Download eidd – design for all europe

European Conference
Protecting and promoting the rights of persons with disabilities in Europe:
towards full participation, inclusion and empowerment
Design for All
Changing the World by Design
Council of Europe, Strasbourg, 30 October 2008
Pete Kercher – EIDD Ambassador
History is a series of paradigm shifts
Before 1914-18: disability was hidden.
After the war: a source of patriotic pride.
So: the first political case for social inclusion.
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
So let’s start at the beginning:
What is disability?
Who is disabled?
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
Moral:
Everyone is disabled at some time in life.
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
We are all born disabled…
We all have “personal assistants” as children…
We call them “parents”.
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
All the rest is inherited social prejudice.
There are many responses to social prejudice.
Our response is Social Inclusion…
achieved through Design.
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
How can Design lead to Social Inclusion?
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
Design for Disability:
Better design for Technical Aids
More friendly, less “institutional” look
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
“Design for All is design for human diversity, social
inclusion and equality.”
Source: EIDD Stockholm Declaration©
www.designforalleurope.org
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
Two more paradigm shifts
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
1. The design paradigm
in the industrial age:
- designing and producing for a predetermined arithmetic
“average user”,
- the experts “know what is good for you”,
- designs are created for uses and users identified in
advance.
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
Who is the “average
person” here?
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
The new Design for All paradigm:
- shaping the design brief to ensure the result caters for a
wide diversity of users,
- different users and their experience are actively included
in the design process,
- users are recognised as potential ‘experts’,
… but above all:
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
We know that unexpected use will be made of every
design, by unexpected people, in unexpected situations:
Design for All is design for the unpredictable…
because humans are unpredictable!
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
Who are “users”?
everyone who is involved in the product lifecycle and the
decision-making processes:
at the stages of the idea, formulation, creation, engineering,
programming, production, evaluation, modification and return
to origin
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
2. The human society paradigm:
from the caveman…
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
…to the modern city.
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the
unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to
himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the
unreasonable man.”
George Bernard Shaw
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
What is design?
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
“A plan or scheme conceived in the mind and intended for
subsequent execution”
Source: Oxford English Dictionary
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
“The outward appearance of a product or part
of it which results from the lines,
contours, colour, shape, texture, materials
and its ornamentation.”
Source: European Directive 98-71-EC,
OAMI website: www.oami.europe.eu/en/design/pdf/leaflet1.pdf
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
…but for the design community itself:
“Form follows Function”
Louis Sullivan
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
…and for EIDD Design for All Europe:
“Form follows Function by means of Process”
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
Design is a creative process based on iterative sequences
of logical analysis, multilateral dialogue and involvement,
development, conscience and consciousness, whose
purpose is to generate innovative proposals in response to
societal challenges…
…of all kinds.
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
Descriptions:
Design is a recipe and a method for economic stability and
development: the case of Finland
Design is also a vector for social change:
Socially responsive design is design that responds to social
issues and context in pursuit of social change
Source: Design Against Crime Research Centre, London
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
Design for All
is a fundamental part of sustainable development:
- environmental
- economic
- social
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
“Design for All applies to all fields:
the built environment, everyday objects,
services, culture and information…
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
… everything that is designed and made by people to be
used by people must be accessible, convenient for
everyone in society to use and responsive to evolving
human diversity.”
Source: EIDD Stockholm Declaration©
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
Of course we need legislation and standards.
But (a rather big but):
Legislation alone does not change the world:
legislation takes place when sufficient socio-political
pressures are brought to bear upon the governing classes
to make them react to changes that are already taking
place in society.
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
Legislation is reactive, not proactive.
However, legislation can fulfil a crucial function:
when correctly drafted and interpreted, it can provide the
equality framework that ensures a level playing field for
all.
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
But (another big but)
This effect must never be taken for granted:
society is as unpredictable as human beings and the study
of the sociology of law informs about the discrepancies in
practice between legislation and its effects.
This study and its findings must always be factored into all
the preparation of equality legislation.
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
Standards also have an important purpose:
- power plugs must fit into sockets
- mobile phones must function everywhere (even in the USA!)
- buildings must not fall down
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
But (a third big but)
People are not plugs, mobile phones or buildings:
people are diverse!
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
Design for All is the design approach based on human diversity.
Instead of making “reasonable provision” for “special categories”
of people (the usual shameful get-out clauses inserted by
legislators), it assumes human diversity as its basic precept.
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
“To move from ‘Special Interest’ to ‘Public Interest’ is fundamental
for a far-sighted approach to accessibility. The concept of Design
for All is an example.”
Source: Swedish Government Budget Proposal for the 2009 Fiscal Year, September 2008
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
So if legislation and standards do not change the world…
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
…how can Design for All change the world?
- by applying the analytical tools typical of a good design
process to achieve a profound understanding of the world
as it is today and its potential for change
- by involving all kinds of users in the process of designing
a better world for everyone
- by factoring upwards towards an innovative win-win
situation for everyone, rather than downwards towards
political and legislative lowest common denominators.
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
…and the world (also outside Europe) is increasingly aware
of Design for All.
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
The winner of the
EIDD - Design for All Europe
international poster, video and
guerrilla marketing
competition,
Torino World Design Capital,
16 October 2008,
…from New Zealand.
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
Second and third prizes
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
Two more finalists I particularly liked
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
Acting as the framework:
EIDD – DESIGN FOR ALL EUROPE
ENHANCING THE QUALITY OF LIFE THROUGH DESIGN FOR ALL
Founded in Dublin in 1993
as the European Institute for Design and Disability
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
EIDD – Design for All Europe
- Member Organisations in 20 European countries (+13 in 3 years)
- Recognised Partner of the European Commission
- Co-founder of the European Disability Forum
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
EIDD
- Constitutes the bridge between the Design for All and other
communities
- Acts as pathfinder, establishing innovative new applications of DfA
in different areas
- Organises major conferences to study and disseminate DfA in
different sectors
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
EIDD Conferences
2002: Design for All and Higher Education, Royal Academy, Bruxelles
2003: Design for All and Equality, Dublin Castle
2004: Design for All and Public Transport, Stockholm County Building
2005: Culture for All, German Federal Government Press and Visitor
Centre, Berlin
2006: Work for All, Waterford, Ireland
2007: Tourism for All, Milan Triennale, Italy
2008: Housing for All, St. Etienne, France (22 November 2008)
2009: Culture for All, Linz European Capital of Culture (May)
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
Some closing thoughts
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
Latvia is expected to have Europe’s highest estimated
population decline in the period 2004-2050:
19.2%
(Source: Eurostat, 2005)
Design for All can help Latvia keep its younger generations from
emigrating and encourage them to have more children, by
contributing to generating confidence in the Latvian economy.
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
The two most frequent barriers are prejudicial responses:
“It cannot be done” and “It is too expensive”.
Also:
By practising selective inclusion, well-intentioned but blinkered
philanthropists (and governments) build new social barriers faster
than we can demolish them.
Each selection and each case of positive discrimination builds new
barriers for those who are left out.
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
Good design enables,
bad design disables
Paul Hogan
President Emeritus – EIDD
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
Design for All is design for human diversity, social
inclusion and equality.
The EIDD Stockholm Declaration© – 2004
Design for All “insists on the vital importance of a
seamless rather than a sectoral approach to social
inclusion”.
The Waterford Convention© - 2006
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008
Thank you for your attention
www.design-for-all.org
www.designforalleurope.org
Pete Kercher – Strasbourg – 30 October 2008