Universal Design and Adaptive Equipment

Abstract

Rebecca Morris*Universal Design and Adaptive Equipment: Ideas and Solutions for Music SchoolsReceived December 2008[1] Universal design and adaptive equipment are important concepts for all public facilities, including music schools. In what follows, I will explain what those terms mean and explore some applications in academic environment we share as students of music and as musical scholars.Universal Design[2] Universal design is a term referring to the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to greatest extent possible, without need for adaptation or specialized design(1) This concept goes beyond familiar notion of enshrined in Americans with Disabilities Act. For disabled accessibility, you can have a wheelchair ramp next to a set of stairs. With design, you have no stairs to entrance at all. As a result, everyone can use same entrance-that's universal in design.[3] The North Carolina State University Center for Universal Design has an excellent website at http://www.design.ncsu.edu/cud/, which lays out principles of design. These include: (1) equitable use, (2) flexibility in use, (3) simple and intuitive use, (4) perceptible information, (5) tolerance for error, (6) low physical effort, and (7) size and space for approach and use. Let me discuss these seven principles one by one, and suggest some ways in which each might be realized within a school of music. Equitable use would include a floor-level entrance, ramps with handrails up to stages, and elevators which do not require a key to operate, available for all to use. In addition to helping people whose mobility is impaired, these design elements can benefit cellists, double bassists, and harpists.[4] Flexibility in use would include knobs on a piano bench so that people of drastically different heights and people with back problems could use them. Likewise, music stands should be adjustable to full range of height.[5] An example of simple and intuitive use is power doors that automatically open, rather than having to press a button, location of which may or may not be obvious. As with examples of equitable use above, such a feature is helpful to people whose mobility is impaired by musical equipment as well as by biology.[6] Perceptible information usually refers to large print, Braille, and what is called redundant cueing (meaning instructions are available for multiple senses to help those who are blind, deaf, or both). In music libraries instructions for playing recordings are not always clear and consistent, so people who are not there frequently need this sort of help. Music libraries and orchestra libraries should endeavor to keep Braille music in their collections as much as possible.[7] A good example of tolerance for error is command-Z or undo command available in much computer software. This feature should be available on all music software! This concept is also important for electronic hardware; some types of equipment, especially microphones it seems, are so sensitive that their tolerance for error is too low for a person who has any kind of physical anomaly. Those who are responsible for buying electronic equipment should keep this factor in mind when selecting it.[8] Low physical effort is reasonably self-explanatory: environments should be designed to demand as little bodily exertion as possible. Easily-turning casters on pianos would be a simple illustration of this principle. …