Evolving Dialogues of Universal Design Education

Lynn Gitlow, Husson College, Director of Occupational Therapy, Husson College, USA

Susan Camp, University of Maine, Instructor, University of Maine, USA

Interdisciplinary educational offerings for practitioners from a variety of fields to obtain and practice the concepts of inclusive, universal design (UD) have been presented in the literature since the 1980's. However, this practice as an active reality remains limited. Moreover as educators in a rural state we have found the curricula in our respective institutions lacking in content that addresses inclusionary human centered design. This presentation will outline an educational project and the evolving discourse between Lynn; an occupational therapist specializing in assisitve technology and director of occupational therapy at a small private college in central Maine, and Susan; a sculptor and printmaker who teaches foundations courses in studio arts at the flagship campus of the University of Maine system.

This presentation will provide an overview of our attempt to introduce the concepts of UD in an undergraduate, introductory studio art course, three-dimensional design. Students who take three-dimensional design come from a variety of disciplines. Some are studio art majors and may go on to become designers; many are involved in the art education program and will eventually become educators in primary and secondary schools, still others from various colleges take the course as an art elective. This diverse student population offers the potential to introduce human centered design to people who will pursue a variety of professions. Our goals and expectations for this project presentation at the conference are centered on our belief that sound pedagogical models for introductory courses can help to make universal design a ubiquitous, cross cultural, cross disciplinary reality. The germination for this collaboration grew out of real life problems. Lynn often approached Susan with dilemmas she faced when her clients were dissatisfied with their assistive devices.

"OK Susan, I have to make an adaptation for a client of mine but she won't use it because she says it screams disability- there must be something I can do - some better material that I can use - something that will work to make the device aesthetically pleasing as well as functional? I know that I have seen attractive and functional products in books. There must be a way to incorporate those principles into my adaptive equipment."

The current literature indicates that there are numerous strategies for teaching UD.1,2 Factors to consider when developing UD education include approaches to teaching and learning, curricular structure, faculty knowledge and interest and program demands.1,2 Since the curricular structure for the design course was already established, we chose to introduce a project into the existing course. The approach we adopted reflects our educational philosophies incorporating active learning so that students not only learn about the principles of universal design, but also put their understanding to work in hands-on projects. The projects students were asked to work on were based on solving real life problems. Consistent with active learning pedagogy, reflective journaling and peer project critiques were the evaluation strategies that were chosen to assess the outcomes of the project. As the course evolved, we initiated dialogue with experts involved in this type of education through list serves and emails and we received responses that were incorporated into project outcomes and evaluations.

This is our third year of the project. Each semester the actual projects have been revised in an attempt to engage the students more thoroughly and to enhance the understanding of human centered design as indicated by our pre and post project assessments. Goals for the project include:

Increased awareness of existing universally designed products and environments.
Increased awareness of architectural features in the immediate environment (campus) that are not designed to be universally accessible.
The importance of considering aesthetics when adapting equipment for use by an individual.
Increased awareness of variability in physical ability and need.
Creative use of inexpensive materials.
Cross-disciplinary consultations; dialogue between occupational therapy students and art students.
Reflection by students on their experiences, expressed both verbally and in written form.

During our presentation we will share our strategies, questions, successes, failures and plans for future projects. An open discourse will be initiated by asking participants to share their own curricula. With this informal, supportive format we are confidant that we can augment the development of human centered design concepts as integral parts of introductory level courses, effectively reaching a large, diverse student body.

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