Universal Design for Libraries

okay good afternoon everyone i'm jessica philippe i'm the member engagement librarian at south central regional library council i want to welcome you to this webinar in universal design for libraries which is supported with federal american rescue plan act funds allocated to the new york state library by the institute of museum and library services so just a couple things before we begin the closed captioning is available if you click on show subtitle under the live transcript button on your task bar you can type questions and comments in the chat throughout the presentation and questions are going to be answered at the end if you would like everyone to see your questions and comments make sure to select that option in the drop down menu of the chat box and the webinar today is being recorded and it will be shared with all registrants along with information about how to request a certificate of attendance and we've had a change to our speaker from what was originally advertised but i'm pleased to introduce christa macy architectural design research associate at the center for inclusive design and environmental access krista has experience in design for accessibility sustainable and universal design so thanks for being with us today krista you and good afternoon everybody thanks for joining us today our presentation will be best practices for libraries and so i'll get started so today we'll talk a little bit about us about the idea center where i work the university of buffalo the definition of universal design the goals the beneficiary the business case some examples and some resources and then we'll have some time at the end for a q a so about us we were founded in 1984 the primary goal of the idea center is to produce knowledge and tools to increase quality of life for groups who have been marginalized by traditional design practices we're a multi-disciplinary team in the school of architecture and planning at the university of buffalo and the image here is a picture of where we are located in buffalo new york hayes hall so part of what we do is research um we do research uh related to rehab um such as our rehab engineering center on universal design which is a five year five million dollar federal grant that we've held since 1999 and um we also work with grants as well and for private hire and so the image on the screen here um on the left is a wounded warriors home we worked on a couple wounded warriors homes with michael graves architects and the image in the top right there relates to our nfta research focusing on slam ramp slopes for public transportation and in the bottom right was one of our usability studies for atm touch screen atm devices we also do development activities helping to basically put into action of the research that we do the image at the left is um a home designed by an architect that we work with at the idea center beth tauki and it's the life house um it focuses on a all stages of life home that somebody can age and place in um the image on the right is a touch model we work with a company called touch graphics and create either 3d touch models or in this case this is a touch model that has auditory cueing as well as an overlay of braille and finally one of the one of the other things that we do is design consulting we perform design services like ada compliance audits expert witness testimony universal design consulting and home modifications so now we can kind of get into it so sometimes when we're discussing universal design i find that it's easiest to describe what it is not because it's so often misunderstood and it is not accessibility um so both accessibility and uds started with the disability rights movement in the 1960s which led to accessible design and breaking down barriers for people with disabilities and ultimately this accessibility movement did lead to the idea of universal design but they're not the same thing so universal design is not accessible design barrier-free design assistive technology and it's not merely about functions such as prosthetics and it's definitely not focused on only people with disabilities uh universal design is beneficial for everyone and it sometimes evolves from assistive technology and it sometimes evolves from ergonomic design and it involves an evolutionary approach so there's no end state and it's process oriented as an example the image you're looking at is the hall of remembrance which is located in the united states holocaust museum in washington dc and so this space within the museum is um particularly used for um solemn events ceremonies um for the most part very introspective quiet events and so um you can see here there are some major design issues which may not jump out right away but for one there's stairs to get to the lower level so it was inaccessible also you can see that the handrails are non-continuous and the floor surface itself is very high gloss so it can cause a bit of distraction for someone who may have visual impairment or someone that may have a cognitive disability that increases their confusion when they have uh extreme stimulus like something like a bright light and so um although this museum was designed after the ada so it was designed after 1990 um the arcus tech still didn't incorporate um just incorporate features that would support accessible design let alone universal design and so they had to do sort of an after-market add-on which is this lift and while this lift does provide accessibility you can imagine um if you put yourself in a situation where you're entering a ceremony even if you're on time but let's say you're late you arrive at the ceremony you attempt to open the gate for this lift you have the noise of the gate itself opening you have um heads turning to take a look at you because you're someone that's kind of entering late in addition now you're using this noisy machine um you have a slow descent down to the lower level and then again you need to open the gate causing a lot of noise and distraction so this is a great example of accessible design and while it might get the job done it doesn't do it very well and it certainly doesn't respect the user so what universal design is um universal design is a process that enables and empowers a diverse population by improving human performance health and wellness and social participation and basically um that one of the terms that i want to really highlight in this definition which the definition was developed by our uh our research center dr steinfeld who is the director of our research center as well as the director of research dr maisel and so one of the points that we added that we're not included in past definitions of universal design is the word process um something is never fully perfect it's never you're never going to have a design that meets the needs of every single person under the sun but it's an attempt it's an attempt to try and support the widest population possible and so we should never be thinking that designs are done everything's fixed everything's perfect and additionally the terms health and wellness were also added in previous definitions it wasn't about supporting health and wellness and avoiding um injury and it was more about responding to issues of concern health issues and current functional limitations and so basically universal design makes life easier healthier and friendlier for all um additionally universal design versus inclusive design both terms describe the same concept and philosophy and the terms can be used interchangeably design for all is another term that is typically used more in europe than in the us but also all the same thing primarily we focus on the term universal design one because we had to choose one just a name to keep things consistent but also because that was the focus of the recurring grant that we do have and so it's important to note that we're talking about the same concepts here and um so if there's any pushback in the future with your own work just keep that in mind so now we're going to move on to the goals of universal design so to accompany the new definition that was developed we developed eight goals of ud each one embodies a clear outcome and each is accompanied by an example so the examples span many domains of design practice and by using goals we create clear outcomes that the public and design professionals can come to expect or aim to achieve and those goals are derived from the definition and categorized into three improvement areas described by the definition and the three improvement areas are human performance health and wellness and social participation so i'm going to go through all the goals um briefly describe what they are and we'll go from there if anyone does have any questions please make note of them i love questions so um first goal body fit does the design accommodate a wide range of body sizes and abilities the image shown is an exhibit that used to be at the pittsburgh children's museum and it is an arrangement of three rows of hand dryers for people of all sizes and the opportunity to dry off water after the water play exhibit so they can also be used to dry different parts of the body like your head and your feet and so it's not just limited to a single height where everybody is expected to just sort of dry their hands um so when you're thinking about body fit you want to design for the extremes you want to design for choice design for the average with accommodations and you want to break from precedence so questions you may want to ask when thinking about body fit is does the product or environment address differences in height and weight size and function of body parts space clearances needed to complete tasks including space for assistive devices as well as fields of view the next goal is comfort are the demands of the design within desirable limits of body function and perception so this image here is um is a library educational space and something that relates to comfort that doesn't automatically come into people's heads right away is the need for appropriate lighting temperature controls acoustics and then additionally physical comfort which is what people might closely associate with this goal but in this case um it's a strain if you don't have a variety of lighting types what's successful about a space like this is that while in this view particularly there's a lot of overhead lights but within this space there is also task lighting there's overall lighting there's natural lighting acoustics extremely important i'm sure to a group of librarians that makes a lot of sense acoustics are often an afterthought in a lot of environments um even just in the office that i'm in now this building was lead certified it is a historical building that was renovated in the last few years but not very much attention was given to acoustics and so we've had to make a lot of um modifications since being in this space just to support our needs of co-working in a large space and not being distracting to one another the next goal awareness does the design ensure that critical information for use is perceived easily the image shown here is a hotel in japan and the raised dots on the floor are called tactile ground guides i'm sure a lot of you have seen them on curb cuts or maybe along a subway line basically they indicate that there's something coming up so what's nice about the design of these tactile ground guides are that they are various shapes colors and sizes and so without very much cognitive load one can whether they are visually impaired or not maybe they're just distracted maybe they're in a new space maybe they don't speak the native language maybe they have a cognitive delay maybe they have small children with them or they're in a stressful situation and they're not really paying attention to the situation around them so what these guides allow for is that intuitively um the longer guides sort of cue individuals to walk forward the shorter dotted ones you notice there's a change in texture beneath your feet those kind of indicate that maybe you need to stop and keep an eye out for things and another nice thing about this that while it's not six feet apart and this was designed prior to covid um features like this could also support decrease of disease transmission now that we know some of the importance of keeping social distancing the next goal understanding does the design make methods of operation and use intuitive and clear so the key concepts that are important for designers here are that well first excuse me sorry about that first i'll explain the image so this is a new york city subway car and the indicator sign at the top is great because it not just tells you what the next stop is it also tells you what all of the stops are going to be down the line gives you a basic idea of how long you're expected to wait and additionally it's illuminated so that makes it easier to read clearer to read and it also is programmable so someone doesn't have as much doubt about the accuracy of this information so if you were on a train let's say and the signage is all very outdated or faded you might wonder if it's even accurate to what's happening at that time and so and an additional cue for individuals riding that train is the auditory cue letting you know when the next stop is so all of these all these bits of information help people to function more effectively without actually noticing that they're functioning more effectively and so you want to incorporate perceivable affordances you want to utilize well-known conceptual models so mental model like a memory of how something works is developed through experience another example that we often use for this goal is the water fountain and the corresponding bottle filler what's nice about that design is that it has images and pictograms of what you're supposed to do with that bottle filler so it has a hand holding a bottle holding it adjacent to the spout and then moving it to where the water would actually be filled and there's also typically a filter indicator so that you kind of know whether or not it's been cleaned and so all these things help users to understand how to use something without really noticing it without noticing that they're doing this mental work so does the product or environment address the level of complexity and operations or information um does the uh does it address the expectations of the user so sometimes especially in architecture using the example of a drinking fountain maybe it's very cool for somebody to try and come up with this very exciting sleek new design for a drinking fountain but it's not really very useful if nobody knows how to do it use it because they've never seen a drinking fountain like that before so it's also kind of toning down some of the high design elements and um you want to address literacy and language skills you want to address the priorities and the information that's needed and you want to provide feedback to understand the implication of an action so like with the bottle filler you hold the bottle under that spout the water comes out so you get a bit of feedback without really needing to do too much the next goal is wellness does the environment or product contribute to health promotion avoidance of disease and hazards the image shown here is part of also taken in new york city it is an illustration of the complete streets initiative which there's also we've implemented a number of those strategies in the city of buffalo as well encouraging more pedestrian activity encouraging safer bike lanes safer walking lanes safer roller blading lanes but also elements that calm traffic so you see planters you see benches um you see this sort of larger island space that allows for people to sit down and take a break sometimes it's very difficult for somebody to cross the street all in one go and so all these elements help to calm traffic but also whether it's perceived or real it also helps to make pedestrians feel a lot safer and it encourages increased use and then one additional thing that's nice about this type of about the complete streets initiative is that allows for flexibility of use so you can move the planters although those benches look very heavy they could theoretically be moved this whole street could turn into a marketplace could you know be open for a parade any other sort of activities that um traditional streetscape design might make challenging but especially postcovid we realize now how important it is to really support our health to not only be responding to injuries and illness but to be actively trying to avoid those things and um and so that's why this goal is was added and was not in any of the previous definitions the next goal social integration is your design treating all groups with dignity and respect so you see here this is called sociopetal seating which basically means seats are facing each other and so it's easier for conversation it encourages conversation but part of social integration also includes respecting people's needs and so like a library is a great example of this where some people just want to be by themselves but they want to be working with other people around them they like the activity they like being in a community but they might not want to chat with anybody some people like to be in the mix talking the whole time and some people really like they're back to people they don't want to see anyone and so respecting that desire it incorporates and improves um social integration and that people aren't feeling pressured to behave a certain way and they're more comfortable approaching these different arrangements personalization is the next goal does the design have opportunities for choice and expression of individual preferences so this is an iphone i'm sure a lot of you know that one of the reasons the iphone really took off was because of the app store and nobody uses nobody's phone is really the exact same everybody has different apps they use in different ways they organize their apps in different ways and they want you know notifications on or off and so phones are really one of the best examples of why people really value personalization and finally the last goal is cultural appropriateness does the design respect and reinforce social and environmental context the image here is downtown buffalo it's canal side and so we have cold buffalo cold winters and buffalo as you folks do and that's part of the culture and so how can we you know this design was successful because how can we develop designs that already support what buffalo is like you know it wouldn't be make the most sense to build an indoor although indoor water parks are great but it's great to kind of capitalize on what you already have what people already value and really listen to that and pay attention to that when you're designing and so um on top of that you can see there are devices for people who maybe just you know they're not great with ice skating they want to hold on to something there are the ice bikes and there's a number of different seating options around the ice skating rink and then in the summer this turns into a little waterway and people can rent little pedal boats and it just operates all year round and it is so successful at that because the designers opted to incorporate what was already in buffalo and the values that buffalonians already have so another example of that would be respecting municipalities or regions history and so incorporating their history that's specific to that region also generally leads to more success and more satisfaction with the design and so just an overview um body fit comfort awareness and understanding all relate to human performance health and wellness relates to wellness and social participation relates to social integration personalization and cultural appropriateness and those are all the goals that when you are thinking about designing something it doesn't have to be a built environment or a product it could also be services or an event these are just a great checklist to run down and see how you're measuring up so who benefits from universal design children because there's improved safety and security adults because it reduces stress and anxiety um you know temporary disabilities we are all only temporarily able-bodied all of us will experience some sort of event at some point in our lives so we shouldn't always be considering like this is for someone with disabilities this is not um supports older people and it's a support for independence people with disabilities to provide independent function and people of varied sizes statures and sensitivities very tall very short left-handed chemically sensitive etc and non-physical characteristics like income gender cultural and educational differences or invisible disabilities like ptsd or epilepsy for example as well as low resource settings so large influxes of refugees in the past several years and so um going down that list and considering all those goals if you're going to be designing a space that's going to be used by vulnerable populations or victims of disaster or conflict so we're all beneficiaries and so we have what's the business case for universal design now this is we can always make a moral case you know everyone's on board with that's great this is helping people but um things cost money and so it's always important to understand what the business case is depending on who you're proposing these designs to and so what is the business case um this is an example of uh city of boston installed a accessible turnstile for their train system adjacent to it was a non-accessible turnstile and so what they were finding after it had been installed for a brief amount of time was that it was constantly needing to be serviced and the reason it was constantly needing to be serviced is that everybody wanted to use that maybe partially because of the reduced fare but likely also because it's wider it's more comfortable to walk through um you don't feel as confined if you're you know if you have a stroller if you're using a scooter or some other type of wheeled mobility device um if you're a caregiver for someone that uses a wheelchair and you're yourself are pushing a wheelchair if you have luggage if you have bags all these things if you have a dog with you all these things are much more um they're much easier to uh use if you have just a little bit extra space as you're going through one of these gates and so it would have made more sense for boston to just install a couple of these because they wouldn't constantly have this offline making the entire station inaccessible for people with disabilities and so there's a real value when you break down how many people are actually opting to use these things same with the push buttons for um accessible doors those are great if you have your arms full if you're on your phone if you maybe you like you know sprained your wrist maybe this stuff is just maybe you don't want to touch the door and you just want to you know elbow the button because you'd want to avoid any sort of germs or you know disease prevention all of these things and so that's one example um now i'm going to show you a quick visual representation of each question we did a post-occupancy evaluation of one of the buildings that we designed on the campus of university of buffalo it's a dormitory building and so um after we did the renovation for it we did a survey and we asked the users of the space specifically related to some of the ud features that were incorporated if they um if their satisfaction was improved it was neither improved or um or neither increased or decreased or it was decreased and so um i will play this again sorry this one is always giving me trouble okay so um you can see the difference between ud and non-ud buildings so first we'll look at the guided tour results ud is represented in the blue color and the non-ud is represented in green and gray is no significant difference and so the better rated building is closer to the top of the screen and that includes the building with more ud features on the chart at the beginning related specifically to the site of each building so it was a checklist of the building next to the building that had uv features and the building that had uv features and so when we were asking about the site that didn't change too much because it's the same site um but then when we asked about the interior of the building um there was a a dramatic increase in um satisfaction and so all of that is to say that more people typically like the ud features whether they know it's a uk feature or not and so um of the people who are deeply familiar with the building 66 favored the ub building and the non-ud building had only two percent of the questions that were rated better so one of one argument you can make for the business case for ud is market broadening it expands reach to a diverse and global population the changing demographics of the marketplace make it right for universal design the demand of universal design will will grow significantly even if folks aren't necessarily familiar with the term universal design or if they don't really realize that some of the features that they find to be the most useful or that they're most satisfied with are universal design features the goal in a lot of the work that we do is to make it seamless we don't want to similar to the examples that ud is not accessibility we are not trying to highlight that these features are universally designed we want it to be comfortable welcoming and friendly for people when they walk into a space or if they're using a product and so um people may just want products to work for them and everyone they live with as opposed to needing to buy specific items for each person and so that's an example of broadening the market relative advantage so you provide you can provide social branding opportunities this is definitely more geared towards business owners government officials who may be approving a large project but you're investing in social capital goodwill to the community and that equals a social branding opportunity whether you know that's the nicest way to determine or not that's how a lot of things work similar to lead people started to enjoy lead not just because they understood the ins and outs of sustainability but because they realized that other people had value for it and so they realized the value in certifying their buildings ud is also less risk for failure it's more thought through and you consider the end users needs most and it helps avoid the unexpected negative results of innovations and so universally designed products are investments in social capital this goodwill to the community creates a social branding opportunity and similar to our library for all people is good for marketing just like our library is good for the environment and so it helps to enhance the message of wellness the image here is the seattle library risk mitigation so you have increased productivity it reduces burdens to users and customers it reduces burdens to employees because you're providing customer assistance you're minimizing absenteeism your facilities and customer service services also errors are reduced and so um you have employees that feel safe comfortable with functional furniture with um you know good air quality with appropriate amount of natural lighting all of these things help with wellness they decrease illness they decrease absenteeism they improve your um set employee satisfaction within the space and so as you can tell all these things sort of just feed on each other and so you know also you can look at it as reduced worker injury is reduce liability um what's the compatibility compatibility with other library goals excuse me so um a unique and seamless experience promises a higher rate of return this is a checkout book check out site at the austin public library and so um maybe you know a lot of people called in sick one day and it's just not the staff to check people out and maybe if there's a huge weight to check out books individuals and users might decide it's not really worth their time to go into the library they're frustrated they have an emotional response to being frustrated because they're standing waiting in line and so items like this that are not only you know self-serve and it's also very noticeable in supermarkets and large superstores now you go into and there's always a line for the self-serve people want to be in charge of what they're doing they want to feel like they know what they're buying they don't want to wait for somebody even if they're waiting longer it's a perceived service that they're getting it's a perceived advantage that they're in charge and so something like this where you know you can tell there's an accessible height for this express checkout there's a higher height you have body fit accounted for um you also have it's nice and bright it's clear the text is clear these are all things that were thought about when incorporating this type of system so cost burst value what will it cost that's the first question people unfamiliar with ud asked but while it is important this is the wrong question because you answer the answer is always you get what you pay for and so when you have the issue of budgeting what will it cost um you might want to respond with you know what is the economic benefit so the most important question is one of value what is the economic benefit of adopting universal design of course cost is always important because most projects have a finite finite budget but there are always priorities in every project as well and so value judgments are inherently in every project so it's not limited to universal design so we're going to talk about value so cost versus value the most obvious example are sports arenas landmarks civic and public buildings like the library this image is a library recently built in new york it's very cool looking and a lot of people really enjoy how it looks obviously the design was approved it probably went through many phases many iterations and this is what they came up with fast forward to present day it had a number of lawsuits because it was not accessible so we're not even talking universal design we're talking accessibility had it been universally designed all the accessibility issues would have been addressed under that topic and so um in these cases a lot of public money is invested with little economic return for the community and so how much income does the library really make from late fees but the income is not the point here there are things that the public values and so what is the value to the community and having a free library just an aside uh yeah so we'll discuss more of this hunter's point library in a few minutes but basically this was an incredibly expensive project and so um there may not have been a question of value because it's understood that we have value for libraries as a community and so it's also important to note that research and experience show that accessibility features cost well under one percent of all new construction costs and so universal design features may add to that but because they're not mandated by law they can be selected strategically to address important project priorities that have high value to the owner and to the users but this is an important one and i would encourage everybody to share this information because oftentimes project managers building owners sort of scoff at accessibility because they feel like it's a little silly but in actuality it is a very small proportion of the entire project budget and so again cost versus value on this image is the hayden planetarium it's at the rose center for earth and space at the american museum of natural history in new york so innovative solutions can be selected that give a lot of bang for the buck and that simultaneously support the other non-universal design related goals of the client and users such as this example of the rose center which uses a ramp leaving the hayden planetarium as an exhibit on the timeline of the universe that everyone uses so there's no elevators for those who cannot use the ramp it's all within an accessible slope limit and this is also similar to the guggenheim museum everyone experiences the museum in the same way you're providing a route for the exhibits you're providing an organization for the space in this case and in the guggenheim it's also sort of spectacular to see such a long ramp and in this case it's circling um a large like planetarium but also planet spherical feature and so it's not just accessibility and it gets people from point a to point b it's worked into the overall design sometimes the value of ud is obvious like in supermarkets for example no one questions the use of an expensive automatic door um but maybe you know this is barnes and noble no automatic door you can see it's just a challenge for someone to open the door with a stroller especially if people are coming in and out it's a high traffic area and so maybe this you know this individual hasn't shared her feelings on it and so we don't know the value but obviously she has value for it and so because supermarkets generally benefit um and from these features these electric automatic doors and everyone including employees benefit they have less economic benefits because they reduce congestion or excuse me they have direct economic benefits because they reduce congestion and entries they reduce accidents and they reduce the need for staff to help customers and so all of that can be quantified whether or not a project manager owner wants to quantify that is up to them but um it's a possibility and so in other cases value isn't as easy to quantify so in the design phase sometimes difficult decisions need to be made without good information um for example in a project like a large transit hub like this new york could have opted to not design something so spectacular but they decided that as a community as a city they could find value in it whether or not it was through tourism whether or not it was just through social engagement there is a value in it but did the community did the city need to spend what they probably spent on this to provide a basic service of transportation probably not and so um a design team makes decisions about the resources that are available so what will the best investment for the project be will it increase the levels of comfort and security or maybe more um it would be better to have more of an iconic form and so although both are difficult to quantify the former produces more social capital because it can lead to increased ridership and revenue as well as greater support for future investments in public transportation by demonstrating that the agency cares about the user's experience and unfortunately this social capital aspect is often overlooked when priorities are established but they're still there so um and so the example is actually a false choice and that arguments against the adoption of ud often include false choices the choice to spend money on comfort and security as opposed to an iconic form is actually a false choice because an iconic form doesn't necessarily increase costs and a creative design team can find a way to produce an iconic form for very little cost if anything and the same can be true for comfort and security features and so as opposed to asking about cost it's much makes much more sense to ask about value that's not because universal design is necessarily more expensive it can be but it can also be done within the same budget and that's why the value of ud should be introduced before the cost question comes up and so cost versus value universal design isn't about add-on features that will cost more but instead it's about finding a better balance of priorities increasing value over the long term and increasing investment in social capital and also there's no law that mandates universal design so there's a choice of which features to include so there's a better balance of priorities there's value over the long term there's investment in social capital and you have the choice of features so now we're going to go through some examples so first the bad so this is the um hunter library hunters point library excuse me new york that i showed before this is the an interior view and so very cool looking but not accessible if and so this is what's so strange about some of you know this day and age we have these projects that are still designed and we have people needing more and so this is um the main subject of an ada lawsuit all the books are now removed from these stacks and although the ada allows inaccessible spaces they're not allowed when the same resources are not available in accessible locations as well and so and they should also have the same level of service and amenities so the architects evidently interpreted this to mean that these tiers were okay since there are other places to read books but every book is different and people like to browse the shelves so um each of these tiers could be said to provide unique resources so people like to find other books in the same subject area and even though it may be allowable to have books out of reach at least people can browse and get assistance a best practice would be to have all books on an accessible route and reachable next level down would be on an accessible roof root but visible so even if it's out of reach but a minimum should be to have all books at least be on an accessible route and so there are several other issues with this design um in new york most people walk to the library parents bring children and strollers and need to leave them somewhere secure or take them along wherever they go within the building and so today strollers are huge and the parents stash a lot of gear in them there is no secure storage space for strollers outside or on the first floor for storing them it's doubtful however that parents would even leave an expensive stroller with all their gear in a stroller room but um the elevator can also hold also the elevator can only hold one stroller at a time and the ramp is not wide enough for accessibility purposes to store more than a few strollers so when 20 parents with strollers arrive for a story hour to be a mess the building has a beautiful relationship to the park and the view but the building doesn't adequately address the goal of social integration a large amount of space was devoted to inaccessible reading areas and the path to reading room to the reading rooms was not designed to address the way people would use it it didn't make sense to put the reading room above the entry floor especially when there was plenty of land available in the park to use and the building greatly exceeded the original budget so it's it's also always interesting to see how much designers architects project managers are willing to increase that budget depending on what's needed and what they're willing to draw the line on and too often accessibility and usability is on that chopping block unfortunately and so um we just talked about value the money was clearly available to increase the first floor footprint of the children's reading room and provide reading areas with great views to replace the tiers this was a landmark project that cost a lot of money but what value did the community get out of it so there is now a public controversy over how this happened regardless of what happened with the lawsuit it's not only bad for the residents of the neighborhood it's also a bad look for the architects the library system and the city government it doesn't help the reputation of architects a profession often accused of indulging their tastes at a client's expense and so i'm also going to go through a few other images that we have from our own lawsuit work and so this is an example where the root is too narrow um and this isn't something that you know anyone did intentionally and that's always something that we try to communicate to individuals when we're doing audits um and when we're providing recommendations is that nobody oftentimes people are not intentionally trying to ostracize groups or not comply with the accessibility codes it's just a um people don't know and they don't know what the minimum widths are and so if you're designing for universal design all of these things are more appropriately addressed because you're not just thinking this one frame of well what if you're using a wheelchair you're thinking about all the other items that you might need to address and so again this is a huge problem not just in libraries but every store you go to you know massive companies that have all the money in the world that they could make these accommodations for um and there's unfortunately just not a lot of um focus on correcting these issues and so roots are too narrow workstations are too high you can see in the image on the right um that workstation is obviously intended for a standing user but there is a chair placed under it and so um doesn't make a lot of sense who is the chair for are they implying that it's a stool and so often we see some of these things that are not expensive fixes they're simply just a reorganization of items oftentimes we see this too items in knee space or protruding objects so this shelf here it's great because it has clear knee space but obviously facilities workers employees they're not made aware of why that surface was designed in that way and so it makes sense to kind of like hide a recycling bin or a trash can somewhere but unless an entire organization is keyed into universal design and understands why these design features exist it's very difficult to try and ensure that they continue to function in the desired way and so part of ud is also policies it's um encouraging this exchange of knowledge it's not judging people for not knowing what these rules are or why they can help a wider range of people and so in just an aside or just an add-on in addition to clear knee space it's also a protruding object if somebody is using a cane because they're visually impaired um that shelf would be not detectable by a cane so basically there's this space that if something is protruding from the wall more than four inches and it's between 28 inches above the floor and 80 inches above the floor that's an object that they can just kind of bump into and injure themselves obstructed aba writing surface so you know the design idea here was good they had they incorporated a lower work surface a lower checkout surface writing surface whatever this um function of this space may be but then someone unknowingly probably not intentionally put this large box of files on top of it or card catalog and so now that it's just not functional the way that it should be and so talk a bit about the good examples too so this is glenn allen public library and so you can tell that you can see in the image most of the items are within reach and again i'm going to go back to that word process like we are not saying that every time we do a universally designed building everything is going to work for everyone we are only trying to improve the design that exists and so um this is a great example because wayfinding is is supported um you see this large circular desk in the middle there are clear sight lines to the different sections within the library the signage is very clear that's hanging from the ceiling it's high contrast it's simple text you have an acoustic ceiling you have carpeting you also have a variety of seating types and shelving types so if somebody wanted to use that 3d printer that's in the front that's not out of reach it's not stowed away someplace but it's in the center of the space which also in a lot of ways reduces the amount of use not in a negative way but there's this fear that sometimes um items that maybe someone doesn't know how to use will be used incorrectly and so you want to keep it locked away and hidden away but if you have it out in front and center nobody's going to really mess with it anyway because it's under the watchful eye of the employees also incorporated in this image are a lot of natural light which is great in color um additionally this is another view of the same library but you see um various lighting types different ceiling conditions depending on the time of day how much daylighting is provided you can adjust for that with electric lighting um there's a lot of clear floor space in between the stacks and some of the stripes on the carpeting help aid to wayfinding so a librarian can say to a small child or someone with a cognitive delay follow the green line to this section that's where you'll find this type of book or this type of resource this is canestoga college i'm sorry i've never read that out loud before um but lighting work surface movable furniture and so um this is in kitchener ontario and you can see here the furniture is very lightweight so it's flexible for use people would be able to use it without a lot of physical strength you also have great natural lighting you have a low work surface so that if somebody was a wheelchair user and wanted to pull up to work at that surface they'd be able to and without much effort move the furniture you also have plugs that are on the desktop easier to plug into etc wayfinding this is silverman library at the university of buffalo um this was recently renovated and so you have these study rooms um nice and bright they still provide privacy because there's partial frosting on the um on the glass but they are they provide acoustic privacy and it's just so easy then for students or colleagues to say i'm working in this study group um historically so many libraries have been sort of dark which can be very cozy and nice in its own right and so it's this isn't about getting rid of every type of aesthetic that libraries might have in lieu of this but it's about providing flexibility and so something like study group rooms it's vital that people know where they are and how to find them and also additionally in the university it's nice to know that they'll be safe that you're not behind a solid closed door service counters again this is silverman library and you can see that there's not just a small section of the lower counter height you have it's an equal dispersion so maybe somebody prefers to go to the right for whatever reason or they prefer to go to the left or they prefer to stand all of those options are provided and one wouldn't feel ostracized for using one or the other and so priorities across the life span so although every age group shares needs with the others each stage of the lifespan has its own priorities and so this chart is an overview of the priorities of each age group and the basic themes of life in each stage are as follows so children are concerned with building foundations and abilities knowledge and social interaction young adults are focused on establishing a self-identity middle-aged adults are seeking to manage the many stresses of work parenting and social life and older people are focused on coping with changes such as loss of income health or abilities and loss of friends and loved ones so from a universal design perspective these basic themes of life can be addressed in many ways and across age groups for example older adults can volunteer to read to children and through that activity meet other parents space for one-on-one reading that is not exposed to distractions and noise would facilitate this activity and the furniture and surroundings must also support body statures and abilities of both age groups libraries can be excellent locations for teaching lifelong skills that promote health nutrition and based around good information on this topic but they need facilities that are equipped for it and so these same facilities can be used for entertainment and social activities of young adults so here are some of our resources we have um textbooks pocket guide books um all of our information is also found on our website as well as we also provide continuing education online and we created the isud building certificate program it's modeled after weed it's basically a tool for project owners buildings designers to use while designing so it's not such a big sort of loosey-goosey this is universal design it provides the strategies the variations and specifications how it is different from accessibility and so this is just a great tool if you're actually getting in the nuts and bolts of designing so that about wraps it up but i would love to hear any questions or comments and hopefully i didn't go through anything too quickly but i wanted to keep that to an hour thanks krista yeah we do still have time for a q a if people are able to stick around so i'll give you a moment if you have any questions to type into the chat or if you want to share anything that you learned or something that you might want to try after watching this and we did have one question earlier are you able to share these slides i don't know if we've discussed that already um sure yeah i think that's fine okay a pdf yes yep absolutely i would be happy to that's great so i will email that out to everybody ah i see that someone clear wrote that you can go through the furniture catalogs and scratch out most of them for being inaccessible yes i think libraries have historically tried to use that vertical space and are now kind of reversing that trend a little bit i had never thought about using the cane and then if you have anything floating up off the floor you're not identifying that with the cane so that was a really good point to make yeah um i really try to highlight things like that because it's so sometimes it's just not communicated why these accessibility standards exist and once you know it you just know it and people are much less likely to get frustrated and they just think like oh yeah well i can provide that for somebody i don't want someone to hurt their hip when they walk past that yeah for sure um carol's asking have you worked with any suny libraries um we have not worked with any suny libraries um unless i mean it's totally possible that we have in some of our uh lawsuit work but i don't know of those projects off the top of my head that we would have unfortunately and claire is asking do your resources the books and your site speak to the issue of renovating old seemingly permanently inaccessible buildings like some of our public libraries yes one of our big projects which we just i was at a conference for the association of children's museums last week which was very fun and very much more fun than design conferences um but we worked with we're currently working with the utica children's museum which is in the design phase and we also completed museum lab at the children's museum of pittsburgh and so that is isud certified utica children's museum will be museum lab is a carnegie free library built in the late 1800s and the museum acquired it after 2006 when it had some damage from being hit by lightning at which point it was abandoned and so it was in a lot of disrepair so there wasn't just a major expense to bringing it up to you know basic codes it was also important that they wanted everything to be universally designed they've had such great success with the building because of some of those features that were incorporated because they have such a wide range of users you know every age with a family museum like that and so one of the things that we realized was that historical buildings are not really that challenging um you may have to get creative and move um you know some of the primary services to different spaces throughout the building than maybe originally they were in but it's with some creativity you can generally meet a lot of the goals that's good to know brenda's asking about certificates of attendance and i will send out an email to everybody that registered for this with information about how to request those okay then perfect yes and then we could print out certificates as long as we everyone's email okay and joe is asking do you know how difficult it is to add automatic doors the push button kind to existing standard doors and any idea of how much it costs i don't know off the top of the my head how much it would cost because there's a lot of variabilities in that like it's hard to just give a standard cost because it depends on the weight of the door the existing door if you're going to buy a new door or you're just going to connect a device to a door and so i don't know the cost um it is definitely a cost and so that's something that would be under the category of cost first value and figure out if there's either for smaller or more government funded locations there are grants available and um which can be challenging to find at times but if you're if often if you search for accessibility you will find things that also address the needs of so many other people and so as opposed to say if you're able to acquire a grant for accessibility um sometimes you can get that to pay for something that will generally serve even your employees as they're loading and unloading things and so sometimes you just have to get creative on terminology when looking for funding yeah and i see claire had added that they did it in a library she worked with and it was about 6 000 in 2016. perfect and so that's probably gone up probably quite a bit yes did you see any changes to your principles throughout covet or did you just feel like it kind of served actually that time period well we saw that there were a ton of unintended benefits um a lot of like you know part of ud is the touch free you wave in front of a door opener that thing that helps so much with um you know disease prevention the fewer things you can touch incorporating a lot of technologies like app controls to things qr codes all of those things meet the goals of universal design because individuals can use them how they want to use them and they can use their own device and that also takes a lot of the expense off of the building owner project owner if they're saying like we can give you this information but it might be easier for you to access it on your own device and it also decreases the time that an employee would have spending explaining something [Music] yeah well i learned a lot of neat new things i liked the floor um the wayfinding through the floor i hadn't really thought about that and i think covid people started to use that more in terms of distancing and kind of like more of an afterthought type of way but doing it in an intentional way is really interesting and something i haven't thought of before and there's a i mean there are so many great universal design um possibilities for opportunities i should say for libraries because it's such a wide range of users and i'm sure that it's changing the library itself is probably changing tremendously the last like 20 years for you know who you see coming through the doors what you need to help them with um and so the other nice thing about it is it can also be very fun because you have this wide range of users and so you can incorporate this like fun way finding strategies that aren't just straight text on a sign but pictograms colors to identify different sections that's called multi-modal cueing which i think is always great when i see it if there's a corner that's green and it has a number and it has an image to identify for somebody it helps someone with that's not a native english speaker it helps someone who's just not paying attention and helps small children and so that's kind of like a cheaper one i would say too like if you're trying to find less expensive features yeah kids love that stuff but and one other thing that at this presentation we presented with in the utica children's museum and similar to your region too is we all in new york state have so many um refugees now so many languages are spoken and so the other thing we're incorporating which we're really just kind of learning about in the last year is trauma informed design and how and i would think that a library would be able to respond to that really well too and be a safe place for um you know maybe individuals who are coming out of a you know dangerous situation new country um maybe they're in refugee camps uh maybe they've you know experienced some sort of abuse in their life and so the idea that design can also help support that i think um for a library it's a great thing to include yeah that's great i think we're learning about all types of different lenses that we need to put on when we're looking at our spaces to reevaluate yeah i bet librarians have to figure out a lot of stuff the last few years like just because so such a wide range of users so yes it's been a big shift and i think all all for the best ultimately yes yeah yeah don't get discouraged by it anything is good this is very much what we try to tell people any ud is good any anything you can do to help people is good you don't need to just you know renovate your whole space but maybe you make aisles wider by arranging chairs so that one table has chairs with arms chairs without arms and a space for a wheelchair user so things like that can just be very simple not complicated yeah i think you gave us a good high low here some aspirational and some things that people might be able to implement sooner than later so thank you so much for that thank you and i will send the presentation and anyone can feel free to email me any questions great and i'll follow up by email with everybody who attended here with some more information and i did want to just mention um keep an eye out for announcements about upcoming webinars that we'll be hosting we have one on june 9th on library accessibility audits and then one on june 15th on disability pride and inclusion in the arts with musician galen lee so thanks everybody for joining today have a great afternoon