Universal Design Books

The information is great, and she has a unique angle, but I would like to see a second edition that is about 1/3 the length. Much of the content is repeated many times over and it could be condensed and re-organized.

Buy this with Don't Make Me Think to round out your knowledge.

Title: Access by Design
Author: Sarah Horton
Publisher: New Riders
ISBN: 0-321-31140-X
Pages: 264 pages
Reviewer: Sam Wilson
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

"Access by Design" by Sarah Horton is valuable and worthwhile because it nicely exposes the genetic link of accessibility to its more popular cousins - functionality and usability. Accessibility is one of the most touted yet often underutilized tools in the web worker's repertoire. Misperceived as only a tool for reaching the hearing or visually impaired audience and doomed to the "nice to have" list on many projects, accessible design too often takes a back seat to design relying heavily on images and sophisticated layout.

The approach of Sarah Horton's book is appropriately to make the concepts of accessibility accessible to the web workers whose opportunity it is to make their work maximally digestible. Each essential element of a site's guts is discussed first in theory then in practice. Color, text, structure; HTML specific elements like lists, tables, and forms... are aptly discussed in their shades of underlying purpose and then explored and elucidated with germane examples both good and bad. These examples particularly make the book fun if only just to flip through. Refreshingly the author takes on the likes of Microsoft and Audible.com, using the razor of analysis and good taste to dissect her specimens and demonstrate attractive graphic design and good web design are not necessarily the same thing.

In conclusion, I highly recommend "Access by Design" on the merits of its conscientious but practical promotion of accessibility combined with its focus on functionality and usability. The timely arrival of well-written books like Horton's builds on the rising tide of Web 2.0 attention. The oh-so-two-oh design goals of taming the wily information wilderness - transforming clutter into neat packets of visually appealing and streamlined content - can sometimes seem a bit overdone to many. "Access by Design" does not come across preachy or pedantic. I would challenge any web developer or artist (as I have challenged myself) to investigate the practical advice found in solid works like this one. It's time we understood accessibility's benefits to not just the visually and hearing impaired, but its benefits for everyone who reads, views, interacts with or otherwise enjoys the web browsing.

Access by Design doesn't waste time or words getting right to the point: accessible Web design isn't about those who have an impairment, but rather about everyone using the Web. Access, by Sarah Horton's definition, is the goal of every visitor to a site, and a designer achieves this goal for visitors by ensuring that nothing in a site is tied to a restrictive approach.

The fad of rendering type and using Flash for menus has gone mostly away, thankfully. Horton's guide shows how to accomplish something that looks good, works correctly, and can be used by practically everyone from those with the fanciest equipment and highest-speed broadband connection to villagers in a remote town in Africa (or America) to visually impaired readers relying on software that reads them page elements.

Access by Design is organized into tight, well-constructed chapters each of which focuses on a key area of design, such as forms, color, and layout.

Those who work under the requirements of U.S. government law for accessibility Web sites and those who want to build sites that everyone can effectively use would find this book a useful addition to the library. It's a quick read, but also a reference guide you'll refer to over and over again.

Title: Access by Design
Author: Sarah Horton
Publisher: New Riders
ISBN: 0-321-31140-X
Reviewer: Sam Wilson
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

"Access by Design" by Sarah Horton is valuable and worthwhile because it nicely exposes the genetic link of accessibility to its more popular cousins -- functionality and usability. Accessibility is one of the most touted yet often underutilized tools in the web worker's repertoire. Misperceived as only a tool for reaching the hearing or visually impaired audience and doomed to the "nice to have" list on many projects, accessible design too often takes a back seat to design relying heavily on images and sophisticated layout.

The approach of Sarah Horton's book is appropriately to make the concepts of accessibility accessible to the web workers whose opportunity it is to make their work maximally digestible. Each essential element of a site's guts is discussed first in theory then in practice. Color, text, structure; HTML specific elements like lists, tables, and forms ... are aptly discussed in their shades of underlying purpose and then explored and elucidated with germane examples both good and bad. These examples particularly make the book fun if only just to flip through. Refreshingly the author takes on the likes of Microsoft and Audible.com, using the razor of analysis and good taste to dissect her specimens and demonstrate attractive graphic design and good web design are not necessarily the same thing.

In conclusion, I highly recommend "Access by Design" on the merits of its conscientious but practical promotion of accessibility combined with its focus on functionality and usability. The timely arrival of well-written books like Horton's builds on the rising tide of Web 2.0 attention. The oh-so-two-oh design goals of taming the wily information wilderness--transforming clutter into neat packets of visually appealing and streamlined content--can sometimes seem a bit overdone to many. "Access by Design" does not come across preachy or pedantic. I would challenge any web developer or artist (as I have challenged myself) to investigate the practical advice found in solid works like this one. It's time we understood accessibility's benefits to not just the visually and hearing impaired, but its benefits for everyone who reads, views, interacts with or otherwise enjoys the web browsing.

I've read every book I can find on web site accessibility, and this is my favorite. Sarah Horton does a superb job of explaining the "what" and "why" of good web design principles. If we adhere to these principles, our web sites will be usable and accessible for everyone, regardless of disability or the device they use to access the web. This book is clear, concise, and to the point, and, in my opinion, a must read for all professional web designers!

The publication of the Universal Design Handbook makes accessible the breadth of recent research on Universal Design. The editors have produced a remarkable resource, bringing together a collection of readable essays by the world's leading experts on Universal Design, "the design of environments and products that respect the diversity of human beings." (xvii)

The Universal Design Handbook is a clearly organized reference book. It begins by defining its subject, proceeds with its history and accomplishments, presents research and case studies, and concludes with a look to the future. Web accessibility and telecommunications are presented as industries positioned to integrate universal design principles in their own infancies, while the notion of "smart technologies" promises opportunities for a universally designed future.

As an architect and educator, I applaud the arrival of this valuable resource, both its practical, highly-focused research and its theoretical, broad inquiry. I appreciate the extensive case studies linking the theories and research with practice. Principles are illustrated with examples of built environments that go beyond the minimum requirements of codes, showing how accessible design can enhance a space for all users and/or presenting ways accessible features can be integrated into a pleasing spatial composition. These studies suggest the need to include questions about the ways people experience a space or object when programming a project, so that the resulting products are created to be usable by most people, regardless of ability/disability, health, gender, ethnicity, or cultural context. Examples range in scale from simple hand-held industrial pieces such as scissors to transportation systems such as buses and subways to entire landscapes and cities. This range requires the support of individual designers and clients as well as public, governmental support and corporate recognition that the goals of human-centered, universal design benefit both the citizenry and the economy. Various methods for reaching these constituencies are discussed in a number of chapters, primarily in "Part 4: Public Policies, Systems and Issues."

The handbook arrived just as I was teaching a Spring 2001 course entitled "Social Agenda in Design and Architecture." In addition to the important facts discussed in chapters such as "Principles of Universal Design," students responded to many of the case studies I presented, based on readings from the handbook. Students were reassured that social responsibility and aesthetics are not mutually exclusive, particularly when shown examples from high-design cultures such as Italy, France and Japan. One of the goals of the course was to challenge students to see social concerns as design opportunities and as a basis for contemporary theories of form-making. In addition, I was able to document the relationship of Universal Design to the other hot topic: Sustainable Design. The chapter "Sustainable Human and Social Development: An Examination of Contextual Factors" outlines how a sustainable built environment is necessary for sustaining human accessibility as well as for benefiting the natural environment. Conversely, the Universal Design movement reminds the Sustainable Design initiative that together their goals are truly human-centered.

In addition, at one faculty meeting we used the distinction between " injection and infusion" as defined in the chapter "Advances in Univeral Design Education in the United States" as a means of considering strategies for bringing Universal Design and other social issues into the curriculum. The discussion considered examples from other programs and sought ways to adapt these to fit the BAC program. As a result of the approach, our discussion was seen as part of an education-wide paradigm shift toward a user-centered design philosophy.

The Universal Design Handbook is an important, timely text that is a welcome and much needed resource for those committed to making this new century accessible to all.

Sally L. Levine, AIA

...I received a copy of Universal
Design Handbook. On first inspection I thought it was going
to make great door stop, or hold back for the overflowing
collection papers and pamphlets accumulating on my shelves.
However after only a couple of months I already find that it
is regularly dipped into. This massive document is a
fantastic and fascinating resource for researchers who are
interested in the subject of universal and inclusive design
and something of this type has been long awaited by the
design research community. It also provides a good resource
for those who wish to bring universal design into their
design teaching, giving them sound information on which to
base any teaching programme.

This is probably the most comprehensive reference work on
universal design to date. It brings together writings from
an international panel of experts in the field, each being
thoroughly referenced and providing an excellent entry point
for further research. The book, with its 69 international
contributions, addresses a wide selection of universal
design projects that range in scale from an office work
station, to interior architecture, buildings, landscape
architecture, facilities, such as on campus; urban design,
and all the way to parks and wilderness areas. It also
includes some chapters that relate to product design such as
the one on universal design in automobile design.

The research questions, methodologies and findings presented
are focused on how universally designed products and
environments can be created to be usable by most people,
regardless of ability/disability, health, gender, ethnicity,
or cultural context.

Though the emphasis is on the application of universal
design in the built environment, there is a mass of material
that it pertinent to anyone researching or teaching
universal or inclusive design. The fact that it covers a
wide set of issues across the various design communities is
especially useful as it helps designers and researchers
place their own practice and interests in context with
approaches in other design fields.

In my role as a researcher of inclusive design I have found
each contribution to hold something of relevance, which has
added to my body of knowledge and contributed to my own
research activities. As a design teacher I have been able
to draw on the experience of others in framing my own
teaching programme, the parts 7 and 8 on education and case
studies being particularly useful. And as a practising
designer I have been very interested to compare my own
experiences with those of others as outlined in Part 6.
I am sure that in the USA the additional CDROM is also very
useful, enabling readers to access and understand the laws
that have driven some of the universal design activities to
date. Regrettably there is no equivalent disk for European,
UK, Japanese or other country's legislation.

I would not recommend the book as an introductory document
on universal design as it would overwhelm the uninitiated.
It is, however, very comprehensive and in bringing together
the work of the major researchers gives access to this
essential information to a much wider audience than that
which regularly participates in the universal design
dialogue.

Cherie Lebbon, Research Fellow, Helen Hamlyn Research
Centre, Royal College of Art, London

The Universal Design Handbook (UDH) is an excellent collection of the works of 84 international experts. Many marketing, MIS, architecture and engineering professionals would agree that it makes sense to design products to be usable by people of all ages and abilities to the greatest extent possible.

Unfortunately many people do not know how to achieve this objective. The UDH compiles much of this information for you. The word "handbook" is misleading. You can't hold this book in your hand. It weighs six pounds and contains about 1,200 pages. The UDH organizes information into 69 chapters and ten sections. The CD, included with the book, contains technical and design data.

The first few chapters of the book provide the reader with a rich history of the birth and evolution of Universal Design (UD). The reader soon discovers the term Universal Design has different meaning, to different people, in different parts of the world. Gaining familiarity with many new dimensions of UD helped me better understand how my knowledge of accessible information technology design, fits into the "big picture."

The big picture in this case incorporates UD guidelines, public policy, accessibility standards, residential environments, UD practices, education, research, and many case studies from every corner of the world.

I found chapters 65 - 68 interesting. These chapters focus on information and telecommunications technologies including the worldwide web, film and media and even smart card technology.

The final section of the book addresses, "The Future of Universal Design." It discusses how the legacy of the twentieth century is defining the challenges and opportunities that facing all of us in the coming decades.

There is a natural attraction that causes consumers to buy one product over another... that transcends status, cost, quality and service. If manufacturers were able to identify, capture and integrate the spirit of this "attraction" into their products and services they would have a mine of gold. Understanding the essence of what UD is all about will move them one step closer to making this a reality.

For those wishing to see the "Forrest for the trees" of Universal Design, having a copy of the Universal Design Handbook in their library is a must.

Universal Design Handbook
by Wolfgang F. E. Preiser (Senior Editor) and Elaine Ostroff (Editor)

How universal is Universal Design? Wolfgang Preiser, Senior Editor of the Universal Design Handbook and noted expert in Building Evaluation and Programming, said "Universal Design is not about dimensions. It is an attitude." The impact of that attitude is felt across the world.
The Handbook contains 69 essays from leaders in their fields. Voices from the Third World propose solutions for densely populated regions. Europe and the United States continue to look to technology for labor-saving devices. What they all share is a commitment to design for the greatest number of potential users.
The literary styles are as varied as the solutions they propose. Case studies provide guidelines for professors considering similar studies. Theoretical papers discuss positions and implications. Historical narratives describe accomplishments to date. Topics range from transportation systems to bathroom design, from kitchen gadgets to computers. The authors are extremely candid about their successes and their failures. The common thread is their belief that solutions for one user group often benefit others.
The most remarkable aspect of the Handbook is the list of references at the end of each essay. Almost none of the authors reference the same sources. This is due in part to the fact that there are practitioners in almost every country in the world; however, until the Handbook, there was no keystone, defining text. Future scholars take note!
Elaine Ostroff, editor of the Universal Design Handbook, identifies the start of the Universal Design movement as the landmark legal decision Brown vs. the Board of Education. The resolution of the issue of segregated education led to the demand for inclusion in the classroom for children with birth defects. Activist veterans in turn demanded access to the workplace for veterans maimed in combat. With the support of various Civil Rights groups and the American Association of Retired Persons, the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed a decade ago. The hammer of litigation has codified the gains made by this particular movement, resulting in widespread resentment against it. The philosophy of the movement has been undermined by compliance enforcement. Universal Design as an idea goes beyond the letter of the law to benefit the world.

For those working in the schools and who value the joyful impact of art with children, this book has it all! It is a power-packed manual for professional teachers, aides and anyone needing more guidance to open the creative doors for themsleves and children. You will find the source's guides in the back of the book worth the price alone. The clarity in the text is especially to be appreciated; no "gobbeldy-gook and no nonsense" here! The presentation of ways to incorporate art into total curriculum is one to open our eyes and to value its potential for carrying any other subject matter. Full of ideas for projects with morsels of philosophy about the arts tucked in, it allows teachers to open their own minds and rid themselves of their own "art blocks." I would say no teacher should be without this book. Good for you Marlene Gharbo Linderman! At last a book for us all who love and cherish art in schools.

This is an extremely fun and informative book. It is easily understood, and great for an Art teacher, as well as teachers of other subjects who wish to incorporate more art into their classrooms. It would also be helpful to parents or homeschooling families.

Malen's work is both a wonderful fantasy and a wry, insightful look at society. You have to admire an artist/writer who can bring together an assemblage of ambitious and intriguing photographs, an involving piece of fiction set in the present, a careful and intelligent presentation of historic events, and a collection of intelligent essays--all to create an illusional world that draws you in, invites you to linger, and challenges your perceptions.

I read the online Publishers Weekly review and I strongly disaagree. I would buy this book for the black-and-white photos alone. They're complicated. Touching and absurdist at the same time, they slyly refer to the history of painting and early sci-fi, and the ones taken in the purported "basement laboratory" bear an eerie resemblance to pictures from Abu Ghraib. ABSORBING AND FASCINATING

This book is a must-read for teachers and administrators faced with the demands of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation. NCLB requires that all children progress in the general curriculum. Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age lays the theoretical groundwork and offers practical examples and recommendations on how digital technologies can be used to break down barriers to learning that impair the performance of many students.

Authors Rose and Meyer cite two converging dynamics at play that are helping eliminate such barriers: one is the discoveries of neural science that explain the great diversity in student learning; the other is the growth in digital technologies. As they see it, digitization makes possible a rich array of media that are beginning to match the complex of ways that students learn and express that learning.

Rose and Meyer urge material developers to follow principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Just as buildings today are designed to be accessible to all, without added ramps, so say the authors, educational materials should be created without barriers to content. If type is a barrier, alternative routes to content (such as audio, enlarged type, or shifts in foreground and background color) can and should be provided.

As I noted, this book has an excellent balance between theory and practice. It is supported by a rich Web site (http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent) and would make an excellent text for pre-service or in-service programs.

This book was required for a Master's class taken at U of I (IL). It will open your eyes as a teacher. I especially enjoyed the section that discusses Universal Design for Learning. The applictions were very practical. For those wanting to incorporate technology into their lesson plans, this book is for you. It focuses on how to do so for students of all learning types. A great reference book for the future.

What a tremendous step forward from prior universal design home building/remodeling books. It inspires as it educates the reader about the pragmatic sensibility of this concept. Plentiful, excellent color photography and diagrams backup the top-notch content. Designer Wendy Jordan goes far beyond the functional basics to provide a smart guide to great design that works to everyone's advantage. Her helpful "great idea", "spotlight" and "universal specs" move the reader around all the important home design zones and deliver very important lessons on creating smart living spaces for a much broader range of users while anticipating future needs, be it aging or disability.

This book is a fabulous resource for anyone building or remodeling a home. It demonstrates, both in words and photographs, why universal design is a great idea for anyone, not just people with physical limitations. Who wouldn't want to live in one of the houses pictured in this book? Wider doorways and halls, more efficient and better designed appliances, no threshold to trip over when entering your house--these are all great ideas for all of us. Use this book for yourself, give it to your architect or builder, you will not be sorry.

Hard to believe that a catalogue of millwoork should be so compelling and warrant frequent rereading. This volume is more than a useful reference for a refurbisher/restorer. It's a beautiful drawn/photographed view into the everyday life of comfortable middle-class homelife during the 1920s. Besides being of use to those of us who live in homes from the '20s, this book also is of use to any social historian or student of American culture.

I only wish that the specs for some of these items, like the walls of kitchen cabinets, or the telephone niches, were more detailed so that they could be used as building patterns.

Thank you for this high-quality reprint!

The item was requested as a Christmas gift. My son-in-law is in the remodeling business and it was my daughter who gave me the gift request.
Apparently, my son-in-law had been looking at the book for his personal use.

Our school was doing alot of revonations. This made it easy for everyone involved to know how and why to make things handicap accessible. Easy to follow with Bandit the dog leading the way!

Architectural Acoustics is an excellent interactive learning resource. It clearly explains the behavior of sound and provides a fun and interesting way of illustrating the acoustic results to architectural design decisions.

This item is also a workbook that is useless without the textbook it coralates with.