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A
Brief History and Origin |
THE
LAST
QUARTER-CENTURY
spotlighted
two
unresolved
environmental
discrimination
problems—disability and aging.
Each
aroused
a separate
segment
of
our
global
conscience
and
sparked
efforts
to
satisfy
the
swelling
need
for
accessible
housing,
products,
and
environments—attractive
to, and
usable
by, people
of all
ages
and abilities.
Disability
The
1970s
and
80s witnessed
a
nascent
effort
to
provide
accessibility
and
societal
inclusion
for
people
with
disabilities.
Attracted
by
a
common
cause,
and
joined
by
the
concept
of
accessibility,
disabled
people
united
behind
a disability
rights
movement to
achieve
equality
for
those
denied
independence,
autonomy
and
full
access
to
society.
Their
collective
voices,
fueled
a societal
demand
for
environmental
accessibility,
which
coalesced
and
embraced
the
term, “universal
design,” advanced
in
the
mid
1980s
by
Ronald
L.
Mace,
FAIA,
a disabled
architect
from
North
Carolina
State
University.
As
the movement
grew,
its
dedicated
efforts
propelled
passage
of
the
1988 Fair
Housing
Amendments
Act,
and
in
1990,
the Americans
with
Disabilities
Act (ADA),
which "prohibits
discrimination
on
the
basis
of
disability
in
places
of
public
accommodation."
Both
Acts
led
to
a welcomed
societal
inclusion
for
people
with
disabilities.
But
its
mandated
governmental
regulations,
codes,
standards
and
policies
for
reshaping
a broad
spectrum
of
physical
environments,
impacted
the
building
industry
and
architectural
profession.
Problems
The
Acts'
well
intentioned
access
provisions
produced
unintentional
results.
To
solve
conflicting
priorities
and
problems,
isolated
pockets
of
academic,
governmental,
and
private
centers
of
influence
began
developing
alternative
strategies
and
solutions
for
reaching
their
common
goal
of
'universal'
accessibility.
Their
combined
efforts
and
inflluence
sparked
a new
professional
awareness
within
the
design
community
of
the
need
for
a fresh
new
generation
of
products
and
environments
that
accommomdate
all
ages
and
abilities—including
people
with
impairments
and
disabilities.
Aging
As
early as the start of the1880s,
ripples
of
concerned
awareness
about population
aging had
begun
to
form.
Not
only
were
older
people
increasing
in
number,
they
were
also
living
longer—a
prediction
that
a future
rise
in
physical
and
sensory
impairments
and
disabilities
was
inevitable;
and
a
recognition
that
the
design
professions
were
facing
a new
challenge.
With
the
dawn
of
the
new
millenium,
and
for
the
first
time
in
our
planet’s
history,
the
world
contained
more
people
aged
65
and
older
than
the
combined
populations
of
Australia,
Russia,
Japan,
France,
and
Germany.
The
concept and term, "Transgenerational
Design," emerged
from this
growing
recognition and concern,
coined in the mid-1980s by
Syracuse University industrial
design
professor James
J.
Pirkl,
FIDSA.
Two
seminal
1988
publications
resulted
from
his
design-for-aging
research
project
with
gerontologist
Anna
L.
Babic
under
a
grant
from
the
Administrative
Office
of
Human
Development
Services,
Department
of
Health
and
Human
Services,
Washington,
DC:
- Guidelines
and Strategies
for Designing
Transgenerational Products: A
Resource
Manual
for
Industrial
Design
Professionals, and
- Guidelines
and Strategies
for Designing
Transgenerational Products:
An Instructor's
Manual,
distributed to
all U.S.
industrial design
schools and
programs accredited
by the
National Association
of Schools
of Art
and Design
(NASAD).
In
addition
to
providing
specialized
information
about
the
realities
of
human
aging,
each
manual
contained
a
detailed
set
of
design
guidelines
and
strategies
for
accommodating
limitations
and
changing
abilities
in vision, hearing, touch,
and mobility—which
lead
to
impairments
and
disabilities
affecting
people
of
all
ages
and
abilities.
Consolidation
Against
this
backdrop,
Pirkl's
third
book, Transgenerational
Design:
Products
for
an
Aging
Population,
published
in
1994,
articulated
the
emerging
need
for
designing
consumer
products
that accommodated
people
across
the
spectrum
of
age
and
ability.
The
transgenerational
concept
contrasted
sharply
with
universal
design's
founding
focus
on
achieving
architectural
and
environmental
accessibility
through
mandated
standards.
In
contrast,
Pirkl's
book
promoted
a new
'transgenerational'
message: "make
products
and
environments
compatible
with
those
physical
and
sensory
impairments
associated
with
human
aging
and
which
limit
major
activities
of
daily
living." It
had
a profound
effect.
Since
the
book’s
publication,
numerous presentations, seminars, articles,
and media exposure of
the
Transgenerational
Design
concept
have
attracted
international
attention
and
adoption.
Moreover,
because
its
neutral
and
non-stigmatizing
label
bridges
all
ages
and
abilities,
an
increasing
number
of
astute
global
manufacturers
and
research
organizations
embrace
the ‘transgenerational’ design
concept,
recognizing
its
competitive
advantage
for
attracting
the
attention—and
collective
buying
power—of
the
exploding
aging
market.
Conjecture
AS
WE
ENTER
THE
NEW
MILLENNIUM,
one
can
only
speculate
the
impact
that
transgenerational
design
will
impart
to
tomorrow's
products
and
environments.
The
answer,
of
course,
will
come
from
tomorrow's
designers—how
well
will
they
unite
the
forms
of
function
and
beauty
with
human
needs
and
sensitivity—the
essense
of
true
professional
design
service
and
responsibility.
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