How to Include Disabled People in the Design Process
Written & created by: Alexa Vaughn
Disability is the often-overlooked ‘D’ in Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion initiatives.
Image description: A diagram of a typical design process, with a series of black circles with white text, along a line with an arrow to the right. Starting at left, the text in the circle reads: pre-design inventory & analysis. The second reads: schematic design. The third reads: design development. The fourth reads: construction documentation. The fifth reads: construction administration.
Image Description: A diagram of the design process, with disabled people. The same series of black circles with white text, this time with pink arrows interjecting throughout the series. Running left to right along the timeline: identify disabled stakeholders and experts, accessible general stakeholder meetings, disabled stakeholder focus groups and experts, prototyping of accessible design elements, and access audits.
Image description: A disabled stakeholder group meeting hosted in Eugene Town Square, in Eugene, Oregon, in March 2020, at a local YMCA. The image at left shows the disabled stakeholders around 3 tables formed in a U shape. There are wheelchair and scooter users present, Blind and low vision folks present, a hard of hearing man, and a woman who is the mother of an autistic child. The room has a hearing loop installed on the floor with green tape, and the captioner sits in the background with a laptop. The right image is a snippet of a simple tactile plan created by OLIN for Blind and low vision attendees. The plan is printed out with linework, and pieces of cardboard, dried hot glue, and cut strips of sandpaper denote different textures, placement of trees, and design elements. Small structures on site are made of cardboard.
We need to rethink our design process.
We tend to view the design process as a linear process, beginning with inventory and analysis of our site, pre-design, and ending with construction administration. We need to reframe how we think about the design process and recognize that it is not truly linear, nor is it as inclusive as it should be. It is not a checklist and when considering access, it is only legally binding in terms of the ADA and other state codes. It is a cyclical process, meant to be tested and trialed again and again with direct feedback from the people we are designing with and for - and in this case, we need to begin to bring disabled stakeholders and experts to the table for each and every project we design.
In order to design with disabled people, we must begin to identify disabled stakeholders and community members at the very beginning of the process. This means reaching out to government organizations, non-profits, and other local community groups in a timely manner.
Throughout design development, we must host general stakeholder meetings that are accessible to all community members. We must take responsibility to provide accommodations such as captioning, interpreters, descriptive materials, tactile plans and Braille materials, and physically accessible locations. If we do not make our engagements accessible, we exclude many community members from the start, whose experiences and thoughts deserve to be heard.
As we continue to develop and refine our designs, we should begin to forge even more specialized disabled focus groups and to accumulate disabled experts’ and consultants’ feedback on our designs, to learn which areas are in a good place, and which need further improvement.
We should also begin to take the process a step further by prototyping new accessible design elements, which follow ADA Standards but take them a step further in inclusion, accessibility, and aesthetic value, testing them with disabled stakeholders and experts.
However, this process does not end with construction administration. We must continue to test our designs by conducting access audits with local disabled community members and experts. We need to begin to rethink how we assess site accessibility pre- and post-construction. Today, we are still practicing outdated and inappropriate methods of measuring access, known as “disability simulations” or “sensitivity studies.” Typically, non-disabled people will try out a wheelchair, or a blindfold and tactile cane, around a site for a couple of hours and assume that they have reached a complete understanding of disability, rather than trusting in disabled people’s lived experience and contributions! This is not acceptable: we should not be mimicking or “trying out” disability, no matter how good the intention. If you want to be a true ally, reach out to disabled people and include them in your process. If you’re having trouble figuring out where to look, start with local non-profits and community groups. [For more: check out The Insensitivity of Sensitivity Studies, Ground Up Journal Issue 10].
The most difficult part of this process is being open to unlearning. Being open to the fact that our assumptions about disabled people’s needs might just be incorrect; and that our designs may not be as perfect or accessible as we envision. We have much to learn from disabled lived experience, and it is our direct responsibility as designers to include the disabled community in our process and in our projects.
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This process, if prioritized, is very much possible. In March 2020, I helped facilitate an accessible, disabled stakeholder focus group meeting for Eugene Town Square in Eugene, Oregon, with OLIN and Cameron McCarthy. We provided typical printed site plans, a simple tactile plan and Braille materials, live captions, a hearing aid loop (provided by one of the stakeholders), a physically accessible location often frequented by the stakeholders themselves, and a variety of material samples. We received a variety of valuable feedback from the stakeholders, which went far beyond any of my own assumptions as a Deaf person. We need to prioritize disabled stakeholder and expert group meetings, just as we prioritize other expert stakeholder groups.
Written & created by: Alexa Vaughn
Disclaimer: This is not meant to serve as legal advice, nor serve as a substitute for access laws or requirements. These opinions are my own, as a disabled / Deaf person, and not necessarily those of my employer. Please consult the ADA Standards and other applicable state and federal codes for legal accessibility requirements for each project you pursue. This is meant to serve as a creative tool to be used as a supplement to any / all legal requirements, which must be met as bare minimum, before branching out to Universal Design principles and direct disabled stakeholder and expert feedback.