Narrator (00:02): This recording is an offering of networks for training and developments online university. Tracy (00:12): Welcome to podcast three of Accommodations and Assistive Technology on the Job. Today's podcast is going to focus on universal design. But what exactly is universal design? We hear about it all the time. So universal design is defined as a design of an environment so that it can be accessed, understood, and used to the greatest extent possible by all people, regardless of their age, their size, or their ability. And it's designed to meet the needs of anyone who wishes to use it. It's not a special environment for the benefit of only a minority of the population. It's an environment that will benefit everyone. And this is the fundamental condition of a good design. If an environment is accessible, usable, and convenient, and a pleasure to use, everyone benefits. So let's think about some of the aspects of universal design that we might be experiencing in our own lives. Tracy (01:19): If we look inside of our home, you may find a number of appliances or things within your home that are considered universal design that you may not have really thought about. If you have lever door handles rather than doorknobs, that's an example of universal design. As products are being manufactured, people are looking at producing things that are beneficial and easier to use by everyone. So lever door handles are something that are becoming more and more popular in newer homes. If you look at your oven in your kitchen, some of the older ovens, like I have, have knobs and switches. And they're really hard to use dexterity-wise sometimes. But newer ovens have more touch pads to turn on the oven, to preheat your oven, to choose a burner, to select the temperature. So that's an example as well. Tracy (02:20): In my kitchen, I also have all of my kitchen utensils, my cooking utensils. And if I look at some of the utensils that I've had from long, long, long ago, they have skinny wooden handles or metal handles. They don't have anything on them at all. But all of my newer kitchen tools have a thick, grippy textured rubber that make them a lot easier to hold. If you travel on into the bathroom, you might see a walk-in shower. That's becoming more and more popular these days so that there's no doors to deal with to clean or to open and close to get in. You can walk in, you could roll in on a shower chair. It's accessible to everyone. The water, the faucets in showers, a lot of them are just a one control and you go from cold to hot so you don't have to deal with using two knobs to blend temperatures to get the right temperature. Tracy (03:20): You can just start at cold and just push it with an open palm till you get to the right temperature. So that's another example of some universal design things that have been cropping up in our world. I'm sure that there are a lot more in my house if I would look for them. But I want you to pay attention to what's in your home, and based on the examples that I gave, to come up with some things that you see in your home that you have found to be universal design. Next, if we look at the community, for those of you who have been around as long as I have, I've been around for 60 years. So I've seen a lot of things in the environment that nowadays that make life easier that weren't there 30 years ago, 40 years ago, when I was a young person. Tracy (04:08): Automatic doors are everywhere. Almost every store has automatic doors. When you go into the restrooms, you have motion sensitive soap dispensers, motion sensitive water, paper towels are motion sensitive. Your air dryers are motion sensitive. And a lot of the restrooms these days, instead of having a door that you have to open to go in that might have a walk in entrance that you just walk in and then you turn, and then you're there. I particularly notice those in airports and larger venues like that. And the entrance ways to go into restrooms in different places are a lot larger than what they used to be. In the bathrooms, there's always a larger bathroom stall. Everyone refers to it as the handicap stall, right? But really, it is a stall that makes life easier for a lot of other people. Number one, it usually has a higher toilet seat in it. The toilet's usually higher, which makes it easier for anyone older to get up and down. Tracy (05:13): And I look at new moms. If a new mom is going into a restroom and she's got a stroller with two kids in it, she's not going to want to leave that stroller are outside of a bathroom stall while she goes to the bathroom, right? So the handicapped bathroom, handicapped stalls are usually wide enough to fit a wheelchair, but they're also wide enough to fit that stroller to get in there so that a mom doesn't have to leave her children outside the door. And a lot of places also have come up with family bathrooms in addition to a regular men's room or a women's room so that anyone can use it that would feel the need to use it to be comfortable. So that is also universal design. Another area where I see that universal design has really become evident is in our computers. Back in the day when computers were first coming into popularity and being used, if you had a person with a disability there were all these external things that you had to purchase in order to make the computer accessible for them. Tracy (06:18): And now, computers, many of them already have touch screens. You don't have to purchase a touch screen to stick it on the computer anymore. My computers that I use every day for work and for home both have touch screen capabilities, which I find really helpful. Some days I just want to, depending on what the program is, it's easier for me to just touch screen and move things around rather than navigating with a mouse. Most computers, if you go into the accessibility mode, there's all kinds of features in there that are built right into your computer that you can use, such as an on-screen keyboard. Or there might be a read aloud, or there might be enlarging the font. You can slow down the speed of your cursor. You can use word prediction. And these are all things that in the past would've had to been purchased separately. And now they are part of a computer when you get it. So that is universal design. It has made life a lot easier for everyone. Tracy (07:16): And not only do people of the community benefit from universal design, but the businesses that are developing them benefit. What are some of the benefits for businesses that manufacture things? Well, there's an increased market reach. If it aims to provide design which is accessible to and usable and appealing to as many people as possible, it's going to have more interest. More people are going to want to purchase it. Another benefit is customers are going to be more satisfied with the product and they're going to come back and buy new products. Businesses are finding some crossover success where they may manufacture for one thing. And then they find, oh, it benefits a lot of other people. It wasn't even designed for that. Tracy (08:00): One of the examples I found online is a company called OXO Good Grips. And it was designed with older people with arthritis in mind, but everyone has really wanted the larger grips or wanted things that are easier to handle. So increased crossover of marketing audiences. It also gives the business or the manufacturer a more positive public image. And it really helps people in general to live a more independent life, whether it be at home, work, or school. So there are so many things that we could talk about with universal design, but I just wanted to give you an introduction to what it is and to think about universal design that might be available in places of employment for folks. So you have the definition and I gave you quite a few examples. So when you check in the app, there will be an assignment on universal design. Tracy (09:03): And the assignment is to pick two environments. You could pick home environment, community environment, work environment, any of those. Pick two environments that you frequent and list at least five examples of universal design that you see in those particular places, five. If you pick your home and work, five from home, five from work. If you pick a place in the community like the gym them or the grocery store, you can use that in place of home or in place of work. But two environments, five examples for each environment of universal design that you see. And if you could also make a comment for each of those environments of how you have benefited personally from having access to those pieces of universal design or products of universal design. So that concludes our podcast on universal design. So when you've completed that assignment, I look forward to podcast four, which will be on accommodations for mental health. We'll see you then. Bye. Narrator (10:24): Thank you for listening. We hope the information provided was helpful. Don't forget to stop by our website and take advantage of all we have to offer.