Designing Buildings to Have Full and Proper Accessibility for People with Disabilities
Jennifer Gillies, I get the great honor of introducing our guests, Oh by the way I m Jennifer Gillies from accessibility services, and it s really exciting for me to be here too, with you all And David Lepofsky who s our guest speaker today, is a lifelong disabilities Rights advocate lawyer and chair of the grassroots, Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Alliance and the former co-chair of the Barrier-free Canada group as well And from 1994 to 2005 David lead the fight to win the enactment of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. Applause and cheering in the early 1980s took an active part in the successful campaign to get disability equality included in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Ontario Human Rights Code, And we also have with us today Thea Kurdi, who has worked.
The last 16 years as an accessibility code and universal design specialist at Canada, s leading accessibility, consulting firm DesignABLE Environments Thea provides drawing reviews for architecture firms, completes building audits, and is also a contributing author and illustrator for creating accessibility standards for every level of government And corporations Without further ado, let s please welcome our guests and enjoy the great talk today.
Thank you.
Applause, David Lepofsky, Good afternoon.
Everyone We’re going to do a kind of tag team.
We’re tight on time, so we’re going to get right to work Step number one take out your smartphones, Why? I encourage you to live-tweet this event using AODA, and I encourage you to follow us AODAalliance.
We’re not shy.
We want you to be part of the campaign for full accessibility.
You’re going to get two perspectives on the same question Me from the perspective: of disability rights, organizing, and advocacy, and Thea from the point of view of a design professional working on accessibility.
But our message is the same: we need to design a world for the first time that includes everyone. We live in a world that is designed right now on a ridiculous basis.
The buildings we go into and we try to use the stores where we want to shop for the goods we want to buy the schools and colleges and universities.
We want to learn about the public transit facilities we want to ride.
Everything has been historically designed on the unfair proposition or premise, never written out, never thought about in advance, but that they are only there for people who have no disability, No physical disability, no sensory disability, no intellectual learning or mental health, disability or cognitive disability.
Now that way of designing a world is ridiculous: It s ridiculous because there are so many of us.
In Ontario 1, 8 million people now report having a disability Across Canada that s 4 million people Around the world that s 1 billion people.
Now those numbers are ginormous, but they’re just a small part of the picture because you see everybody either has a disability now or gets one later You just got to get older It s only natural that you’re going to acquire a disability.
We are the minority of everyone So to design a building or public transit or curriculum or anything else as if people with disabilities weren’t full and equal participants is ultimately self-defeating It s ultimately hurts every last one of us.
We are both ecstatic to have a chance to speak to you today.
If the first time I’ve had the chance to speak with architect students in 22 years, I’ve done this advocacy Applause. I d like this to be the start of a new voyage Applause And our message to you is a simple one.
I want you to change the profession you’re about to go into.
I want you to transform design professions like architecture so that they are first and foremost all about designing buildings for everyone And if a building isn’t for everyone, it should not be built It s as simple as that Now to get that message across.
Let me share a couple of quick ideas and then we’re going to get to concrete examples.
The first thing I want you to understand is ideal.
I start with designing a world for everyone.
It s not the way we’ve did business, For example, forget buildings.
Let s talk about computers and software.
The old way they were designed was as if you had two working hands, two working eyes, ears, and so on.
You could use a keyboard and a mouse. You could read the screen And if you couldn’t use it then what you had to do and as a blind person?
I know this only too well to go, buy adaptive technology very expensive to retrofit your computer to enable you to use it That s.
The old way Design with barriers, Let them clean up the mess for themselves later at great expense, Not a good way to work.
The new way to work is called Universal Design, building accessibility into everything.
Now I m not a salesperson for the Apple corporation, but probably the best corporate leader in accessible universal design is Apple.
I have an iPhone on my hip.
It comes fully equipped with a screen reader for blind people with an enlarged screen for low vision, people adaptations for people with hearing loss.
They’re all built-in You just go to settings general and accessibility and they keep adding new features.
It doesn’t cost an extra dime To have those features on board That’s the wave of the future.
I want to encourage you as future architects to commit yourselves now that any building you design will be built on principals of universal design, or you won t design it, And I want to further encourage you to demand of those who teach you here that they teach You how to do that And so that you can become the first generation in your profession. Usually, you join a profession When I became a lawyer ahh a few years ago.
Laughter, I didn’t know anything.
I was the new kid on the block.
Everyone was practicing for years, They knew more than me.
I want to turn it around in your profession.
I want you to be the ones who are there to teach.
I want you to be the ones when you hit the ground in your first jobs, to be teaching those you’re working for how to do it right.
You know it s commonly thought out there that old buildings are full of accessibility barriers because we didn’t just know better or perhaps because we hadn’t yet invented people.
You know with disabilities back 5 10 20 years ago right, But it s commonly thought that in new buildings we get right.
We’re going to give you examples shortly, of how we keep getting it wrong That supposition is just now true And it s not true for a couple of reasons, I m going to give them right up front, and then we’re going to dig right into Examples and offer you what you can do about it First, we get it wrong because the law is inadequate. The Ontario Building Code is out of date, even when it was updated Before it was updated.
In 2013 it was a 19th-century building code, They updated it in 2013 to go into effect in 2015 From an accessibility perspective to bring it into the early to mid-twentieth century.
But it s still way out of date, and I can tell you having lobbied to get it strengthened.
We ran into incredible resistance And as a result, our buildings are built to code that is not accessible that hurts a minority of everyone That s the first problem.
The same accessibility regulations under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act are Proud to have led the fight for this legislation, but what little they provide about the built environment is still woefully inadequate.
The third problem, The third problem – is that design professionals almost overwhelmingly – or at least too often don t realize that those are not the only two laws they have to obey There s another law.
They have to obey It, supersedes those laws, It s, the Ontario Human Rights Code and in the case of government buildings, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the guarantee to people with disabilities equality without discrimination To design a new inaccessible public building for use.
In the public sector is to fly in the face of the guarantee of equality in the Charter of Rights and the Human Rights Code and in the private sector.
It s to fly in the face of the Ontario Human Rights Code, Just building to code and to AODA standards is not fulfilling an organization’s obligations in the law.
So if you ever hear people talking about Well, let s go above code, because that will be doing extra Nope It s not doing extra It s only doing extra. If it s also meeting the full requirements of full inclusion in the Charter for the public sector and the Human Rights Code for all sectors, Now I told you we were going to jump into this with some examples, but before I do I want to get you involved, If you d like to learn more about this, or indeed to join our campaign for accessibility, we want you with us.
Jenn is going to pass around a list.
Please print your email address or ask for assistance.
If you need it and print your name, We’ll sign you up for AODA Alliance emails and if anybody is watching a video of this just send an email request to AODAfeedback, Gmail com, that s AODAfeedback, Gmail com and all you got ta say is Sign me Up We’ll add you to our email list.
You’ll learn how to get involved.
We welcome your feedback.
We welcome your inclusion.
We welcome your participation Now on to practical examples.
We’re all about them.
I m going to give you one verbally Thea s going to do a PowerPoint presentation, and then we’re going to show you a video to give you a stunning example And as you see these just think in your own work, do I ever want to be associated with designing one of this First example, I m going to give you I can describe it to you, The brand new renovations at the Osgoode Hall Law School. Where I m a part-time visiting professor, I went to Osgood 40 years ago.
I learned my way around as a totally blind person in about an hour or two.
It was not great for wheelchair access, but for a blind person, I bombed around that building independently with no problem 35 or some odd years later.
A major architecture firm is brought in a major renovation.
It s gorgeous, They improved wheelchair access.
It has become one of the worst buildings I’ve ever tried to navigate It s horrible.
As just one example, blind people use a white cane in a major public space to find their way it s called wayfinding by shore lining following a wall.
There is a major, thorough, fair on the main floor of Osgoode On one side: soft seating.
Every couple of meters, So the only way I can shoreline, is by slaloming and whacking students in the shins laughter.
Not so good. The opposite wall would be perfect.
It s a nice straight wall, but every couple of meters there s a pillar There s not only a pillar there, s an angled pillar, So my cane goes under it, my head, whacks into it That hurts me, and sighted people who are texting while walking laughter.
I m sure you ve done that Just one of many design blunders that have made an accessible building for me into a substantially less accessible or inaccessible building That s an example, of one You don t want to be involved in that You want to do the opposite.
I m going to turn it over to Thea, to give you some other examples, Thanks very much David, and thanks very much to everybody for comings.
Terrific, to be here with you Slide description Slide 1.
What is Accessible Design? The picture shows a red question.
Mark in the center of the image, with lots of blue arrows all pointing to the center question mark Thea continues.
I thought I would talk a little bit about my role as an accessibility consultant in my personal view I see this as a role of listening.
I get to work with architects, so I listen to architects.
I get to work with building owners, so I get to facilities, management, people, and owners’ perspectives on accessibility. I get to work with policymakers at every level of government, so I get to hear what they re.
Thinking about for accessibility, the complaints they are hearing, But the most important are people with disabilities.
There s a common phrase out there, Nothing about us without us.
You should t be designing something for people with disabilities.
If you haven’t talked with people with disabilities, somebody like David, an advocate for people with disabilities is an invaluable resource for me to help the designers create better spaces, Slide descriptions, Minimum Compliance for OBC, Ontario Building Code, and AODA Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.
Here see a fictitious site plan of a community center.
We see the building at the top of the image in the center and parking lots on both the left and right sides at the bottom.
There are numbered boxes, highlighted in red numbering 1, 2, 3, and 4.
There is a corresponding legend, also shown in red listed at the bottom left of the screen.
Number 1 represents playground Number 2, the accessible parking Number 3, the drop-off area near the front entrance, And number 4. The curb ramps Thea continues.
I wanted to start with just a quick example of what David s talking about Here s a sample made-up site plan showing what would be required for this building to be OBC and AODA compliant David OBC is Ontario Building Code for anybody watching Thea continues.
The Ontario Building Code and the AODA, obviously don t, have very much required of us here – Slide description, Ontario Human Rights Solutions.
Again we see the same site plan we just saw on the previous slide.
This time we see there have been a number of changes and improvements made to the design and there are a lot more red indicator boxes with a lot more numbers.
In fact, the numbers now run from 1 to 11.
So, in addition to the previous requirements, the playground, the drop off the parking, and the curb cuts, the parking has been moved.
The drop-off has been adjusted, and the curb ramps in every location, where people would be crossing where the cars are all have a painted crosswalk and have been aligned with the path of travel, The legend at the bottom to the middle of the screen.
This time, Item number 1 Tactile Walking Surface Indicator, also known as a TWSI Number 2 Tactile Map Number 3 Rest Areas.
Number 4, Playground Number 5 Curb cut Number 6, the Crosswalks Number 7 Public Parking, Number 8 Staff Parking. Number 9 Drop curb with a Tactile Attention Indicator.
Tai Number 10 Dog Relief Area, Number 11 Designated Snow Piling Area.
Thea continues to Look at what actually accessibility would require.
So if you were trying to achieve what the Ontario Human Rights Code Act is asking for, I think you’ll agree if I go back and forward that s much more comprehensive, Think about people with disabilities as people first, not as an afterthought, Slide description, Minimum Compliance For OBC and AODA, This slide shows the same made-up community center building.
We see a basic floor plan on the first floor.
This time the red number indicator boxes number six elements.
Item number 1 indicates where the Power Door Operators’ PDO, is required by code Number 2, where the service counter would be located.
Number 3.
There is a reflecting pool.
Number 4 are exit stairs that have the appropriate Tactile Attention Indicator TAI at the top Number 5, is a universal washroom, And number 6. An elevator Thea continues.
The next example I wanted to show you was an example of a floor plan Again.
What do the Ontario Building Code and the AODA require of you, And yet what would we actually need to be doing, this actually isn’t a full slide if I d really filled it up. You probably couldn’t have seen the floor plan Slide description.
Ontario, Human Rights Solutions: Again we have the same building the same floor plan, and an enormous change in the number of requirements, a legend that appears from the lower left to the center of the screen numbering one thru.
Nine Item number 1 Tactile Warning Surface Indicators, TWSI also known as directional wayfinding Number 2.
The Service Counter Number 3, Reflecting Pool which now has a detectable edge Number 4.
A Tactile Attention Indicator TAI at the Feature.
Stairs Number 5 Feature: Stair Number 6 Universal Washroom WC.
Several locations Number 7, the Elevator Number 8, the Accessible Washrooms WC several locations throughout the building, And number 9.
The Power Door Operators, PDO Thea, continues So an entirely different approach to design. I want you to think about what s happening with green design.
How do you design a green building, You don t design a regular building and put the green stuff on at the end That s an inefficient way to use and maximize what green design is for. You actually put the green design elements at the beginning of the design process, And what happens is the end result is amazing it maximizes every possible outcome for that green design.
The same is true for accessibility.
If you start at the beginning thinking, people with disabilities are people first and their space requirements, and their other accommodations are just a part of the requirements.
You start and you continue and make a dramatically different building Slide description, Changing Abilities Over a Lifetime.
The image shows a woman’s lifespan using international icons.
The left side starts at infancy with a baby in a crawling position, A small child.
Next, to that is a slightly older child, but this child has their arm in a cast An older child with her hair in pigtails And next to that, an older person with their foot in a cast A pregnant woman, A female, pushing a baby stroller, An adult Female holding a briefcase, An older person bent over slightly using a cane Another person holding a walker And finally, the last image is a person actively using a wheelchair, And the question is: Who are we designing for Thea continues? As David was talking about this idea, we are all future people with disabilities.
If we are not presently people with disabilities, We’re an illness, an accident, or aging away from becoming a part of this population, We all have temporary disabilities, whether that s being hungover on a Friday morning for an 8 am class or being on cold medication or having Sun, in your eyes, It doesn’t just have to be a medical definition.
We all have temporary disabilities. You’re in France, You don t, read French.
How do you manage the signage there? So it s this idea of thinking about a person as a person who goes through a journey in life and unfortunately, our building code is designed for a six-foot-tall person with perfect vision and perfect hearing, and generally perfect mobility.
Now there is section 3 8 of the building code that has some accommodations.
As David said, they are a minimum and everybody knows there is a significant gap between what these even in your lifetime are going to need So think about it, as future proofing Slide description.
Human Diversity, Storey, Muller, and Mace suggest that human abilities can be grouped into seven categories.
Number one is cognition Number, two vision, Number three hearing, and speech: Number four body function, Number five-arm, function, Number, six hand function And, lastly, number seven mobility: Thea continues.
Human diversity has seven different categories.
I m leaving this presentation for you.
These are things I want to put on your radar as things to be keeping in mind as you’re problem-solving The great part about architecture.
Are you problem-solving all the time? How do you problem solve so that this is inclusive and thinks about all the different functions? A person might have a Slide description. What is the barrier On this slide? We see an exterior that appears to be some kind of courtyard.
The surface of this courtyard area is all large flagstones and patio pavers.
They are irregular, shaped, and irregularly spaced.
The gaps between the pavers have what appears to be a form of gravel.
There is no symmetry to the layout, The paths wind in and around plantings and what appears to be an attempt to use the rocks and other logs on the side for natural seating Thea continues.
I wanted to share, as David said, some really good concrete examples.
Here.
S a popular example of an exterior treatment for a site, And what do we see is the problem here? Well, right away, I m looking at that paving and I m thinking that is going to start to sink and shift Those gaps between the pavers are going to become problematic.
The width of those pathways is too small.
None of that seating considers the fact. Many people need to have back support and armrests, And certainly, there is very little space that integrates where a person using an assistive device to sit integrated into the seating environment.
So don t do that Slide description.
What is the barrier? The picture shows two curb cuts.
The curb cut at the bottom is closest to us.
The curb cut at the top of the image in the center is furthest away from us, and these are connected by a crosswalk Thea continues.
Here we have a curb ramp and a crosswalk, No, whether you have curb ramps going through your parking lot or whether you actually have them at intersections it doesn’t really matter Now.
We see some really great things in this example.
Here They actually provide curb cuts, which you ll see in the video doesn’t always happen.
They have detectable warning surfaces at the edge to highlight you are leaving the safe pedestrian zone and going into where cars might be A painted, crosswalk is Fantastic.
But what did they do? Not do How aligned is this curb ramp with the direction of travel People with disabilities, using this, somebody like David, who can t see, is going to wander out into traffic because this is not aligning them with the safe destination. On the other side, Equally, someone who is not using the curb ramp is just using the sidewalk trying to go past.
The curb ramp sidewalk has no level area, so they are tipping at that angle And for many people using assistive devices or are unsteady on their feet.
That could be a tipping hazard, So obviously don t do that Slide description.
What is the barrier? This picture shows a parking lot.
There are several parking spaces on the left and on the right At the bottom left of the pictures.
We see two accessible parking spaces, both that have pavement markings and that share a stripped access.
Aisle Thea continues Here we have parking, We ve got great accessible parking, That s fantastic, The signage may or may not be there.
It s a little hard to see in the picture.
Maybe they are still in construction.
Maybe there are coming. But what do we not see here? We don t see a sidewalk at the top edge of the parking space, so they can t use the access aisle to go up to a sidewalk and then access the building from a sidewalk.
They have to travel along the roadway and particularly if you are using a seated assistive device, you’re down lower It s harder for cars to see you.
This is a safety issue and isn’t the building code supposed to be about life and safety?
Don t do that Slide description.
What is the barrier In this picture? We see an office place with a kitchen.
This kitchen has all of the kitchen cabinets and counters on the left side of the picture all done in white And we have seating with black tables and red chairs along the right wall.
The microwave is placed in the upper cabinets.
Thea continues Here.
We have an office place, but our building code does not require the kitchens in our office spaces to be accessible a huge oversight.
What problems do we see here? Well, we have a sink that isn’t low enough and no counter space that’s low enough. There s no knee space to access the sink and where is that microwave It s too high, You can t even access it from a seated position, The tables here are using pedestal tables and the pedestal tables block the access for the toe space.
Lots of color contrast problems.
I’ll talk about those quickly later on the Slide description.
What is the barrier Here? We see a large two-floor space in an office.
This is meant to be a community gathering spot in an office.
There are several different seating options available in the picture To the left of the picture.
We see on the back wall a bunch of shelving and a table with some traditional chairs In front of that we see a carpeted area that has several different types of softer seating arrangements, including couches and coffee tables, side tables, and armchairs.
On the front right of the picture, we see again more traditional meeting tables And at the back right, a set of stair cases with hang-out seats, and large tiered seating along one side of the stairs arranged for casual seating or to act as a presentation.
Seating Thea continues, And this is my worst.
This is the thing everyone is celebrating. You’re seeing this all over the internet and things like this, where they are creating these collaborative work, spaces that are Ecco the environment, that people have at colleges That s great, except that this staircase doesn’t have handrails on both sides.
So for people who need stability, they can t access that They have hang-out steps.
You might as well hang an able-bodied-only sign here because you’re not going to be able to access this or sit with your friends David.
If you can imagine a sign at a University that says, students who are female may not socialize.
Here, Students of a particular racial community may not socialize.
Here you d say that s appalling Anyone who builds hang-out steps is hanging out a sign that s saying people with disabilities go socialize somewhere else Thea And you can see the storage space is too high.
You can t access those upper shelves There.
S often tables in the way Lots of things here I could actually a full half hour just on this one picture, But this is the type of problem that the design community, just doesn’t see recognize Slide descriptions.
What is the barrier? There are two pictures on this slide.
The picture on the left indicates how one could arrange and what elements would be required for an area of refuge placed inside an exit. Stair Elements required include directional signage.
That indicates where the area of refuge is with an illuminated sign and with tactile signage.
It also includes a call box with instructions also provided in braille and large color-contrasted text.
And then there is a lobby Fire command Centre Base Station, where the people who are waiting in the areas of refuge are identified by a light for the firefighters to find The image on.
The right is indicating an area of refuge in an elevator lobby.
All of the same elements are indicated for the location, the identification, the instructions, the call box, and the Smart Rescue Base Station Thea continues.
This is a huge one.
In the building code, we don t require equity in life safety.
What do I mean by that? I mean when the fire alarm is pulled.
You are not allowed to take the elevator. Yes, Ok, so they say you don t have to provide a safe fire separated smoke, and protected area for people with disabilities.
If you have sprinklers So in today s world, we commonly have sprinklers in buildings That s terrific, Except that waiting a minute for water on the fire, creates Smoke.
What kills people Smoke? 
Can you imagine how terrifying it would be if you yourself, couldn’t, leave a building during a fire? Where would you wait safely Or worse for you right now as an able-bodied person? What if your loved one was a person with a disability, Your parent, your grandparent, or The fire alarm, gets pulled?
Where do they go to wait safely for rescue? So these are some really good examples of what actual inclusive fire safety looks like Slide description, Design for vision loss.
This slide has four different images on them: labeled, A B C and D, in The top left corner.
We see photo A Top right, and photo B Bottom left.
We see photo C And in the bottom right we see photo D, Thea, continues And then very quickly, especially because David is here.
I wanted to talk about some things that are not covered.
If you were going to go beyond trying to reach what you’re actually required by law to do, then you re going to be thinking of the example here, A which is a tactile map, typically not seen.
It has raised elements braille, For example, B. Directional wayfinding from the bus stop right to the Hospital entrance.
Those are elongated bars placed along the ground.
You can find that in some of the resources I m going to give you Example C is talking about effective color.
In contrast, I often hear architects and interior designers because they are not taught this and the importance of this, particularly for people with vision, loss or people who are confused.
Color contrast is huge for wayfinding.
They come up with a design, and aesthetic and then they have to try to fix it and they feel like it.
S been ruined Example, D Assistance, animal relief area, not discussed Slide description Programme for inclusion, A small medical office layout that includes two washrooms, a reception area, an open office area for staff that includes four desks and the MD s office above the reception and beside the Office area Thea continues.
The big issue is accessibility is both a macro exercise and a micro exercise.
So this is an example of the macro You ve got to get your architectural programming space planning right to include people with disabilities.
If your architectural programming has been sitting on a shelf for many years without review and without updates to include the special impact of the path of travel, clearance at doors turn spaces, so that both the staff and the visitors could be people with disabilities, then your space requirements or The square footage you ve allowed will simply not accommodate the current code requirements or beyond code Slide. Title Fundamental Principles: Thea continues Very.
Lastly, here Harvard Graduate School of Design is offering now a free web, based course for everybody and offering to teach people the fundamental principles of architecture.
So my challenge to you to encourage you to go forward from today remember that people with disabilities are to be designed for as people first and not as an afterthought Slide description.
What is Accessible, Design Thea continues.
There are four pictures here: Each has a title: The top left picture says Exclusion, A large gray circle with blue human figures, representing both male and female, the able-bodied and outside of the gray circle.
We have gray figures representing people with disabilities, both visible and invisible.
The second image at the top right says Segregation, Two circles that are separate and distinct from each other Again.
The large circle shows those blue figures representing both men and women.
The able-bodied And the smaller gray circle on the right has the gray figures representing people with disabilities, both visible and invisible.
The bottom left has a title of Integration. The two circles are overlapping each other.
The small circle is inside the larger circle, but the blue figures able-bodied are separate and distinct from the people with disabilities.
In the smaller gray circle.
The bottom right-hand side has a title of Inclusion, A large gray circle with blue figures.
We saw before the able-bodied mixed up with the gray figures for the people with disabilities.
All together in the same place, Thea continues.
David was talking about the segregation that we ve moved from to inclusion Slide titled Beyond Code Resources.
Thea continues, And I have provided resources that I will leave here, for you Slide description Beyond Code Resources, Resource number, one CSA, B651, 12, Accessible design for the built environment, Resource two City of London; FADS; F, A D S Facility, Accessibility, Design Standards, FADS Resource three City Of Mississauga FADS Resource four City of Toronto, ADG Accessibility, Design, Guidelines, Resource five City of Ottawa, ADS Accessibility, Design Standards, Resource six Brock, University FADS, Resource number, seven Best, practices from Illustrated Guide to the AODA Design of Public Spaces.
The resource link gates.
Org Resources build environment, David, OK, a couple of things about what you can do. The first is to the extent that architects and other design professionals look both at designing buildings and spaces to be useable or functional and to be aesthetically pleasing.
I encourage you to consider that the priority must be a clear one: full accessibility.
First, We don t compromise accessibility to make it pretty.
We don t make it pretty and then go.
Oh.
What are we doing to do about that? Accessibility? Stuff? We design a fully accessible space period And then we can talk about the aesthetics anyone who gets those priorities backward is respectfully getting it wrong.
So what do you do about it? I m going to give you a couple of ideas.
The first is, as Thea said, to learn about it.
Second, encourage and demand that your professors teach you about it the Third commit from this day onward.
You are going to design in accordance with principles of universal design, because that s, what you came to a design profession to be a person who designs for everyone, Someone who doesn’t t want to find out later. Oh, my gosh, I didn’t mean to do it, but look what I’ve done by accident.
I ve left people out Number four.
If you want to learn about this aside from signing up for our updates, I encourage you to go onto Twitter.
You can follow us if you like AODAalliance, but even if not we’ve created a new hashtag.
We’re inviting people to go out and photograph barriers and describe them in the words in their tweets so that blind folks can follow them too To share them.
On Twitter to enable us to tweet them to politicians and journalists, This Twitter campaign is rallied around a hashtag that we invented It s AODAfail.
So if you search on the number sign and then AODAfail, you will be stunned by what people have found, but not just looking at it.
I encourage you, as part of your own learning exercise, to do your own AODAfail scavenger hunt.
We also comment AODAwins when people get it right.
I want to show you a video that the AODA Alliance produced in late November, which we went to a brand new public building. Remember that expectation people have new buildings.
They are going to be great Old buildings.
They are the problem.
The AODA Alliance produced an 18-minute video it s up on YouTube, but we’re going to show you the 6-minute shorter version as you watch this, I encourage you to ask yourself: do I ever want to design a building that ends up in a Video like this Technical problems, While we re sorting this out, I want to give you just one other bit of information that you may want to think about.
When people talk about accessibility in the built environment, it s typical for people to think about people in wheelchairs or with mobility issues, and that s of course important.
But I want you to think much more broadly.
It affects people who don t have any mobility device at all but may have trouble walking long distances.
It includes people with vision, loss who need to avoid head-level barriers who need clear color contrast, and who need wayfinding markings through wide open spaces like great, open foyers.
I want you to think about people with other disabilities.
If it s somebody with autism spectrum disorder, they may have sensory integration issues so that the kind of noise in the background can affect their ability to be comfortable in the environment. Are we ready to go Thea? I think we’re ready David, Let her rip.
My name is David Lepofsky.
Today is Saturday, November, 19th 2016 and I’m standing in the basement of the brand-new, Culinary Arts Centre built with our tax dollars at Centennial College in the northeast corner of Toronto.
I’ve come to look around to see how well they did on the accessibility Parking pay machine Near the accessible parking spots.
There is a parking meter for you to pay for your parking.
However, it’s at standing height so that’s not accessible to somebody in a wheelchair who uses the accessible parking spots That makes no sense Exterior ramp.
There is a ramp beside the stairs going to the front door and that’s good, But there’s only a railing on one side, not both sides.
There should be for accessibility, a railing on both sides.
Some people need one on both sides or may need one on the side which is missing for balance.
Moreover, the side where there is no rail is the side where there is a vertical drop-off that presents a safety problem not only for people with disabilities but frankly, for everybody, especially little kids in Washrooms. I’m.
I’m now on the basement floor of the Culinary Arts Building the brand new building at Centennial College in Scarborough and um.
Here they have a public women’s, washroom right next to the men,’s washroom and the only thing between them is a cane banging a little thin wall or something So here,’s the thing beside the women’s washroom it’s great – That they’ve got signage with raised letters, and it says Women in Braille, but um, a blind person.
Isn’t going to be feeling the entire wall to find out whether there’s a sign here And when we walk by.
What we would hear is just the echo and it doesn’t sound like there are two separate bathrooms.
It sounds like there would be just one, So I wouldn’t know to go over and check further.
That beyond here is the men.’s room.
If I was here for the first time and then look for a sign here, Uh, it would be way better if they simply had a door with a sign Elevator.
This says Main, but the voice on the elevator is going to, say Ground beep, which is referring to a floor that’s not the ground floor.
It’s one above the ground floor. I’m just pushing the Main button In Braille.
It says Main the elevator beep electronic elevator voice Ground floor David, Which would be completely confusing to me.
Am I on the ground floor or am I on the main floor Barrier? Free washroom Right outside the elevators, as you came up, is an inclusive washroom And there’s a Braille sign here that says: Inclusive Washroom, which is great, and there’s the international accessibility, symbol, Uh, but the automatic door opener is not where you would figure It would be right here, you’d, have to know to start feeling all over till you get over here to find it doors, click Um, and then we, The big problem, though, is when I open the door.
There’s no transfer space in the bathroom.
It’s a bathroom meant for people with disabilities to be accommodated, but there’s, no, not the needed transfer space to meet their needs.
South vestibule! Now, once you’re open that one door and you’re now between the inside door and the outside door again here we have another one of these bollards one of these things, sticking up from the floor that I’ve not encountered in virtually any Other building, except the disastrous design of the Women’s College Hospital, Um, wouldn’t even know to look for it.
But if I look for it, I’d be confused by the fact that, for some of the doors, these automatic door openers are on the wall, not on something sticking up in the middle, but let’s get past that problem.
I then come over here and feel there’s a button.
I don’t necessarily know there are two buttons, so I’m looking to go out the door, and I only find this one and push it, And I push this one to figure out which it is and while I’m standing here, this door Comes over and hits me East crosswalk number one And they have a crosswalk right here with no curb cuts and no tactile, prompting that there’s a crosswalk here Now there is a crosswalk with curb cuts, just a few meters away.
But when I show you how it’s designed you’d, realize it’s not much of a solution. East crosswalk number two, So here just a few feet away.
Is this another crosswalk where they did put in a curb cut Uh? But it points to me as a blind person walking into oncoming traffic rather than if they had made the other inaccessible crosswalk accessible.
It would point me to go right across the way you ordinarily would cross a street.
So this is just from the point of view of safety and accessibility um another blunder Conclusion, Thanks for watching this video To learn more about us visit our website at www, AODAalliance org, To follow our tweets, follow us at AODAalliance on Twitter And if you want to Sign up to get our email updates just send an email to AODAfeedback Gmail com, and all you have to say is Sign me up.
We welcome your feedback, Let us know about AODA, fails or AODO wins that you know about around Ontario.
If you want to see the long version of this video with more examples of problems with accessibility, go to YouTube and do a search on AODA Alliance and Centennial College and the long version End of video David, OK, we ve only got a couple of minutes left before You ve got to get onto other classes, so let me wrap up with a couple of observations That video, which is as amateurish as it could be, is just the 6-minute version.
I do encourage you to go to YouTube and search on Centennial College and AODA Alliance.
Watch the 18-minute version, There are more examples and they are comparable to accessibility problems.
This is a brand-new building at a community college.
It should never have happened, But what s powerful about it is they wanted to get accessibility right. Similarly, the Osgoode Hall Law School, I believe, wanted to get accessibility right.
The problem is a combination of design professionals who haven’t been trained to do this adequately.
Building code and AODA standards that are adequate and the misconception that all you got ta do to meet legal requirements is to fulfill the building code and the AODA standards To disregard the higher requirement for full inclusion in the Charter of Rights and in the Human Rights Code is to make a fundamental mistake, A legal mistake that can cause significant problems and consequences both for the design, professional, the organization who s building it is, and, of course, most important for all of us who want to be included.
I want to end on a really positive note: There s a lot of room for you to make a difference.
You are at the fantastic point of being at the start of your career.
You’re still learning Take this on as a challenge and as an exciting opportunity.
Look for AODAfails and AODAwins.
Let us know and tweet them.
We welcome your idea.
If you email us, AODAfeedback, or Gmail com about how you might be able to get design professionals on the right side of this issue, as often as we can, And most important of all make that commitment today, that whatever you design is going to be designed for everyone. Thank you so much for this opportunity for us to speak with you today.
