IN-PERSON: Livable Cities – New York
Abstract
Architecture deals with a wide spectrum of users, yet most architects create designs mainly for ‘normal’ users. Consequently, they create barriers that lead to the exclusion of many users. When disabled people are considered in architectural design, they tend to be categorised as people with impaired mobility, a ‘disadvantage’ typically mitigated by designing ramps and lifts, without acknowledging other disabilities, e.g. learning disability. This indicates that architects either assume that existing codes adequately fulfil the needs of people with learning disability and/or possess an insufficient understanding of their accessibility needs. This study aims to understand the accessibility needs of people with learning disability from their perspective -not from the expertise of healthcare workers, vicariously lived experience, or designers’ assumptions- to avoid the usual absence of their voice in architectural research. This study evolves through the first author’s interaction with the learning disability community in Wales -as a researcher, workplace assistant, volunteer, and friend-. In this study, we describe a two-phase participatory action study with people with learning disability as active participants using semi-structured interviews and walking interviews. Both phases are facilitated by a co-researcher with a learning disability to ensure the study’s accessibility for the participants. The study aims to 1) understand the participants’ preferences in using shopping centres, 2) understand the impact of different architectural elements and spatial characteristics on the participants, and 3) explore the barriers participants face in shopping centres. This contributes directly to the understanding of the accessibility needs of people with learning disability.
Menatalla Kasem is a PhD student at the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, UK. She is an architecture educator with teaching experience in the United Kingdom and Egypt. Her research interests are the relationship between architecture and users with a specific interest in inclusive design and the disabled users.
Sam Clark is a Reader at the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, UK. His teaching and research span the fields of Architecture, Housing and Gerontology, with specific interests in architecture for ageing, health and wellbeing, as well as dwelling differently and housing designed with a wider social purpose and contribution. Sam’s research practice engages interdisciplinary approaches, involving mixed methods, particularly qualitive and designerly techniques from ethnography and practice-led design research. He is author of Inside Retirement Housing: Designing, Developing and Sustaining Later Lifestyles (Policy Press, 2023).
Dikaios Sakellariou is a Reader in Disability Studies and Occupational Therapy at the School of Healthcare Sciences in Cardiff University, UK. His research interests revolve around disability research, practices of care, the intersubjectivity of care, global health policy development, and experiences of disablement. He is a co-editor of Disability, Normalcy, and the Everyday (Routledge, 2018), with Gareth Thomas.
9:00 am - 10:30 am
Friday 16th June, 2023