Universal Design Research as a New Materialist Practice

Abstract

<p>In Disability Studies, Universal Design (UD) is a concept that is often borrowed from an architectural or design context to mean an ideology of inclusion and flexibility with a range of applications in education, technology, and other milieus. This paper returns to UD as a design phenomenon, considering knowledge production practices as conditions of possibility for inclusive design. UD appropriates and redefines normalizing research methods, namely anthropometry, that were developed in the 19th century for uses that are contrary to disability rights and justice, such as eugenics, colonialism, and scientific racism. The paper argues that critical disability theory should understand work in UD research and design practice in order to formulate a nuanced, new materialist and historical disability epistemology, particularly in engagements with scientific knowledge.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Keywords</strong>: Universal Design, accessibility, anthropometry, normate, misfit, 19<sup>th</sup> century science, eugenics, new materialism</p>

Narrative Inquiry on the Teaching of STEM to Blind High School Students

“…"The resulting built environment is precisely what the social model criticizes-a world built without considering all ranges of ability." [27].…”

“…The UDL approach claims to offer accessibility for all. We understand the limitation that this statement can have because it may not necessarily consider the individual needs of blind learners and it can run into the danger of becoming a form of generalization and normalization that could re-enact exclusion [19,27]. This may be of particular concern for areas in STEM education where persons with disabilities, along with women and students from racial and ethnic groups (e.g., Blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians or Alaskan Natives), are often marginalized [29].…”

Constructing autonomy: smart homes for disabled veterans and the politics of normative citizenship

“…Some scholars in disability studies have pointed to the ways in which the rise in technological resources for people with disabilities has redefined disabled access to the public sphere and the private spaces of the home (Hamraie 2012;Imrie 1996;Williamson 2011). But one could argue that Smart Home technologies do not redefine disabled access for the disabled veteran; rather, the forms of technological mediation available through the Smart Home merely extend the shelf life of the automated, cybernetic, and wireless communication and defence technologies to which members of the modern military are already well acclimated.…”

Designing inclusive environments: rehabilitating the body and the relevance of universal design

“…The contributors provide insight into the tasks ahead, including need for much more theoretical development of what universal design is or ought to be in relation to the pursuit of design for all and not the few [also, see 25]. This includes development and deployment of concepts that enable non-reductive conceptions of design and disability to emerge, aligned to political and policy strategies that enable universal design to become a socio-political movement in its broadest sense.…”