of Universal Design occurs there will be impact beyond the predictable further inclusion of persons with disabilities into the economic mainstream. From the earliest conversations leading to what we now know as Universal Design pioneer Elaine Ostroff was involved in the arts and incorporating Universal Design. Other positive secondary effects of adoption will include the importation and fabrication of new materials, dissemination of new designs and new construction methods, and the economic enhancement of those able to consult, design, or build according to a culturally appropriate but inclusive norm as populations age. In areas where an age-inversion causes the numbers of elderly to exceed those of youth, adoption of enculturated Universal Design in infrastructure, products, and services will become necessary not only for social cohesion but as a user demand due to the natural conservatism common with aging.
Defining Universal Design
In order to pursue this research priority and ensure meaningful and generalizable results it is important that researchers share a common definition of Universal Design. That definition is found in the Seven Principles of Universal Design but requires ongoing attention to evolving definitions of disability and to local permutations of Universal Design such as Design for All.
The Principles of Universal Design are:
1. Equitable Use: The design does not disadvantage or stigmatize any group of users.
2. Flexibility in Use: The design accommodates a wide range of individual preferences and abilities.
3. Simple, Intuitive Use: Use of the design is easy to understand, regardless of the user's experience, knowledge, language skills, or current concentration level.
4. Perceptible Information: The design communicates necessary information effectively to the user, regardless of ambient conditions or the user's sensory abilities.
5. Tolerance for Error: The design minimizes hazards and the adverse consequences of accidental or unintended actions.
6. Low Physical Effort: The design can be used efficiently and comfortably, and with a minimum of fatigue.
7. Size and Space for Approach & Use: Appropriate size and space is provided for approach, reach, manipulation, and use, regardless of the user's body size, posture, or mobility.[1]
Adaptive Environments describes Universal Design as:
Universal Design is a framework for the design of places, things, information, communication and policy to be usable by the widest range of people operating in the widest range of situations without special or separate design. Most simply, Universal Design is human-centered design of everything with everyone in mind.
Universal Design is also called Inclusive Design, Design-for-All and Lifespan Design. It is not a design style but an orientation to any design process that starts with a responsibility to the experience of the user.
Current trends are toward a functional rather than a medical diagnostic approach to defining disability. The World Health Organization (WHO) reinforces that with its International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF 2001). This aligns well with the third of the three theoretical models of disability - Charity, Medical, and Social (or "Social Interpretation" see Gabel, "Disability Studies in Education"[2].) The latter defines disability as an interaction between function and environment.
Rudiger Leidner of NATKO made a distinction between US conceptualizations of Universal Design and a European reformulation known as Design for All in his 2006 presentation "Tourism Accessible for All in Europe":
"...the main difference between the D[esign] F[or] A[all] idea and similar approaches such as "Universal Design" is that the targeted users should be involved in the process of product development."[3]
The designation as Lifespan Design referred to in the citation from Adaptive Environments above captures the observation that human functionality changes through the natural course of maturation and aging. It reminds designers that the value of a product is not the only its durability through time. Predictable changes in the functional abilities of the user may prove to be more important measures of value. Large-scale changes in the ratio between the young and the old are poised to be socially disruptive in ways that immediate adoption of Universal Design can mitigate.
Studies to determine the culturally contextual rationales for accepting Universal Design will become increasingly essential. Already the narrative behind Universal Design projects for seniors or for people with disabilities differs. Public perception of the social value of publicly-funded Universal Design projects takes on added importance in times of scarcity of public resources.
The aging segment of the population appears to figure more heavily than the disability community in Japan's adoption of Universal Design. While in the US arguably the strongest non-governmental promoter of Universal Design, the non-profit AARP through its Home Design resources, conferences, and workshops educates on the concept without reference to its origins in the Disability Rights Movement or its foundation in disability culture. This appears to be a deliberate marketing strategy to present only images of "healthy" attractive seniors.
These and other examples serve to alert us to the reality that Universal Design applied to infrastructure may equally benefit both seniors and people with disabilities while the political discourse attached to such projects may work to drive a wedge between two groups with common interests and needs.
Culture(s) of Disability
Disability culture or disability cultures offer a second window of inquiry into the meaning and maturation of Universal Design as a global phenomenon.
Some have theorized that while definitions of disability have been imposed by non-disabled persons cultures of disability have risen up to protect the interests, identities, and political voice of those gathered into these categories. Current understandings emphasizing the multiplicity of social categories any individual is involved in and the multifaceted interactive nature of resistance to social movements' demands for change provide a fluid definition of culture and energize artistic production with a disability "voice." Colin Barnes and Geoff Mercer provide an overview of the topic in Chapter 21 of the Handbook of Disability Studies entitled "Disability Culture."[4]
Defining, distinguishing, and uniting disability cultures remains problematic. One can list examples of distinctiveness: deaf culture maintains its own languages, blind culture it own institutions, and mobility impaired culture its own politics.
Conflicts arise when specific design solutions are confused with Universal Design itself.
The usefulness of curbs at corners for orienting blind pedestrians and the necessity of curb cuts for wheelchairs lead some to question the "universality" of some solutions commonly associated with Universal Design. It is important to recall that Universal Design is a design approach not a catalog of solutions or any specific construct such as a ramp or a flashing fire alarm. Universal Design understood as design and not a canon of prescribed solutions is capable of generating outcomes that address the unique needs disability groups with differing functional abilities.
The questions arise for professionals, "Who is responsible for maintaining that clarity of definition at the academic level? At the level of professional discourse? When working with stakeholders and clients?"
Language is a knowledge management system. Careful use of language is called for to both adequately communicate the process of Universal Design and to facilitate competing cultural values existing even within the disability community.
The "Culture" of Construction
The phrase "construction of culture" is commonplace in post-modernist discussions of the nature of culture. Similarly the "construction of disability" is a phrase indicating the social, and thus changeable, nature of the concept and social system known as disability. In such dialogue "avoiding the (re)construction of disability" is a responsibility of those who claim to be working in the interest of social inclusion such as practitioners of Universal Design. Part of that responsibility is to avoid design that stigmatizes.
There are also professional mandates upon those who work with designers in the fabrication phase of products and spaces. We might designate these as part of a "culture of construction" that seeks to resolve all discussion to specifications and measurements that are actionable within their domain of responsibility. The influence of this approach can also manifest from within the disability community.
Examples include accessibility auditor trainings that do not include an introduction to Universal Design principles or to the process and place of design in project development. The results are then evident in accessibility auditing survey tools that proscribe rather than describe. Mandated minimum accessibility standards from building codes are fashioned into check sheets or other proscriptive heuristics for gathering data. This data is then published in directories of building accessibility. The tools are thus unable to capture innovative (universally designed) solutions and the auditors unprepared to recognize them as good design. This self-defeating approach rewards businesses for mere minimum compliance and penalizes those who solve design problems in novel ways.
One museum designer reported a usability study of one of her projects conducted by persons with disabilities[5]. They immediately flagged the lack of the typical (stigmatizing) artifacts of "accessibility": grab bars and tactile navigation in colors, materials, and textures that broke the integrity of the design of the space, Braille captioning that was easily located visually, etc. After an orientation with the designer they agreed that the design's non-traditional integration of handholds, navigation aids, and placement of Braille were superior as well as non-stigmatizing.
The auditors working from an internalized list of "accessibility features" had themselves failed to realize that the designer had achieved both accessibility and avoided reconstructing disability through stigmatized solutions. It must be remembered that even stakeholders with disabilities may need training in the tools such as Universal Design that are available to designers.
The Travel and Hospitality Industry as Locus of Transformation
The travel and hospitality industry will be the site of the next major developments in Universal Design.
A typical legislated strategy for social inclusion employs the language of rights. It mandates access to government properties and services in the name of citizenship, human, or civil rights. It extends the argument to the business sector and mandates compliance through threat of sanction.
Such a strategy is sound and within the purview of government. Yet it is not sufficient.
Persons with disabilities in numerous countries report accessibility requirements that conflict within the same jurisdiction, corruption that allows regulations to be ignored, and a general failure on the part of those regulated to imagine any accommodation beyond the mandated minimum.
A parallel approach is to use the industry's profit motive to achieve accessibility, employment, & attitude change for the benefit of the disability community.
Aside from metropolitan transit and national rail systems the infrastructure of transportation and lodging - of tourism - is under private ownership. In the language of private business the laws protecting the rights of people with disabilities place them in the category of cost center or as legal risks of lawsuits to be managed. While establishing a necessary legal baseline against discrimination such laws evoke a resistance response that, in practice, prevents business from imagining people with disabilities as a lucrative customer base.
Over the past several years the disability community has had some success gaining the attention of the tourism industry with research such as that done by the Open Doors Organization that US travelers with disabilities alone spend an average of $13.6 billion annually on travel.[6]
During this period I have been researching, refining, and promoting a reconciliation of these two approaches to social change where legislative scaffolding sustains the market for profit-based incentive. While some countries may never adopt national civil rights legislation for people with disabilities, approval of the UN Declaration on the Rights of People with Disabilities will radically change the business and legislative ecosystems and raise expectations in the disability community. Tourism remains largely unprepared for the future impact of this UN document. As a global industry that is increasingly being held accountable to social responsibility metrics such as the inverse of Universal Design - Green Design[7] - tourism may become more receptive than governments themselves to accommodating persons with disabilities.
I have proposed to the Echoing Green Foundation the creation of a series of strategically located Centers of Excellence promoting Universal Design within the travel and hospitality industry. We call this application of Universal Design to tourism Inclusive Tourism and Inclusive Destination Development.[8]
Each Center of Excellence will work to standardize the diversity of accessibility laws, disseminate accessibility guidelines for hotels, train travel & hospitality industry staff, and promote the education and hiring of persons with disabilities in the industry. At the local level we will increase accessibility of the tourist destinations hosting the Centers and train a core of persons with disabilities as self-sustaining regional experts in Inclusive Tourism.
Expected outcomes include increased tourism infrastructure accessibility (hotels, airports, and transit systems), greater self-reported social inclusion of people with disabilities and disabled peoples' organizations (DPOs) (i.e. people with disabilities hired in the industry and DPOs contracted as travel industry suppliers), as well as people with disabilities positively portrayed as valued customers marketing by the industry.
This project will engage industry's self-interest in profit by recruiting and training an overlooked workforce, product development for this under-served market, best practices dissemination to an awakening industry, and marketing a new image of disability completing a feedback loop that encourages more in the disability community to travel.
Conclusion
Cultural factors influence the adoption of projects involving Universal Design as well as the development of the approach itself. These cultural factors include social groupings traditionally understood as cultures. They also include the communities of persons with disabilities as an aggregate and as sub-cultures differentiated by disability.
Universal Design, as a product of disability culture, represents an authentic voice of disability culture when understood as a design process and not a catalog of sanctioned and static design solution or "accessibility features."
Yet as a voice competing among other social systems and cultures Universal Design must be clearly articulated and intentionally directed.
One area of promise for shaping the Universal Design of the future is in dialogue with the cultures into which it is introduced. One vehicle for animating such a dialogue is the global travel and hospitality industry operating out of the profit, in addition to the rights and entitlement, motive. A network of Centers of Excellence of Inclusive Tourism and Inclusive Destination Development offers a scalable and sustainable mechanism for the continued development of Universal Design as an authentic voice of the disability community worldwide.
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Dr. Scott Rains writes daily on travel and issues in the tourism industry of interest to people with disabilities. His work appears online at www.RollingRains.com andhttp://withtv.typepad.com/weblog/travel/ . Rains' articles have also appeared in New Mobility, Emerging Horizons, Contours, Accessible Portugal, Audacity, Travel and Transitions, eTur Brazil, Turismo Polibea, [with]TV, and Disaboom among others.
For his research on the topic of Universal Design and the travel and hospitality industry he was appointed as Resident Scholar at the Center for Cultural Studies of the University of California Santa Cruz (2004-05).
He is active as a consultant and speaker.
[1] Compiled by advocates of Universal Design in 1997. Participants are listed in alphabetical order: Bettye Rose Connell, Mike Jones, Ron Mace, Jim Mueller, Abir Mullick, Elaine Ostroff, Jon Sanford, Ed Steinfeld, Molly Story, Gregg Vanderheiden. The Principles are copyrighted to the Center for Universal Design, School of Design, State University of North Carolina at Raleigh [USA].The Principles established a valuable language for explaining the characteristics of Universal Design. They are in common use around the world, sometimes with slight modifications, primarily one or two principles grouped together. Source: Adaptive Environments[2] One hallmark of disability studies is its adherence to what has been called a "social model of disability" (Abberley, 1987), first suggested by Vic Finkelstein (1980) and other disability rights activists, in which disability is understood as a form of oppression. Although "social model" is the most common usage of the concept, I agree with Vic Finkelstein (2001, ¶. 2) that the phrase "social interpretation" is a better and more inclusive representation of disability studies standpoints. In this paper, I use "social model" to refer to the traditional historical-materialist version of the social interpretation of disability. In contrast, I use "social interpretation" to refer to the wider array of disability theories in disability studies (e.g., disability identity, disability embodiment, disability discourse). As a whole, social interpretations of disability contrast with typical educational views wherein "disability" represents innate individual deficits. In disability studies, the disability-as-deficit notion is referred to as a clinical or medical model and is rejected as the basis for understanding the lived experiences of disabled people because it tends to pathologize difference and rely upon expert knowledge (i.e., physicians, special educators, rehabilitation counselors) to "remediate" difference (Society for Disability Studies, Guidelines for Disability Studies, ¶ 3). Disability Studies in Education: Readings in Theory and Method (2005, New York: Peter Lang) Source:http://www.nl.edu/dse/SusanGabel.htm
[3] Source:http://www.rollingrains.com/archives/Tourism_for_all_in_Europe_Leidner_2006.pdf
[4] Handbook of Disability Studies, Gary L. Albrecht, Katherine D. Seelman, Michael Bury, 2001 Sage Publications , ISBN 076192874X
[5] Personal communication, 2004
[6] Open Doors Organization, 2005
[7] It [Universal Design] has a parallel in the green design movement that also offers a framework for design problem solving based on the core value of environmental responsibility. Universal Design and green design are comfortably two sides of the same coin but at different evolutionary stages. Green design focuses on environmental sustainability, Universal Design on social sustainability. Source:http://www.adaptiveenvironments.org/index.php?Itemid=3&option=Content
[8] Sources: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/travel_with_disabilities/114773 andhttp://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/travel_with_disabilities/115176
A workshop on the Green / Inclusive Tourism convergence by James MacGregor:
A thought from the center for Active Design:
Universal Design in Dialogue
Synergies with Universal Design
Universal design creates environments that can be used effectively by all people, regardless of age or ability and without the need for adaptation. Active design aligns with this concept by creating opportunities for physical activity for all users - whether through the provision of lighting, benches, and drinking fountains along pathways, or through the addition of curb cuts that serve the needs of wheelchair users, older adults, and people with strollers equally.
Additionally, some active design principles that might appear at first glance to be inconsistent with universal design - such as an emphasis on stair use - can actually be complementary. For example, slowing down elevator door closing speeds can make elevators more usable for those with disabilities, while acting as an incentive for able-bodied people to use the stairs. Increasing stair use can free up elevators for those who really need to use them. Widening stairs, having fewer steps per flight, and providing intermittent landings between floors also makes the use of stairs more feasible and comfortable for those who have physical challenges.
Read more at http://centerforactivedesign.org/
National Public Radio talks about Universal Design in automotive design:
In some of the most potent cultural images we have of cool cars, they are being driven by young men -- Ron Howard cruising in American Graffiti, cousins Bo and Luke from The Dukes of Hazzard sliding over the hood of the General Lee, James Dean behind the wheel of his Porsche.
But these days some of the coolest things about our cars aren't there to dazzle the young. They're there to accommodate the aging. With 10,000 baby boomers turning 65 every day, it's easy to see why.
It used to be that those in public life did their best to hide physical impairments. That is now rapidly changing. German public life is full of people with disabilities these days and society's definition of "normal" is rapidly changing.
erman Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble uses a wheelchair. Malu Dreyer, who will soon take over as governor of Rhineland-Palatinate, is also confined to a wheelchair. So are former chancellors Helmut Schmidt and Helmut Kohl. Indeed, German politics in the last few weeks have been full of wheelchairs.
Schäuble, on the other hand, occupies a key cabinet position while Dreyer is on the eve of her greatest political challenge yet. Given the stresses placed on today's top politicians, the physical limitations these politicians face is very much relevant to the positions they occupy.
For many years, politicians' physical ailments were handled with a degree of discomfiture. When then-Defense Minister Peter Struck suffered a stroke in 2004, initially he didn't talk about it at all, but simply pretended to be healthy, sometimes to bizarre effect. Struck was determined to avoid any doubts being cast on his ability to do his job.
Not quite a decade later, Malu Dreyer has no such problem. She is upfront about the fact that she has multiple sclerosis. She says simply: "I feel strong and I feel healthy."
The rest of the story:
Leigh Ann Otte offers a compelling new argument for UD - your grandkids:
Remodeling with universal design concepts means you're making your home accessible to people of various abilities and heights. Usually, we think of it more as an option for people aging in place or who have elderly parents moving in. But as Minneapolis realtor Sharlene Hensrud points out, universal design is not just for older people. People of all ages benefit--including children.
In "Kitchen Design for Aging in Place Also Great for Kids," Hensrud lists a number of universal-design features that are good for children, including:
- Induction cooktops... heat is only generated when a pan is placed on the surface for increased safety for young and old alike... and don't heat up the room for increased energy efficiency
- Microwave oven... within reach and sight of those who will use it, which may be lower rather than high over the range (think children climbing on the stove to get to the microwave!)
Hmm ... perhaps a remodeled kitchen will mean more time cooking with the grandkids. What a priceless bonus!
For more tips on remodeling for aging in place, click here.
Source:
http://blog.ourparents.com/2012/08/17/why-grandchildren-love-universal-design/
From Morocco Board:
"Which would you prefer, a limited experience or no experience at all?" The question is put to me by Daniella Johnson while we're taking a coffee on the terrace of the
Café de France, watching the goings on in the beautiful chaos that is Jmaa el Fna, North Africa's most exotic and vibrant square, the heart and soul of Marrakech.
She has a point. Just because the cobbles in the Medina, the one-thousand year old centre of the historic city might bounce a wheelchair around, the clamour of the merchants in their long, hooded gelabas selling their wares from dolls house-sized shops might slightly confuse someone with limited hearing, or the rapid change from bright sunlight to almost Stygian gloom could disorientate a visually impaired person for a while, is that any reason not to visit one of the most exotic destinations in Africa, and one of the safest? And apart from that, Morocco is far more than ancient alleyways and the hubbub of sandal sellers.
American-born Johnson has been touring the towns and cities of southern Morocco since June of 2011, researching hotels, museums, tourist venues, shops, and sites for the fledgling travel company, Morocco Accessible Travel, which goes live with its first holidays in Spring this year. Trained as a nurse, she lived for a while in France, before discovering Fez, Morocco's ancient capital, and one of the country's four imperial cities. Possibly the most beautiful city in the Maghreb, Fez isn't particularly friendly for people with motor impairment, being built in a valley surround by hills, so when New York-based Experience It! Tours, the parent company of MAT, asked Johonson if she would develop a new travel company specialising in holidays for disabled people, Marrakech was the obvious choice, as the city is almost completely flat.
"When I was trying to work out what I wanted for MAT, using the term 'disabled people' seemed quite harsh, so when I visit hotels or tour venues I use the terms 'barrier-free travel' or 'travel for people with unique needs', because they are much more inclusive. A ramp at the entrance to a museum is equally as useful for a family with a push chair, or an elderly person who needs to use some form of walking aid, as it is for a wheelchair user. Put that ramp in place to remove the barrier of having to climb a set of stairs and you suddenly open up your hotel or venue to a much broader audience, which is as much a benefit for local people as it is for visitors."
We finish our coffee and take a walk across Jmaa el Fna, beginning at a music shop blaring out Moroccan disco music. I switch on my small recorder and we walk slowly; past the storytellers regaling the audience with their lyrical chant, the wail of a snake charmer's flute, a monkey man who tries to put his chattering animal on my shoulder, the clashing of the small hand cymbals and insistent drum beat of the gnaou musicians, the cries of hawkers selling toys, the jingling of coins in the hand of the cigarette seller, and the babble of Arabic, French, Berber and a hundred and one different languages. When I listen to it later it sounds as if I'm tuning a radio in Africa, passing through the waves with each sound ebbing and flowing as I change stations. The scent of smoke and barbequed food fills the air as the al fresco stalls that make Jmaa el Fna the largest open-air restaurant in the world begin setting up. A hint of incense, a whispy aroma of jasmine and freshly squeezed orange juice, with the occasional rustic whiff of horse dung as a calache trots by; all blend together to create an exotic perfume.
"I'm really encouraged by the reaction I've had, particularly from hotel owners. The fact is that often it simply hasn't occurred to them to think of disabled people as a tourism 'market', if you care to use that term, or that with a few simple changes they can make their hotels and venues easily accessible. In many ways it's probably because of the culture of Morocco. Moroccans get very little state help for disabled people, so they are used to dealing with any difficulties within the family. Because of that they are very supportive of what I'm trying to do."
One of the charms of a visit to Marrakech is a stay in a riad in the Medina, one of the original houses where life revolves around an inner courtyard garden. Most have roof-top terraces with views across to the city to the peaks of the High Atlas Mountains in the distance. The large riads often have swimming pools on the terrace. Unfortunately, stairways are usually quite narrow and dark, with steps of uneven heights and no handrails, making access to the terraces sometimes quite difficult.
"A few of the riads have elevators, but the truth is that if someone with any sort of motor problems wants to visit Marrakech then I would advise them to stay in a hotel," says Johnson.
But that's no hardship. Marrakech is overflowing with hotels of all levels, from the basic somewhere-to-lay-your-head to the glory of La Mamounia, the gem of Marrakech hotels, that recently reopened after a $176 million refurbishment.
On a recent visit to the Ben Youssef Maderssa, the 14th-century Islamic college, the largest in Morocco and one of Marrakech's most visited monuments, Johnson came across a group of wheelchairs users and their helpers.
"It was such a surprise, but even though they could only visit the ground floor rooms everyone was so happy to have been able to see this beautiful and important monument. But one of the things that moved me most was they all said that anything is possible, we can do it.
"Things will change slowly, it's the nature of what happens here, but they are changing. There is very little adapted transport available at the moment, although a new red tour bus service recently started, which has wheelchair access and you can get on and off at various points around the city. You may find that access or facilities for disabled people are more limited than you might find elsewhere, but if you can accept some limitations, Morocco is a wonderful country to visit. There are the mountains, the dessert, the ocean, and some beautiful cities. But one of the best reasons to visit the country are the Moroccans themselves. They are a delightful and charming people who will go out of their way to help."
Source:
Image via Wikipedia
The São Paulo State Secretariat for the Rights of the Person with Disability, supported by the Brazilian Tourism Ministry, the São Paulo State Secretariat of Tourism, and the City Hall of Socorro, will hold the Brazilian Congress on Inclusive Tourism, at the Socorro Events Center, from September 28th to 30th, 2011.
The Congress will revolve around discussion of case presentations and success stories considered to be fundamental to support public policies which can assure the rights of persons with disability to fully access tourism. This Congress will be most significant to its audience, which will be composed by the tourism trade and State and City Secretariats on this subject.
Event URL (Portguese):
http://cbta.sedpcd.sp.gov.br
The Congress will revolve around discussion of case presentations and success stories considered to be fundamental to support public policies which can assure the rights of persons with disability to fully access tourism. This Congress will be most significant to its audience, which will be composed by the tourism trade and State and City Secretariats on this subject.
Event URL (Portguese):
Here's the pitch from Parkat.com:
We are the leading airport parking specalist within the UK. Partkat compares thousands of airport car parking spaces to offer you the best car parking dealsavailable. Mega savings can be made when you pre-book you're car parking space online before you travel... It's not just the airport parking price we take into consideration, we include the finer details which make a difference such as car parking security, disabled facilties and much more.So don't throw away your money away on expensive airport parking when because you can save you up to 60% at any airport in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Take a look at some of the trusted airport parking suppliers and providers we compare car parking prices with below:
But let's cut to the important stuff. Have a look at the Parkat Disabled and Reduced Mobility Airport Guide:
What's included in the guide?
- What happens at security and customs?
- Airport travel Advice for deaf passengers or persons with reduced hearing.
- Disabled passengers carrying medication.
- What help is available at the airport?
- What to do before you arrive.
- Return journey help.
- Passengers with visual impairments.
- Help at the car park.
- Travelling with Autism.
- Guide Dogs & PETS.
Doesn't a site like this seem like the "missing users' manual" that we all knew had to be somewhere if we could only find it? Don't you wish every airport had one?
Bravo Parkat!
Más de 1,000 millones de personas sufren de algún tipo de discapacidad, lo que constituye aproximadamente el 15% de la población mundial, y de ellas una quinta parte se enfrenta a grandes dificultades en su vida diaria, según reveló hoy un informe conjunto de la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS9 y el Banco Mundial (BM). Además el número de discapacitados va en aumento en el mundo, lo que se debe al envejecimiento de las poblaciones y al incremento de los problemas de salud crónicos asociados a una discapacidad, como es el caso de la diabetes, las enfermedades cardiovasculares o las mentales. En México existen 5 millones 739,720 personas con discapacidad. El 58.3% de ellos se encuentran inhabilitado para caminar o moverse; en segundo lugar, el 27.2% de ellos presenta alguna dificultad para ver y el 12.1% tiene problemas en su capacidad para escuchar, según el censo de población y vivienda 2010 realizado por el Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía. Las causas de discapacidad de esta población están relacionadas con alguna enfermedad en el 39.4% de los casos, seguida por edad avanzada en el 23.1% y por enfermedades congénitas en tercer lugar con 16.3 por ciento. Entre 110 y 190 millones de los discapacitados se enfrentan abarreras que van desde el estigma y la discriminación hasta la ausencia de adecuados servicios de atención sanitaria y rehabilitación, así como sistemas de transporte o edificios inaccesibles.
El informe, que es el primero que se realiza de manera global sobre este problema en 40 años, destaca que muy pocos países cuentan con mecanismos adecuados para responder a las necesidades de las personas con discapacidad.
"Debemos hacer más para romper las barreras que segregan a las personas con discapacidad, en muchos casos forzándolas fuera de la sociedad", señaló la directora general de la OMS, Margaret Chan.
Debido a los problemas que encuentran, las personas con discapacidad gozan de peor salud, tienen menos éxito en los estudios y menores posibilidades de empleo, al tiempo que sufren mayores tasas de pobreza que las personas sin esta condición, indica el informe.
Por ello, la OMS y el BM instan a los gobiernos a acelerar sus esfuerzos para permitir a los discapacitados acceder a los servicios básicos, así como a invertir en programas especializados que permitan a estas personas desarrollar sus potenciales.
El estudio subraya que en los países de bajos ingresos los discapacitados tienen un 50% más de riesgos suplementarios de tener que enfrentarse a gastos sanitarios catastróficos.
Además, los niños con discapacidades son menos susceptibles de ir a la escuela y tienen menos posibilidades de mantenerse escolarizados que los niños sin este problema.
En los países de la Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económico (OCDE) la tasa de empleo de las personas discapacitadas es del 44%, lo que representa un poco más de la mitad del de las personas sin incapacidad, del 75 por ciento.
El estudio da cuenta de algunos ejemplos en el mundo que permiten a los discapacitados acceder a servicios, información o trabajo.
Uno de ellos, es Curitiba Brasil que cuenta con un sistema público de transporte integrado que facilita el acceso de los discapacitados adoptando un diseño universal y sensibilizando a los conductores y otro personal.
En Mozambique y Tanzania, talleres con información en el lenguaje Braille y de signos garantizan que los mensajes de prevención contra el sida lleguen a los jóvenes con discapacidades.
Here's the pitch:
The Access CustomerWho are we talking about?Access customers are the largest untapped market in the world.
They make up 20% of our population - nearly 1 billion people on the planet. Yet for this group, accessing your business can be challenging.
Did you know... 750,000 kiwis could benefit from better access right now. 44% of all Kiwis are over 45 years of age. 20% of Kiwis report a disability. In Australia, 25% of the population are 45 and older - that includes 5.3 million baby-boomers who own 50% of all net household wealth. In the USA, 70 million are over 45 and own 77% of all financial assets.
Access customers may be...
- Someone with a visual or hearing impairment
- A person in a wheelchair
- A person with a learning disability
- A parent pushing a stroller
- An older person (the baby-boomer)
Access customers are either born with a disability or they may acquire a disability (temporarily or permanent) at some point in their lifetime. It is also worth nothing that as we all age, our access needs increase. In order to capture the spending power of this growing group of customers, it's important that we make it easier for them to get into, enjoy and connect with our businesses.
New video from FabCab
The blog:
http://fabcab.com/interact/blog/
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