Bridging the Gap: Increasing Access to Universal Design

The Center on Inclusive Design and Environmental Access (IDeA Center) of School of Architecture and Planning at the State University of New York at Buffalo (UB) has received the 2009 National Endowment for the Arts Universal Design Leadership award for an 18-month curriculum development initiative with the seven accredited architectural departments at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) entitled Bridging the Gap: Increasing Access to Universal Design to Meet the Needs of America’s Black Communities.  Each year, the NEA enters into a Cooperative Agreement with an organization for a project to increase understanding, acceptance, and practice of universal design (UD) within the design profession, by design educators, and by the American public.  The IDEA Center worked with Bradford Grant, Interim Dean of Howard University’s School of Architecture and Engineering, to develop the proposal, approved in late August.

The $65,000 award will be used to promote collaborative interaction and sharing to develop the UD curricula of HBCU architectural departments, the IDEA Center, and other architecture departments; document the HBCU experience with inclusive design to enrich and inform the UD community; sponsor speaker exchanges; and promote inclusive service activities by HBCU architecture schools to increase public awareness of the importance of UD in African American communities.  The project will climax with a publication and exhibition of student work at the 2010 NOMA conference, but we hope it stimulates on-going enrichment of design school curricula that continues after the project’s close.

The project provides participating schools an opportunity to develop their own agendas and work with each other to define what universal design means to their communities and to the wider architectural community.  It will benefit HBCUs by publicizing their participation and creative work and providing resources for curriculum development. It will also improve the body of UD knowledge to better reflect the experiences of minority architects and communities, and improve student training opportunities, thereby benefiting minority communities across the country over the long term. It can also supplement departmental curriculum and help increase departmental stature within the university and local communities.

The IDeA Center has been active in basic and applied research, design development, community service, and education for 25 years.  Its activities focus on universal design of the built environment and transportation. The IDEA Center has five full time professional staff and six affiliated faculty plus collaborations with two other research centers and two advocacy organizations. The Center provides resources and technical expertise in architecture, product design, human factors research, facilities management and the social and behavioral sciences. It has operated a community service program for over 10 years and has played a leading role in theory, research, policy development, product design and education in universal design at a national and international scale. The Center received a Ron Mace Designing for the 21st Century International Award for organizations in 2004.

The IDEA Center has extensive experience in implementing universal design in new training activities. Over the past eight years, staff and faculty have participated in dozens of traditional continuing education programs, launched an online continuing education program, supported over 15 advanced graduate students and fellows, developed the Universal Design Online Education (UDEO) website, and, most recently, established a Universal Design University Education Consortium, whose goal is to organize a program of mentoring, technical assistance and information sharing to member schools in order to develop a new generation of academic leaders in the field of universal design. The IDEA Center also developed the first formal graduate architectural specialization in universal design in the U.S.