Developing a stars ranking tool for evaluating children's inclusion in kindergarten classrooms

Abstract

Inclusion design is one of the fundamental approaches that should be considered while designing spaces used by diverse users. Kindergarten classrooms are one of those places that must achieve children's inclusion as they accommodate children with various skills and needs. Several universal design standards like UDL and UDI frameworks provided principles for students' inclusion in learning spaces. Nevertheless, implementing those principles alone is insufficient to ensure children's inclusion in classrooms because the inclusion approach also necessitates meeting the demands of users. Moreover, studies indicated that designers have difficulty implementing these principles into their designs. This research aims to develop a tool that combines universal design principles and children's requirements to assist designers in evaluating children's inclusion in kindergarten classrooms. Thus, the research developed a stars ranking tool for this purpose, and a case study was analyzed to examine the tool. Findings showed that applying universal design principles with users' requirements increases the inclusion rate. Results further indicated that the tool efficiently assists designers in attaining children's inclusion in classrooms by highlighting the missing requirements of the classroom design and the rate of inclusion along with the stars ranking. According to the analysis of the chosen case study, the tool revealed a lack of flexible designs and smart technology inside the classroom, which are essential for achieving children's inclusion.