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Subject: [OZADV] conference on Universal Design in 2004
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2004 15:04:55 +1000
From: Sue Egan <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: OZADVOCACY-- Disability rights in
Australia<[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Designing for the 21st Century III, An International Conference on
Universal Design
December 8-12, 2004, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
More Information Contact
Adaptive Environments
Suite 301
374 Congress Street,
Boston, MA 02210 USA
tel: 1 (617) 695–1225 (v/tty)
fax: 1 (617) 482–8099
http://www.adaptiveenvironments.org/
email: mailto:[log in to unmask]
Overview:
Design is beginning to catch up to the demographic realities of the 21st
Century. Across the globe, human diversity of age and ability are
greater than they have ever been in human history. We live longer - on
average more than 30 years longer than in 1900 - and survive illness,
injury and disability at rates never before possible. This new world
demands places, things and information responsive to the fact of
extraordinary diversity.
Universal design/design-for-all introduced a framework for design for
diversity. Though the term was first used in the '70s, it was only in
the '90s that pockets of exploration and expertise developed, primarily
in the United States, Europe and Japan. A group of American designers
and advocates, led by Ron Mace, an architect with a disability, created
a set of seven principles of universal design in 1997. They are now
used in a variety of nations across the globe in public policy, in
design education and, to some extent, in practice. Universal design is
nothing short of a new way of thinking about excellence in design that
presumes that good design is human centered. The movement intends to
influence all design disciplines from urban design through landscape,
architecture, interior design, product design and information design.
There is progress but there is a long way to go. Opportunities need to
be created that ignite worldwide awareness and appetite and bring people
together to share solutions and generate strategies.
Adaptive Environments (AE), a 25-year-old U.S. educational non-profit
dedicated to human-centered design, convenes International conferences
as catalysts to action. AE was the primary sponsor of Designing for the
21st Century I (1998 - 450 attendees) and II (2000 - 684 attendees).
Those events brought together government officials, designers,
academics, students, business, media, and leaders from disability and
aging organizations. Twenty-eight (28) nations were represented in 2000:
Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, France,
Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Norway, Portugal, Scotland,
Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Tanzania, The Netherlands, Trinidad,
Uganda, and the United States. Forty-one (41) governmental agencies and
NGOs from around the globe were collaborators. The first conference was
in New York, the second in Providence. There have been an increasing
number of regional conferences in Europe, Asia, South America and the
U.S. but none that have attracted the range of nations nor the mix of
disciplines attending the Designing for the 21st Century events.
The early years of the 21st century have witnessed a changed world order
in which the sharp disparities between the developed and 'developing'
economies create extraordinary opportunity to cross-fertilize ideas and
markets. The disparities also undeniably contribute to international
instability. A substantial majority of the world's population live
today in those developing societies and 80% of the world's people with
disabilities, often the poorest of the poor. By any measure, population
growth and economic expansion for the next hundred years will occur in
the developing world. Design can be a facilitator or a barrier to
attending school, to living independently, to working. Universal design
offers a framework for solving design problems in ways that ensure equal
opportunity - making design a tool of social equity. There is an urgent
priority to promote that tool where it can shape the future most
dramatically. If awareness and information are shared now, we have an
opportunity to avoid perpetuating future discrimination by design and to
integrate solutions into development.
Why Brazil?
A significant priority of Designing for the 21st Century III is to be a
catalyst for building understanding and collaboration between the
developed and developing nations, it must be in a place that exemplifies
economic disparity and yet attracts the people who can shape the
agenda. Brazil is the largest nation in Latin America with 176,029,560
people. 50% of the population account for just 10% of the national
income - the internal economic disparities parallel the world's. The
demographics are complex - from the fact that 47% of Brazilians are of
African descent to the fact that Brazil has the largest community of
Japanese outside of Japan. More than 80% of people live in urban
areas. And there is exciting potential for Brazil to model the national
integration of universal design. Innovative Brazilian leaders are
shaping public policy and finding ways to excite ordinary citizens about
design-for-all. A new initiative on accessible technology has been
created out of President Lula's own office. The city of Curitiba has
created an international model of integration of sustainable and
universal design in transportation and urban design.
The choice of Rio de Janeiro is partly strategic and partly practical.
The conference must attract the diverse mix of designers,
businesspeople, academics, students, government officials, leaders from
the international NGOs serving people with disabilities and older
people. Rio is a stunningly beautiful, internationally renowned city of
5.5M recently named the 'world's friendliest city' (BBC News 6.23.03).
It's a compelling place to go. From a practical standpoint, Rio de
Janeiro has substantial experience with universal design and with
hosting accessible conferences. There is capacity in the hotels,
conference facilities, in transportation and in technology to host a
diverse audience.
The core conference will take place at the Sofitel Rio Palace which
anchors one end of Copacabana Beach and has more than adequate space for
a conference of 800. There are 388 rooms and excellent accessibility.
Many choices of low to mid-price hotels are within blocks of the Sofitel
Rio Palace.
Local host partner:
Centro de Vida Independente do Rio de Janeiro (CVI/RJ) is a well-known
independent living center in Rio that has helped to coordinate a variety
of international conferences and enjoys a very positive reputation
within the city and throughout Brazil. The specific Designing for the
21st Century liaison from CVI/RJ is Veronica Camisao, an architect
specializing in universal design who has consulted with cities
throughout Latin America, teaches extensively, serves as Vice-President
for Latin America of the International Commission on Technology and
Accessibility, and who has attended both previous conferences. Adaptive
Environments is assisting CVI/RJ with an application for support to the
United Nations for their work on the conference. The United Nations
Voluntary Fund on Disability has made a preliminary commitment of
support.
C & M Congresses and Meetings is a Rio-based conference company that has
extensive experience providing a comprehensive menu of services.
Constanca Carvahlo, principal, worked with Rehabilitation International
to host their conference in Rio attended by over 3000 people. C & M will
coordinate local arrangements from conference space, conference hotels,
transportation, on-site translation, technology services and on-site
staff.
Program:
The conference program is divided into three sequential sections:
Pre-Conference Intensive Workshops (Wednesday through Thursday Noon),
Core Conference (Thursday at 1:00 PM through Saturday evening),
Post-Conference special day-long sessions (Sunday) on Universal Design
Education and Latin American Universal Design Strategic Planning. We
hope to offer at least one special Pre-Conference Intensive session from
November 29 to 30th in Sao Paulo. With the exception of the
Pre-Conference Intensive Workshops, all other aspects of the program
will take place in the Sofitel Rio Palace. To date, the Pre-Conference
Intensives will have a two-day session on universal design at the urban
scale in Sao Paulo, a full-day Universal Design Latin American Primer, a
full-day Universal Design in Technology. Each of the eight community
charrettes will also begin during Pre-Conference.
In addition to emphasizing a dialogue between the developed and
developing economies, a particular effort is being made to focus
attention on the relationship between sustainable and universal design
in the built environment and industrial design. The student design
competition and Call for Proposals will request submittals that
integrate universal and sustainable.
Designing for the 21st Century III must respond to the international
proliferation of people and organizations with expertise and experience
in universal design by offering formal and informal opportunities for
interactive sharing and learning. The program will include traditional
keynote speakers and plenary sessions but the Call for Proposals will
solicit program ideas that bring people together as equals for dialogue
and collaboration. Places will be arranged for informal gatherings in
and near the conference rooms.
A central feature of the interactive learning opportunities will be to
dedicate a portion of the entire conference to a specific design
problem-solving process - the 'charrette' - that pairs experiential
learning and citizen participation around a real place. Eight 15-person
charrette teams will combine Brazilian and international participants
who pre-register and receive preparatory materials. They begin with a
site visit to assess the specific issues, meet with users and begin the
dialogue. A working session follows to consider options and reach
consensus. They close with a presentation of the results and suggestions
for next steps during a plenary presentation by each team on Saturday
morning. They will use technology to project a visual, digital report
on the charrette that will also be described for attendees who are blind
or have low vision. The charrette sites will include a playground, an
historic site, a school, a hospital, streets and sidewalks, public
transit and multi-family housing and will be finalized in the Fall of
2003. We will videotape the charrette process with the goal of creating
an educational video suitable for multiple uses including the public
broadcasting system and as an educational tool for governments and NGOs.
At minimum, the entire event will be bi-lingual in Portuguese and
English. All plenary sessions and full-day Pre-Conference and
Post-Conference intensive workshops will also be simultaneously
translated into Spanish. Multi-lingual projected CART will offer
redundant communication.
In addition to workshops, charrettes and plenary sessions, Designing for
the 21st Century will include:
· International Student Design Competition The Jury Chair is
Ricardo Gomes of San Francisco State. There will be a choice of two
problem statements, both in the developing world.
· Ron Mace/Designing for the 21st Century Awards These will be
made to outstanding individual and organizational leaders for their
contributions to the field.
· Exhibit Hall of companies offering products and services will
be available on Friday and Saturday.
· Closing Reception A celebratory evening will mark the close
of the Core Conference on Saturday night. VSA International has been
invited to partner to present Latin American performers with
disabilities.
International Planning Committee:
Professor Jim Sandhu, of Inclusive Design Research Associates, Ltd. in
the UK will co-chair the Conference and share duties with Adaptive
Environments' Executive Director, Valerie Fletcher. Other members of the
International Planning Committee include Yoshihiko Kawauchi, Architect
and disability activist (Tokyo, Japan), Roger Coleman, Director, Royal
College of Art DesignAge; Ruth Morrow, Professor of Architecure,
(Sheffield University, UK), Marcelo Guimares, Architect with a
disability, Ph.D candidate in architecture at the State University of
North Carolina at Raleigh and leader of the Brazilian universal design
movement (Raleigh, North Carolina, USA & Belo Horizonte, Brazil), Eugene
Williams, international housing and disability activist, liaison from
Adaptive Environment's Board of Director (Conway, Massachusetts, USA).
Additional members will be invited before September 1, 2003. There is a
need to balance the Committee geographically and in areas of expertise.
Funding for the Conference:
· Based on attendance by 800 people, the total conference costs
are $648,493. Two/thirds of the total revenue is generated by
registration, both attendee and exhibitor registration fees. Based upon
invitations to submit proposals for support, we are approaching a number
of international entities for a special role as Co-Sponsors. An
additional $103,000 needs to raised from a range of international
corporate and philanthropic sources. We anticipate support from the
United National Voluntary Fund on Disability for our host partners,
CVI/RJ.
Strategy for Outreach and Dissemination:
Previous methods of outreach and dissemination are being expanded. There
are four critical categories of outreach:
· International collaborators - the majority of the previous 41
collaborating organizations are expected to be included but it is
anticipated to grow by as much as 50% through the inclusion of more
out-of-US organizations, new sustainable design allies and organizations
like the World Bank and the Inter-American Bank. There are a dozen new
collaborating organizations to date. Collaborating organizations share
mailing lists, commit to promote the conference in their newsletters and
distribute conference information at their events
· International design schools - previous emphasis was almost
exclusively on the US, EU and Japan but not to all design schools. A
database has been built of all design schools awarding degrees in any or
all design disciplines worldwide. A postcard mailing announcing the
competition will be mailed to them. Details for participation will be
web-based.
· International media - Metropolis, the leading US
cross-disciplinary design and culture magazine is a key collaborator and
their editor-in-chief, Susan Szenasy, will be one of the keynote
speakers. Magazine partners are being pursued among our traditional
partners in Europe, Japan and the US but also in Latin America, Asia and
Eastern Europe.
For the first time, Designing for the 21st Century III plans to use the
media to communicate with a larger audience through web-casting parts of
the conference. In addition, we hope to produce a video from the event
based primarily on recording the dynamic charrette process and taking
advantage of the countless opportunities to interview world leaders in
universal design during the event.
· International meetings and conferences - A comprehensive
international calendar has been created that notes every pertinent
meeting or conference from September of 2003 to September of 2004 to
which information can be disseminated about the conference,
Evaluation Plan and Criteria:
Each presenter, attendee and exhibitor will be given evaluation forms to
rate their perceptions of both the content and services. Given the
priority themes of dialogue between the developed and majority nations,
the link between universal and sustainable design and interactive or
participatory learning, evaluations will seek comment on the success of
those efforts.
Beyond the Conference:
Each of the previous conferences has had substantial, positive
repercussions. We can expect that to happen again in both expected and
new ways. It is an exciting stage in the development of the universal
design movement. An appetite has been built for the ideas and a hunger
for knowing detail about real projects. Conferences are invaluable for
affirming and sustaining the momentum and for stimulating
collaborations. But there is no way to respond to the pervasive need for
inspirational and practical information except by taking advantage of
the Web to provide voluminous information and opportunities for
continuing exchange. A digital compendium of Conference Proceedings
will be on line before the event. Adaptive Environments is creating an
entirely new website with state of the art technology, architecture and
design. We are finding through our discussions with organizations in
the developing world that they have internet access but are not yet able
to put up their own websites. They want access to sites where they can
not only get what they need but also build visibility and participate in
international conversations. We intend a virtual community on the
Adaptive Environments' website as a primary place for information
exchange and dialogue to continue. We will offer resource materials for
free downloading (with multi-lingual options as feasible), a list-serve,
a digital case study collection with photos, brief narratives, contact
information, and a simple 'why it works' explanation. We are exploring
the feasibility and cost of replicating an extended internet conference
modeled by the International Eco-City Conference held in Shenzhen, China
in August 2002.
More Information Contact
Adaptive Environments
Suite 301
374 Congress Street,
Boston, MA 02210 USA
tel: 1 (617) 695–1225 (v/tty)
fax: 1 (617) 482–8099
http://www.adaptiveenvironments.org/
email: mailto:[log in to unmask]
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