The social context for stairway design in multi-story buildings is changing. At one time, stairways were viewed primarily as a means of egress in an emergency, and elevators or escalators were the primary method of vertical circulation with the exception of monumental “feature” stairways. Today, the emphasis is changing to promote the use of stairways in buildings as opposed to use of elevators due to the health benefits of stair climbing. This is providing an opportunity for architects and building owners to experiment with innovative designs. One interesting innovation is the “interactive stairway.” Little is known about the impact of these interventions on the rate of stair accidents. The purpose of this study was to assess the safety of interactive stairway designs by comparing the user's behavior and the incidence of unsafe stair use on two interactive stairways with a stairway made of conventional material. A checklist for recording observations of stair users was developed. Observations were conducted in two museum buildings with interactive stairways and in one university building with a conventional stairway. Safety-related behaviors and incidents on the interactive stairways (CM and SM) and the conventional stairway (SU) were documented and compared. On the interactive stairways, more stair users glanced down at the treads (CM: 90%, SM: 81% vs. SU: 53%); fewer stair users diverted their gaze away from the stairs (CM: 22%, SM: 32% vs. SU: 66%); and handrail use was higher (CM: 40%, SM: 33% vs. SU: 28%). Incident rates were similar across the stairways (CM: 2.2%, SM: 2.2%, SU: 2.6%). The research suggests that interactivity can improve stair safety if used appropriately.
The rise of the number of Individuals with disabilities, worldwide, to a billion, necessitates applying the policies that allow full participation in social life or Mainstreaming these Individuals. Western countries provide a good example in this respect and the choice of the United States and Sweden will be justified. As to Arab Countries, Egypt and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia reveal efforts to integrate this group into social life and Mainstream its members.
Tactile walking surface indicators are necessary for visually impaired persons to walk independently. Audible pedestrian signals are also necessary for them to cross intersections. TWSIs support approaching the intersection, and audible pedestrian signals support crossing the intersection. However, the support of audible pedestrian signals may not necessarily be related to the support of the TWSIs. This research sought to verify how visually impaired persons are guided by different positions where the audible pedestrian signals are set up.
Downsizing and retirement village living are popularly regarded as the norm for older Australians, when in reality this accounts for only a small proportion of them. Most remain in their own larger detached homes in the general community for as long as possible, until disability or illness renders this difficult or impossible. However the design of most detached suburban houses does not facilitate ageing in place. Based on findings from two recent research projects funded by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, this paper explores why most older Australians remain in their own homes, why those who do move or downsize do so, into what types of dwellings and tenure, and how they go about this process. The findings challenge conventional understandings of both housing utilization and downsizing. Underutilisation is largely a misnomer amongst older Australians and downsizing is relatively rare. Those who do downsize do so generally for lifestyle and reduced maintenance rather than financial reasons, yet there is a lack of supply of appropriately designed, located and affordable housing which ironically might encourage moving/downsizing to the benefit of the ageing population and the wider housing market. These findings also support the need to accelerate the adoption of universal design principles in both housing and neighbourhoods, a need also recognized by older people themselves.
The LormHand is a public installation allowing deaf-blind individuals to post messages on Twitter or other social networks. This is achieved by means of a tangible interface in the shape of a hand, designed to recognize the tactile patterns of the Lorm Alphabet. It was originally developed for a deaf-blind protest march in Berlin and addresses the condition of isolation imparted by deaf-blindness.
This short paper presents universal design studio conducted for undergraduate architecture students at School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal, India. The studio was conducted under Berkeley Prize Teaching Fellowship-2013 with a theme of inclusive design. The objective of the studio was to identify the environmental challenges for diverse users visiting a historic pilgrimage in India, and provide contextual and inclusive solution for universal usability. This short paper includes the studio overview in brief, whereas the presentation would have few best examples of student designs.
The visual appearance of the built environment provides navigational cues for travelers that might benefit the way-finding process. Therefore, when designing built environments it is important to consider how users will respond to the characteristics of the environment during way-finding. This study highlights the importance of travel mode in way-finding processes. We conducted an experiment where participants engaged in active and passive traveler modes were asked to navigate through a pre-defined study route on a university campus. We tested participants' visual memory for landmarks by presenting photographs on a computer screen in a scene recognition task. We also measured participants' eye movements to determine which features of the landmarks were encoded in memory. Our results show an interaction between travel mode and contextual landmarks used to recognize scenes from the visual environment. Specifically, active travelers show less reliance on buildings when recognizing visual scenes. The group of active travelers appeared to use non-building cues when recognizing scenes, suggesting that these aspects of the environment had been more strongly encoded in memory. Our results can help to inform inclusive design guidelines and strategies for designing buildings, open spaces, and computer-assisted guidance applications. Furthermore, this paper introduces and applies a novel method in urban design studies that can be used to measure way-finding performance, and to examine the interaction between visual cues and cognitive processes involved in this important task.
