Show Notes:
The UD Project:
Kelly’s article of inspiration: “Accessible design is growing. But can it be beautiful?”
Sensory-Friendly Shopping:
- Walmart Sensory-Friendly Hours
- Digital Shelf Labels
St. Louis Zoo Sensory Inclusion
Pull out kitchen workspace examples:
Transcript
Sarah: [00:00:00] You’re listening to Good Fit Poor Fit. Our podcast is part of The UD Project, a small business rooted in occupational therapy that looks at how the design of a home environment impacts how well people of different ages and abilities perform everyday activities. We chat about this unique perspective to boost your knowledge and help you consider what can be changed in communities like yours.
Learn more about our work at universaldesign.org.
Hey there, listeners. Welcome back for yet another special episode in our series, UD and Me. Today Rebecca and I will introduce you to Kelly Wright. She is an occupational therapy student getting her doctorate from Washington University in St. Louis. She will be completing her capstone with us this summer and really wants to focus on the aesthetic possibilities of universal design.
Rebecca: Yes, we are so excited to [00:01:00] welcome Kelly and I have a feeling her areas of interest will be particularly cool for our listeners because who doesn’t love a great combination of functionality and aesthetic beauty. So, Kelly, tell us a bit more about yourself and why you’re excited about universal design.
Kelly: Absolutely. Hi everyone. Thanks so much for the introduction, Sarah and Rebecca, and for having me on the podcast. Good Fit Poor Fit is actually how I discovered The UD Project in the first place. I started listening during OT school before I connected with Sarah, so having this opportunity to join you both today is really exciting for me. A little bit about me. I was born and raised in Orlando, Florida. My mom, older sister, and my twin. I got my Bachelor’s in Health Science from the University of Florida, Go Gators, before moving to St. Louis, Missouri to pursue my doctorate in OT from Wash U. Like mentioned, I’m in my final semester of my degree, which of you aren’t familiar with the OTD curriculum consists of a three month long [00:02:00] mentored capstone experience on a topic area of our choosing, which for me is universal design anesthetics. So why am I excited about UD? I have loved residential design since I was a kid. I watched all things home decorating and renovation growing up. Extreme Makeover Home Edition, if you know, it was frequently on in my household as well as the classic HGTV shows. Ever since I started to have my own space. So thinking back to my first college dorm, I felt strongly about the way that it was set up, the features, the decor. I remember how excited I was to decorate my dorm. And then my first apartment, I had the Pinterest boards and everything. My love for interiors has only grown since then, which has turned into a passion for thrifting and flipping furniture, furnishing and decorating spaces, including my mom’s newly renovated house recently, and even serving as the set designer for the was U Medical School musical last year. I just love the opportunity to [00:03:00] figure out how best to organize a space and make it beautiful. I have felt strongly throughout my life that the aesthetics of my space impact how I feel day to day and now fueled by my occupational therapy lens, I see a gap that exists in options for people with disabilities to have the same autonomy over their spaces in that way, for a number of reasons, which I’ll get into later.
Sarah: Well, this is just right up your alley Kelly, and I think this is so cool that you learned about us from the podcast. And yes, I too love a good home makeover show. There’s something that just gets me every time seeing a home with potential, to be revived to meet the needs of a family for more space, better organization, or just a refresh in the form of an update in aesthetics. I guess too, that’s why I love OT in a way. It’s helping people find themselves again after a life changing event. There is a transformation that [00:04:00] they undergo physically, mentally, and emotionally. And as we all know, someone’s home must go through a transformation as well, and it might as well be functional and beautiful at the same time.
Kelly: That’s totally how I feel too when I’m watching shows like that. You described it really well. I never thought about that connection with OT also being involved with a significant transformation in someone’s life. I love that comparison. So yes, even before OT school, I had an emerging passion for design. I vividly remember learning about the concept of UD for the first time in our Enabling Community Living class during my first year of OT school. The example our professor gave seemed so simple, but totally blew my mind. It was a picture of a park with a level change that had both a staircase and a ramp. Every single person in the photo was using the ramp. Not a soul was on the stairs, not because they couldn’t use them, but just because the ramp was more convenient. [00:05:00] This illustrated the difference between disability specific design that serves to accommodate for certain needs versus design that is usable by all people from the start, which, as you both know, is what UD is all about. I remember thinking, “why are the stairs even there? No one is inconvenienced by the ramp.” They all actually appear to prefer it, whereas the stairs present obstacle for so many people. Parents pushing strollers, wheelchair users, anyone with impaired balance and more. The opportunity that UD creates to include all people with without singling anyone out with some other accessible option was really exciting to me. And it just makes more sense for everyone. It’s just better design. In that same class, we got to go evaluate the universal accessibility of the Starbucks on campus, and I had a blast. We walked over there with all of our tools to measure the weight of the doors, the slopes, the noise level, the lighting. I felt like a detective and I loved it. I got really [00:06:00] excited about how many different things there were to know and to consider in the environment that I have always taken for granted.
Sarah: That is such a great example of how design can be made useful for everyone, and I love your description of feeling like you’re a detective. Once your brain starts thinking in the way of UD, there are so many things you can uncover and discover to make spaces usable for everyone.
Kelly: Absolutely. I think that’s the OT brain in general. We start to see all of these different ways things can be adapted to improve function. The other concepts that I wanted to mention that, um, I think contributed to my excitement about UD, is the social model of disability. Which I know you all have mentioned on the pod before. We also learned this during our first year of school and had some really interesting conversations about how we define disability. If anyone listening has never heard of it, the social model of disability is a framework [00:07:00] that defines disability as a societal construct, a result of the environment presenting a barrier rather than the result of physical characteristics alone. For example, if a wheelchair user has a step-free entry to their home, their ability to enter is no different than someone walking through the door. If there are stairs, the stairs are the disabling factor, not the fact that the person is using a wheelchair. Another example I like is my glasses. I have to wear them when I drive because I’m nearsighted and have astigmatism, which makes all the car lights glare, especially at night. And if glasses didn’t exist, my functional independence would be hugely impacted. I wouldn’t be able to drive. Since society invented glasses, my visual impairment is not disabling to me at all.
It points out the role that society plays in addressing these kinds of challenges for people. I feel like this model gave me a personal call to action to advocate for accessible design. I mean, it literally has the [00:08:00] power to determine the extent to which someone’s personal characteristics, so their physical traits, their medical condition, et cetera, will be disabling or not. That just really struck me as an important cause to advocate for the fact that disability is not just a person’s individual limitations. It’s a result of how well, or usually how poorly society is designed for everyone.
Rebecca: Kelly, you are speaking my language. The social model of disability is a really mind shifting concept for so many people, myself included. I had a similar experience to you where after I learned that I just. Saw the world differently. In some ways, the social model of disability is kind of upsetting because we realize how so many barriers that exist in the world are of our own creation.
But the flip side of that is, like you said, that means we also have the opportunity to remake things in more accessible and inclusive ways. So each time we build or design or modify something to have fewer barriers, we open up the possibility for participation to more and more people and. That’s really the [00:09:00] power of universal design.
Okay, so I’m gonna stop myself here ’cause I could keep going on this, but I will not, listeners do not worry. So I’d rather pivot and hear more about your project, Kelly.
Kelly: For sure. That’s definitely how I feel about it too, Rebecca. I, um, think that it’s a really impactful perspective to have and totally shifts your thinking. I’d love to tell you about my project in some more detail. Like Sarah mentioned, I am really interested in the role that aesthetics plays in the adoption of UD principles. I say aesthetics, I mean design elements that are visually pleasing or beautiful to look at. So think colors, organization, symmetry. The feeling that a design evokes. That last one is harder to put into words, but I’m confident we can all think of a time we walked into a space and thought, wow, I feel really calm in this room, or this feels homey to me. Maybe the opposite is even easier to identify. I know I’ve walked into a space that has felt [00:10:00] super unsettling because of the design elements or lack thereof. One of the health science buildings at my college campus made me feel like I was in a horror movie when I walked the halls because of the creepy dark lighting and all of the white walls. that resonate with you all at all? Sarah and Rebecca?
Sarah: Oh yeah, I’ll go first. I’ve definitely experienced that when staying at a hotel or Airbnb. If it seems like a little dirty or dated or you know, has that odd smell, I often struggle to know where to sit to put my things or just to even get comfortable to get a good night’s sleep. But if the place seems really well taken care of with attention to details is clean, I’m much less anxious and excited about being in that new place, and I internally feel like I can enjoy it. How about you, Rebecca? Any examples?
Rebecca: Oh, absolutely. I can definitely empathize with both of those experiences that you shared. I feel like every university or [00:11:00] college has that creepy hallway. Like Kelly mentioned, and Sarah, I am the exact same way in hotels. Another example for me is actually in the positive direction. I love places that have big windows that let a lot of sun in.
Whenever I walk into a place like this, I instantly feel at ease. I love being able to see the sky and the trees out the window and just have a lot of natural light streaming.
Kelly: Same here. Natural light is at the very top of the non-negotiables list for me. As I’m sure you both can understand, given those examples, the value of a space that is aesthetically pleasing has been well established. Research has shown that aesthetics impact, stress management, productivity, mood, socialization and more. I plan to go into detail about the impact of aesthetics on function and overall wellbeing in a future episode. So keep your eye out for that if you’re interested.
Rebecca: I imagine you have people pretty hooked, so I can’t wait to hear more. So tell us what exactly you’re doing [00:12:00] for your project that combines aesthetics and universal design.
Kelly: I started to notice throughout school that spaces and products designed specifically for disability have historically considered function alone and failed to prioritize aesthetics, which as we’ve talked about is really important. Elements of a lot of those designs conjure up feelings of sterile hospital-like environments rather than features someone would want in their home. I’m making what I’ve been calling a UD Style Guide with product and design recommendations to implement UD principles in aesthetically pleasing ways. It’s gonna compliment The UD Project’s, existing Residential Building Code. I hope to then turn some of that content into, social media posts or additions to the UD Projects community Discussion board, to try and reach an even broader audience because I think not only does the stigma associated with the aesthetics of UD prevent people who actively need certain products or [00:13:00] modifications from using them, but it also makes homeowners more hesitant to talk about UD in their new builds or renovations. I also want to advocate to designers about the opportunity that they have to address this. I’ve already gotten to shadow and interview some really fantastic people, architects, interior designers, industrial designers, OTs who are pioneers in this space of design. I hope to put together a presentation for design students that will educate them on UD and encourage them to make thoughtfully designed, functional, and beautiful deliverables for this population, a priority in their work. Also to give them a call to action of educating their own clients on the value of including UD principles in their builds.
Sarah: I am actually super excited about your project. Because I think it really compliments the courses that we offer on universal design, and will give people some visual examples of products and concepts that can be featured a bit more than [00:14:00] we could in the course as related to our Universal Design Building Code. If you’ve never heard of our courses or the building code, I will add them in a link in the show notes. But your project has brought up some really good discoveries. Product manufacturers are really evolving in this space as well, and I think we will only see more UD options on the market as time goes on. Also, to your point, a lot of people really don’t understand UD and it’s a good opportunity to show what’s possible when in their mind they may be thinking about typical medical products that they quote unquote don’t need because they themselves don’t identify that they need it yet. Also, I agree this could be a really great resource for designers and anyone wanting to just transform their space.
Kelly: I have already found some product lines that I’m excited to include in my style guide. The design world is absolutely starting to talk about this more. It was actually an article that I read last summer that spurred me on to pursue this topic, [00:15:00] which. also link in the show notes titled Accessible Design is Growing, but Can it be Beautiful? Even just the subtitle of it fires me up. It says, “The concept has evolved from a practical matter to a complex idea about style equity and what it means to live well.” This conversation isn’t just a, a shallow preference for pretty things that we’re talking about. This has a huge impact on someone’s sense of self identity and autonomy, which I think that article that I mentioned describes really well. I knew for sure after I read that, that I wanted to a capstone related to design. I was listening to Good Fit Poor Fit, and I heard you say something along those same lines, Sarah, about misconceptions related to the look of ud. It doesn’t have to be ugly and there isn’t just one look to it. I thought I wanna run with that.
I wanna give people examples with beautiful images and ideas. I’m a visual learner if you can’t tell. want to address the existing stigma by broadening [00:16:00] someone’s understanding of the aesthetic possibilities of UD. As well as impress upon OTs the importance of being mindful of aesthetics in their own recommendations and contribute to the emerging conversation in the design world about the role that designers have in addressing this.
Sarah: These are all great things and we can’t wait to see how your final project turns out, and I’m sure our listeners are excited to view your resource too. We’ll, of course, share that in our future podcast.
Rebecca: Agreed, but, so Kelly, usually in these UD and ME episodes, we talk about some of your favorite universal design things. So first, let’s start with some of your favorite universal design features outside the home or in the community.
Kelly: Absolutely. Okay. I am excited for this question because I have been deep in the residential design world for my project, so this gave me the opportunity to explore UD outside of the home. Diving into UD literature and listening to a lot of the existing discourse on the [00:17:00] subject, I noticed that non-physical disabilities or invisible disabilities are much less frequently part of the conversation.
So think sensory processing issues, impaired cognition from a brain injury, dementia, mental illness, et cetera. It’s not just the UD world. Physical impairments often dominate the conversation when it comes to disability, I think because they are tangible and much easier for people to understand. But UD principles apply to anything impacting someone’s functioning. So I found some examples I’ve seen in the community of design addressing these more invisible impairments and thought of how they are universally beneficial. The first one I came across that I was excited to share is Walmart’s sensory friendly shopping hours. During the back to school shopping season, in 2023, they started making a few changes to the environment in their stores from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM every Saturday. This looked like changing the [00:18:00] TV walls to a static image instead of a video on every screen, turning off the radio and lowering the lights where possible, which reduces visual and auditory sensory input throughout the store. Walmart explained that this effort was directed at improving the shopping experience for people with sensory disabilities. That can be a big range of things, but is often associated with autism, ADHD and sensory processing disorder. People with these conditions can become more easily overstimulated by sensory input as their brains process sensory information differently than the average person. Walmart got such positive feedback on this that they extended it to every single day of the week during those same morning hours, all year round.
Rebecca: That’s really awesome, Kelly, and a different example that I don’t think I’ve actually heard before. Can you tell our listeners a little bit more about why that’s universal design or universal design influenced.
Kelly: For sure. So although it was initiated for a certain population, I can think of [00:19:00] numerous ways this type of shopping experience is beneficial for everyone. Turning off the music could help someone with impaired hearing converse with the store employee or their shopping companion. Dimming, the lights and noise reduction could benefit someone recovering from a concussion or maybe a person who gets bad migraines and may have heightened sensitivity to sound and light. Also, I think anyone with impaired cognition for whatever reason, could be a previous brain injury, dementia, intellectual, or developmental disabilities. Even decreased executive functioning that comes with ADHD, like attention or task initiation. All of those people would benefit from this. Shopping in person is already a very complex cognitive task. When you break down all the steps involved without considering the added sensory input, your brain has to filter while completing those tasks. Also sensory processing issues are not just experienced by people with [00:20:00] specific diagnoses like the ones I mentioned earlier. Literally, everyone fluctuates in their ability to take in that input. When we’re really stressed, it reduces the brain’s ability to filter out noise and stay focused or calm, which is why you may turn down the radio in your car when you need to focus. So reduction of those sensory distractions can increase ease of shopping, um, when anyone is feeling stressed or anxious. I personally have struggled with generalized anxiety disorders since I was young, so I feel like I’m going into battle when I enter the grocery store. There is so much input with all the noises, the products on the shelves to visually sort through the people, the lights. I was also recently diagnosed with ADD, which explains a lot in that regard. But regardless, I really appreciate the effort Walmart is making here for people with those invisible disabilities. And I think it’s clear how this is universal design that can benefit everyone. If you wanna read [00:21:00] more about it, I will link Walmart’s article that I found in the show notes.
Sarah: These are all great points and thanks for sharing your own experiences. I too am the person turning down the noise in the car when I need to think, but I love the idea and I think a lot of other places should adopt something like this. It reminds me of a local children’s museum here in, our town, Harrisonburg, Virginia, that has a specific low sensory play date in which they do similar things like this. I think it benefits not only the kids, but think about the parents. Sometimes they can feel worried about how their children are being perceived. And so, with days like this, I think they’re not worried about those social things that can occur when you’re with the people who might understand your own child’s needs ’cause they experience it too. But before we jump off this topic, Kelly, you had shared something with me that you also wanted to tell our listeners on the podcast about called Digital Shelf Labels. I’ve never heard of [00:22:00] them and I think our listeners might want to learn about them too.
Kelly: Yes. Thank you. I am so glad that you thought they were cool as well. I’m excited to talk about these, so let me just blow everyone’s minds here. As you know now I personally find grocery shopping to be a harrowing experience. The sensory environment is so overstimulating that all of my cognitive skills fly out the window, and the biggest thing that starts to stress me out is just finding all of the items that I’m trying to look for. Selective visual attention is the brain’s ability to focus on a specific visual stimuli while filtering out other visual information. So think to find where’s Waldo. That’s how I feel every time I’m looking at a wall of items in the grocery store. I started shopping at Schnucks during OT school, which is a grocery store in the Midwest, and they have these digital shelf labels that light up and flash if you click on the item you’re looking for in [00:23:00] their app. I’m sure everyone has experienced not being able to find something at the store, and then you have to go find an employee and ask, and it turns out you were staring right at it the whole time. So this is undoubtedly beneficial for everyone, but I think it could be especially useful for people with low vision, cognitive impairments, or even social anxiety if asking an employee for help feels overwhelming. Or maybe you can’t ask an employee because you speak a different language, or, even ASL. What makes this even more UD is that it doesn’t only benefit the customers, but also the stores. There are a bunch of articles, and I’ll link some in the show notes about how it improves accuracy of grocery pickup orders, increases the ease and efficiency for employees restocking or changing the price on labels when needed. That has gone from having to replace the paper on every single label to just a digital change in the system. Revolutionary!
Rebecca: [00:24:00] Absolutely. I can totally see how lots of folks would benefit from this. I particularly like that this introduces another way that people can locate things in a grocery store. They could ask an employee or they could use these digital markers, and this concept of flexibility and building in different options for people to meet different people’s preferences and needs is so quintessentially universal design.
Kelly: Yes, I’m glad you think so too. Hopefully we see more stores start to adopt those. The last community UD example I wanna share is still on this same sensory conscious topic. While I was living in St. Louis, I got to go to the zoo in Forest Park a handful of times with my friends, it’s free, which was awesome. I started to notice that they had these signs throughout the zoo that would say something like quiet zone or smell zone, and I picked up on the fact that they were attempting to improve the experience for visitors with sensory needs. recognize on their website that the zoo can be [00:25:00] an overstimulating sensory environment, which is often a major barrier for their guests with sensory sensitivities associated with autism, dementia, PTSD, and other similar conditions.
So they partnered with a nonprofit called Culture City that provides sensory inclusion training and tools to venues like this. The main things they implemented are sensory bags and signage. The signage is what I mentioned noticing before. They categorized different areas of the zoo based on their sensory features. You find signs for quiet zones, which are good places to regroup after becoming overstimulated, headphone zones, which you can expect to be loud. Smell zones, which have more intense smells and cold zones, which are self-explanatory. The sensory bags are free to check out at the zoo, welcome desks, and include noise canceling headphones, weighted lap pads, fidgets, and more. I didn’t even know they had these as an option before I looked into the zoo’s [00:26:00] sensory inclusion efforts.
Rebecca: This is all really awesome, and as Sarah knows, I love a good signage shout out, so I really appreciate that. I think signage can go a really long way in making a space more accessible and inclusive. This also reminds me of a conversation we had on the podcast a while back with Dr. Katie Hanson on sensory design for autism.
She talked about the need for more public places to have quiet areas where people with sensory processing challenges can go to regroup when they’re overstimulated. This prevents families from having to split up on different outings ’cause one parent has to take one child who’s overstimulated home, and it’s really awesome to see a real world example of that at the zoo, prioritizing these kinds of spaces.
So lastly, Kelly, can you share with us in our listeners one of your favorite universal design concepts or products for a home setting?
Kelly: Can do. I had the privilege of taking all the courses The UD Project offers at the start of my project, which had so many exciting UD concepts [00:27:00] and products that I got to learn about. If I have to choose one to mention now, it would be pull out workspaces or tables that are incorporated into kitchen cabinetry. link some examples in the show notes if you’re struggling to visualize it. But this is basically a drawer that when you pull it out, creates a temporary second countertop. There are also versions where an entire smaller table is tucked away under the existing counter. This is such a clever way to include workspaces at various heights in your kitchen without having to alter the main countertop itself. A variety of heights is important for UD that everyone has a workspace they can easily reach and use. Traditional kitchen counter heights are often too tall for people of shorter stature or at a seated height like wheelchair users or someone who may fatigue quickly and need to do seated kitchen tasks. This would also just be a great space saving solution for a small kitchen to provide more workspace when cooking that can [00:28:00] then be tucked away when not in use. This is the best solution for someone who doesn’t have enough counter space to begin with, to incorporate multiple heights or just someone who prefers the look of a symmetrical countertop.
Sarah: I love these creative ways of transforming kitchens to have flexible workspaces.
Definitely check out the show notes for pictures that Kelly found, because I think you’ll like the innovation as well, even if it may be a little more custom.
Kelly: Also, one honorable mention if I may, before we’re done. I’m obsessed with the automatic toothpaste dispenser that I saw in The UD Project course on adaptations for everyday tasks. It’s such a genius, simple solution for anyone with decreased fine motor skills to be independent in toothbrushing. I remember opening and manipulating the toothpaste tube being the most challenging part of the task for a lot of my patients in the hospital during field work.
Rebecca: Love the shout out to the toothpaste [00:29:00] dispenser. Very, very good addition and a good way to end anybody either looking to treat yourself or maybe to make toothbrushing a little easier. You can check that out as well. Thank you for all of your thoughts and insights, Kelly. I’m so excited that you’re here with us and I can’t wait to hear more as you continue to learn and grow.
And listeners, we will be back soon with another episode of Good Fit Poor Fit.
Sarah: Thanks for listening to Good Fit Poor Fit. If you want to learn more… first, find more episodes with transcripts and show notes at goodfitpoorfit.com. Don’t forget to subscribe! Second, check out our courses at go.universaldesign.org.
We cover housing topics like advocacy, collaboration, home modification, universal design and task adaptations. Lastly, if you have questions or topics you’d like us to discuss, email us at [email protected]. Thanks for fitting us into your day. [00:30:00]
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