In the past several decades, guided by accommodation and inclusion frameworks, numerous efforts have been made to improve opportunity and participation for disabled populations. However, implicit in both approaches is the reliance on “integration”, a school of thought in which those already privileged as members of non-disabled groups accommodate outsiders.
In this seminar we present and demonstrate an alternative, redesign of disability through seamless accessibility, referring to environments which are designed with the properties of congruence, fluidity, and coherence for all bodies.
We begin by highlighting the historical values of disability inclusion and accommodation strategies and then analyze their strengths and limitations for 21st century . We then showcase the UMaine disability studies curricula which teach and model redesign, and illustrate the application of redesign knowledge and skill to research and development conducted at the University of Maine through an interdisciplinary collaboration of faculty, students and alumni.
This unique teaching and research agenda, for which the University of Maine is internationally known, replaces specialized population specific strategies with 4 major concepts and related practices that emerge from them:
- Forensic analysis: teaching students from diverse fields (e.g. social and health professions, business, arts and humanities, engineering, etc.) to collaborate to analyze the strengths and failures of our current inclusion systems, programs, policies, and products in creating equality;
- Co-design: collaborative thinking and action in which all relevant thinkers and planners engage to achieve a profound social change goal;
- Redesign: moving beyond simply refurbishing to inventing anew;
- Collaborative ingenuity: the thinking and action vehicles through which creative codesign and redesign are actualized by and for all bodies.