"Cost" has to be "compared with what?"
Universal design is not a synonym for "accessible design" if that is
defined a it often is, as mere compliance with weak access codes.
Breaking it down into building design parts, some of the "code
compliant" stuff is universal design, and some of it isn't. The
supermarket door is UD, even though it predates UD's being named &
identified as what I would call A HUMAN-RIGHTS-BASED DESIGN PERFORMANCE
STANDARD.
Universal design proposes going a step beyond accessible design; as a
standard; To take the "back door" (or unsafe / noisy / locked toy lift
// etc/ etc.) segregation and resulting stigma out of some of those
accessible design solutions. (My definition: "Design that provides for
all users incouding for users with disabilites, unsegregated
accessibility and functionality that is equal in all regards, avoiding
design specialisation to the greatest extent possible".)
What is the economic benefit to that? Well, it's not to be found in
analyzing building budgets. The impact of
design-segregation-caused-stigma might show up in health care budgets
and in the form of other social consequences.... and the consequences of
inaccessiblity might show up in the costs of people having to move,
ending up with services needed to in part overcome inaccesibly designed
things, etc.
Accessibly designed buildings because they have slighty more generous
clearances such a around doorways or in bathrooms, tend to have lower
"wear and tear" than spaces designed like a tight show, pinching every
last inch. This benfit may or may not show up in reduced repair /
maintenance costs, because in some buildings the facility managers just
leave the damage there and don't fix it. So if it doesn't show up a
little in the operating expenses column, it shows up in the
environmental quality column instead.
It's primarily something to reccomend because segregation and stigma is
morally repugnant to anyone of good will who is favorable to human
rights.
Other ways to see UD as worth it -- I think it's Steinfeld has stats
saying that for example in a train station, over 30% use the "accessible
" features because it's also people with strollers, luggage... A woman
told me a couple of days ago that she was so glad the west fourteenth
street stop on the 8th avenue subway in NYC finally got its elevator
when it did, as she was carrying twins and stairs were becoming harder
and harder....
Last thought -- builders / dvelopers who don't feel like doing this
stuff wil make up figures out of thin air to say how expensive it is.
Trust me. I've been doing construction estimating on and off for
decades...... when I'm not working for architects. They have a mind set
that if they do more than the code, they'll be at a competitive
disadvantage. But if you tell them this is a raising of standards, so
everybody else will have to to do it too, so there's no competitive
disadvantage -- this simply doesn't sink in....and they persist with
their old "it'll cost a fortune" propaganda. If you told them "This is
for your mother's new house, how much will these higher design stnadards
cost?" they'd probably say "Nothing, just do it, why are we talking
about how many pennies it wiil cost?"
In fact, builders and developers, economically, should want to do this
stuff for the same reason that any car dealer wants to sell you an
option; it's one more thing to get paid for. But at least in the US
builder's lobbies teach the builders negative thinking; a deregulation
ideology that becomes an end in itself, which renders many of the
buildings built "crippled" if you will.... for example, people who
bought a new apartment whose bedrooms are too noisy to sleep in, because
the housing builder's lobby stopped government from enacting proper
acoustic separation standards.
Of course, once you put universal design or even
code-minumum-'accesibility" into the plans, you have to make sure the
builder follows those plans. Some architects universal design people,
having never been involved with real projects, have no idea what happens
between the piece of paper and the finished building. I have a
professional architectural educaiton, but have had experience on both
sides of the designer / builder line, so I've seen what really happens
from start to finish in a project.
Jim Davis
(B. Arch.)
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